I just went to the BBB website and filed a complaint that the finance guy had misrepresented what he said was being installed. He said it was a install of a alarm but actually it is relay (starter disable) and a shock senosr, motion sensor with a LED. Also if you are talking about talking to Honda USA good luck. They don't want to hear it. The dealership has until the 10th of this month to reply to my claim, so we will see what happens.

 

It really pisses me off that some dealerships are giving people such a hard time...I wonder if I would have been in the same situation had I already submitted my survey which was the only thing they seemed to care about. I wouldn't be surprised if Honda USA is in cahoots with the whole situation, or so innudated by complaints that they've just decided they can't take on the workload it creates so choose to ignore it.

I would encourage those having trouble to also try contacting local TV stations that have those consumer rights stories. Here it's called "on your side" and I imagine most local stations have similar segments that they run. I wouldn't be surprised if this same type of deceptive sales gimmick has already been covered in some story out there.

If you google "karr alarm scam" you'll find some interesting links.

 

Lates update. This morning I sent a very lengthy email to the manager of the dealership explaining what had happened. Within an hour I had a rep from the alarm department at the dealership call me.

He once again insisted that if i brought the car back the could adjust the sensitivity of the shock sensor. I told him that the dealership is an 1.5 hours from my house and that i was not gonna make a special trip there for that. And proceeded to tell him that that would not work for me because the product was not working as I was told it would.

I then asked if my local dealer could take care of it, and he said no because they do not do business with other dealers. Its the KARR alarm...
So in anycase they guy sense i wasnt budging and told me they would refund me the money and I could keep the Green buttong shock sensor thing. I said no I would like to return it because Im not the type of person that wants stuff for free and that I would be more than happy to return it for a refund. Then he told me they could not remove it from the car and that he will still give me the refund, and was gonna credit me the money on american honda financing. (not holding my breath...but we'll see).

So from what I have read here there is no adjustment for sensitivity, one of the salesman at the dealership also told me the same thing. Yesterday and today including this guy who works at the alarm department told me it could be adjusted. I asked him where the adjustment screw was and he said he didnt know cause he didnt know the car, but one of his techs could teach me how to do it.

I said politely sir...every other alarm on the market has a booklet that comes with it on how to install it/use it/ adjust it etc. He said no they didnt. Stupid idiots.

So the real question, can anyone confirm the existance of something to adjust the sensitivity of the shock sensor?

 

I too am still waiting for my refund to show up on my american honda financing account. i've been checking it online every week and so far nothing. Was told it would take a month, well it's been over a month. I have a feeling nothing is going to credit and it was all just a joke to them. The cancellation request form that i have is so ghetto and doesn't even have any sort of tracking number. I asked if I could be refunded in cash ( i put 4k down payment in cash) or exchange for some accessories that I wanted and they wouldn't do it; they know their scam games well. I bet now in a few weeks if this thing doesn't show up it's going to be calls to american honda and dealing with clueless retards who will have no idea what i'm talking about and very little incentive to help me. Contacting the dealership about the issue again i'm sure will also be very unpleasant if not downright nasty--i know these people simply dont care, their profit margins are supposedly so slim they are so bitter and only care about making a fast buck at the naive consumer's expense...

If there is a shock adjustment it probably would be on the card size unit that supposedly the karr alarm is connected to. It should be under the dash behind the blinking light. I never saw mine before they took it out...if they even took out anythign at all as I to this day highly suspect it's nothing but a green blinking light with nothing else connected since i whacked the car pretty hard and the thing never went off; and "valet mode" never worked. they are so incompetant that I bet they dont properly set half of them correctly for their own lot protection.

If I were you i'd take it to any local alarm dealership and i'd bet they'd be happy to remove for you for a very nominal price. I don't think it's worth increasing shock protetion on it as you can just end up with a thing going off all the time and becoming annoying.

 

I did end up getting the refund, it took about 1.5-2 weeks for it to show up. If i were you i would deff. call them up and stay on their case. I wrote the manager a long email with a link to the AZ BBB stating that per instructions found on that site I was writing him in an attempt to resolve the problem before i took further action. Within an hour i got a call from the alarm techs at the dealership. It took about 5 min. on the phone to finally get them to realize i didnt want the product. In the end they told me to keep it cause they couldnt take it off the car, and that they would refund my money.

On a side note. I did remove the cover under the steering column and hunted for something that was adjustable on the alarm box or card thing. There is a green screw which i tried to turn every which way...it even says plus or minus on it. I was not able to see any difference in how it reacted to me tapping the car to try to trigger the alarm.

 

I am definitely going to get the ball rolling again on the refund, if you got yours so quickly I don't see what is holding mine up unless they never sent in the request to american honda...

