My 2012 Fit Sport with 29K miles has blinking D and CEL warning lights. Have an extended warranty from the dealership, but it is not Honda Care (it's called The Mechanic). Looks like this warranty is best used at the dealership where car was purchased. Cost was $2,200 and covers 6 yr or 100K miles.

Too late, but now wondering if I should have insisted on the Honda plan? Anyone with experience in this area. Thanks.

 

Yes you should have. Aftermarket warranties are by and large garbage. My honda warranty was around the same cost for the 2015.

 

Yes its always best to get a factory warranty but regretting it wont be productive. They make a TON of cash on selling these warranties while you're closing out the deal for your car. Sometimes it will work out in your favor but it is very unlikely. It also should not be necessary to take the care to the dealership you bought it at. Any Honda dealership should do, even some 3rd party shops will do, just call the 800 number on your paperwork and ask the warranty company. With any aftermarket warranty, the service adviser will have the technician diagnose the problem, and if it appears that it should be covered, they will call the 800 number provided to them by the 3rd party warranty company. The warranty company will or will not authorize the work, if they do authorize it, they usually send the dealership a check. When I was a service adviser we did have 2-3 aftermarket warranty companies on our "black list." Those that just took too much of our time to get a hold of, get payment from work already done and those that we could not get a hold of. We would tell the customer that they need to do the work to get themselves reimbursed, we just really did not have time to wait on hold for hours at a time, then cross our fingers and hope they pay. Hell one lady swore she had an aftermarket warranty, and felt it was our responsibility to start calling all of the warranty companies we knew of until we found which one was hers. Not gonna happen....

Sorry for the long post, feel free to PM me if you have any problems, I like to help people, it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling.

 

Just heard back from the dealer and they informed me that a furry critter had eaten through the wiring harness, causing the problem. Minimum cost will be $375, possibly more when they get deeper into it. Interestingly, when I spoke to one of the techs last week, he told me the insurance would cover it unless it was caused by something like a mouse eating through the wires.

After checking online, it appears that this is not such a rare event, and the 2012 Fit was mentioned several times on this site:

http://ctwatchdog.com/finance/rodent...costly-repairs

It is suspected that Honda and other manufacturers are using a soy based insulation on the wires that mice find yummy. If so, that's firkin stupid!

You know, I regret ever purchasing the extended warranty from that dealer. I assumed it was a Honda warranty. Trust no one.

Some things I have learned:

1. Probably don't need extended warranty on Hondas. If purchasing one, be sure it's from Honda.

2. When you car is towed to the dealer, you need to be there to see the damage. I have lost my trust at this point.

 

Well you can't fault the dealership unless they really mislead you. No warranty would cover this damage as it is outside influence, even a new car warranty. If you want to see the damage just ask, Im sure they could show you. Rodents can be such a pain. I hear moth balls in the right spots will keep them away.

 

Dave - You are right. I over-reacted. Blame it on the shock factor.

I've been researching the topic and here is what I found about rodents & cars:

1. Keep a clean car, since food remnants attract mice, etc. My car is a lab-cab with a lot of dog food in the vehicle. Time to clean up.

2. Once rodents have discovered a source of food, they keep coming back for more, so you have to set traps to kill them. Repellants may not be enough.

3. Mothballs, peppermint/spearmint/cedar oils in the cab and engine compartment will mask the presence of food. But, once they find food, you need to set traps.

I will probably get some of the metal "tea infusers" and put some moth balls inside so they can hang inside the engine compartment. At night, mouse traps will be set out.

This was a costly mistake that I made.

 

If it makes you feel any better we had a guy with an Audi S4 once, he started having warning lights going off and ignored them for a month. Then the car wouldn't shift out of gear so he had it towed to the dealership. A family of rats caused several thousands of dollars of damage.