I randomly just came accross a pdf link the the full alarm manual on here..no sure why I didn't find this before, but it has some interesting features that I am going to try out tomorrow to see if they work. There seems to be so much confusion around this darn alarm and it all has to do with documentation...i'm sure I didn't see any of this is my regular manual that came with the car!

http://handaccessories.com/fit/security-manual.pdf

 

Hey did it work for you? I've been trying to make my alarm passive and followed the instruction but seem not to work for me or maybe I'm doing it wrong. Right now when I disarm the car, the car automatically locks after 20secs while I'm inside the car without opening doors. But when I open a door and close it or if I step out, the car don't lock itself grrrr.....

 

That might be the keyless entry, not the alarm. I have a base Fit on which I installed the keyless entry. It automatically locks the doors in 30 sec if no one opens a door.

 

I tried the instructions from the pdf and I couldn't get it to work. Perhaps I was not doing it correctly or perhaps those directions are for some other model (overseas?). I have the sport with built in alarm that came with keyless entry on the key itself (not a seperate remote).

 

I got it to work but it took its time.

 

Hi Fit owners,

I did not have anyone try to sell me a security system, but the Honda dealer in Santa Fe is a totally disgusting dealership for many reasons. I am actually surprised that they didn't try to sell me something I did not need.

I knew how good the car was...so I bought it because the next closest dealer is a 2-hr drive away. The car is excellent.

In their phone survey afterwards....I have already told them that I would never buy another vehicle from them...period!

I think we should...together....produce a list of bad Honda dealerships....and give at least 1 or maybe 2 solid reasons for being on the list.

Any takers? And of course...a separate list of great Honda dealers...are there any?

 

I beleive there is another thread on here already with lists of dealers to avoid. Car salesmen have always flourished in a culture of deceit, but I think they are worse that ever now as the internet has given a medium to consumers to expose many of their tricks so they have to constantly one up their game and from what I hear now have few qualms with getting nasty directly to your face. They don't care--there's always a need for cars and people need to get them; I can't think of many dealerships that go out of business without being in business for many many years.

As an example, I drove 50 miles to get my car at about 400 below msrp, it was a good deal but now that i'm out the door they are done with me. On one of my visits to solve the alarm BS, I saw they were selling another exact copy of my car for $2000 over MSRP. They are also now doing the same thing at the local dealer that lives down the street from me--they all follow each other's suit and cite imaginary "market conditions" for their pricing games.

 

i used to install alarms and when people would ask me if they worked my answer was always, "have you ever heard an alarm going off? have you ever gone over to see why? they would always answer the same, yes to the first question and no to the second. if someone wants in they will get in. just use the stock system and the factory immobilizer it works great just look at what car is number one on the list for being stolen, it's not civic anymore, not since the immobilizer.

 

There is nothing more annoying then false car alarms going off in the middle of the night! They are like the little boy who cried 'Wolf'. No one pays any attention to them anymore. How many of you leave your car on the street overnight because you can't get it into your garage because your garage is full of junk?

 

Great thread - it confirmed what I discovered today.
Well - We got duped.

We got sold the "protection package".
I should have known something was up when my salesman didn't know the difference in options (let alone price) of the Sport and the Base. He kept telling us about the wheel locks and the mud flaps and the alarm... We were like - but the mudflaps don't fit on the Sport. "Oh no - they do..." he assured...

I had heard about the Honda alarm module - and I thought that was an add on for the Sport, as it comes with the keyless entry. I also knew it was like $150 and not $590 (what their protection pack was). So as a part of the sale I negotiated the alarm down to $250. I made an appointment a couple weeks later to have it installed.

Today was the day. Gee - the mudflaps don't work on the Sport?! No shit.
They bring the car around and I look for the blinking red light on the steering column. I'm greeted by this fugly blinking green light down on the kick panel. I can see the electrical taped wires and the two self tapping screws that they screwed into my poor (brand new) Fits plastic. I lost it.

"What the hell is this!?" I said grabbing the "manual" for the KARR alarm system. "I want the factory Honda alarm!" I was trippin' when I went into the service managers office - who promptly sent me to the sales manager - who pawned me off to the salesman who sold me the car.

It took us the better part of 2 hours to realize the following.
1. The Sport COMES with an alarm. Service had to explain that to sales.
2. There is no module for the Sport - it has it. I found that out too late.
3. The KARR thing is stapled to every car in the lot along with a nice $590 add-on BS price.
4. It has to say "Honda Factory Alarm" even tho you are in a Honda dealership and they sell Genuine Honda parts and accessories - look for the words "GENUINE HONDA FACTORY ALARM" if you buy a base model.

I was firm and absolutely would not accept an after-market anything. I worked to get some GENUINE HONDA ACCESSORIES in trade for the money I spent on my already standard with the Sport "alarm".

I made a strong impression on the service guys that there better not be ANY damage to the wiring or the kick panel when I get it back. They agreed and kept the car to remove the BS KARR system tomorrow.

So - We'll see - and before I take it off the lot I will test the stock alarm using the "window down door open" method. I will then inspect the kick panel - and when I get it home I will be taking the kick panel off to inspect where they installed the shitty vampire taps / butt splices - etc. I will not accept anything less then a new harness if the wires are damaged.

If there's one thing I learned - and keep confirming:
Even good car dealerships are still "car dealerships". They are in the business of making as much money as they can, and if they don't get you - they'll get the next guy, and if there is 1 good salesman - there are 10 others trying to snake a sale from him.

/le-sigh
- Kris

 

I have the alarm system and mine works fine. They do rip you off on the price though. When the cars come from the factory they have the full alarm installed. It is for the protection of the cars while on the lot. When they sell you the car they remove the chip which adds the shock sensor unless you pay them for it. Pretty expensive for an alarm that is going to stay in your car whether you pay for it or not. You are supposedly paying for the immobilizer, shock sensor, and gap insurance. If your car is stolen in the first three years thay will pay the full price for a replacement car.
When I bought mine it didn't work properly. The green light stayed on all the time. I took it back and the Alarm guy said the dealer had set it up wrong. He unplugged it, played with the key and the window buttons and when he was done it worked right.
If I had known what I was paying for I would have got my money back. Unfortunately I have had my Fit for more than a year.
By the way, the Shock sensor is the little green plastic box behind the fuse box lid. It has an adjustment screw on it. They cable tie it to the wires instead of connecting it directly to a rigid part of the car which is probably why the shock sensor isn't very sensitive. If it was connected to metal it would probably feel the shock through the body better.

 

I'm glad this long thread is helping educate people on the Karr alarm flat out SCAM.

My fiasco is still not over. The refund I was promised still has not posted to my finance account after 3 months. I have had to call 4 times and got the run around and the most incompetant barely-english-speaking idiots you can imagine. I was finally assured that the refund was "resubmitted" and will go through, but I'm not holding my breath. I guess I am also out the interested accrued on the refund amount, I'm sure it's nominal , but the principal of the matter is what infuriates me. If I don't get that interest back I'm going to calculate it and make a big stink and demand I get that back in some form , although I am so untrusting of my dealershiT now that I'm afraid they'll mess up my car on purpose if I take it in for even an oil change...

I never removed the dummy mount after they took out the $400 green LED light, which to this day I'm convinced is what I paid for and what many others have too since I feel it wasn't installed properly to begin with and I'm sure it's the same story with many others as these workers have no idea or care and rush job everything. I'm afraid I'll mess something up if I remove the rest of the crap they left behind and all this talk of vampire taps and now-tainted wiring really pisses me off. If anything ever happens to my electrical system I will always suspect that damn alarm situation.

 

The original 08E50-SLN-100 Security System which comes standard on the sport fit has been substituted by honda dealers to save money. If you look up this security system your notice in says except fit because it's sold for the basic fit version. But when you read this you don't buy the system because you think it doesn't go with the sport. The fact is it's the fingerprint system for the sport. When you order the system and install it every single connector is availble, it's a plug and play. Only one thing you won't find; the KEYLESS ENTRY SYSTEM HARNESS 7-PIN CONNECTOR. The reason it's not there is because the after market system is using it to communicate with your honda beeper. Disconnect it from the supposed honda security system which is a gag and connect to what Japan intended to be the sport alarm system which is available as an unpgrade for the basic fit. If you want to find out if you fit lacks this system go to Majestic Honda and print the installation instructions for the 08E50-SLN-100 (the one with out the keys, you already have the key that's going to communicate with this system). Once you print it, take out the interior coin holder and that side of the panel. If you find every connector is available for this system, Bingo we have a mayor class action law suit against Honda with a recall of all our 2007-2008 sport fit vehicles.

 

I'm a little confused by your post. Are you saying that even those of us who have the Fit sport and have had the "karr alarm" removed, have messed up cars since Honda tried to put that crap in there? Or that they are passing off something as a Honda part but in reality they are lying and using a cheap substitute?

What do you mean by "fingerprint system"? I notice that inside my hatch and doors there's hologram stickers that look to be "fingerprint" security. Is that more left over Karr crap?

 

By finger print I mean, the sport has it's own factory installed alarm sys buy Honda excluded the system. They are cheating all of us from a truly awesome system.