New service experience at Austral Honda

[PNR888]

Today, I had my Euro in for 30000km service at Austral Honda (Newstead, Brisbane). This is the first time my euro has ever serviced there. I was so impressed with the whole experience. People are friendly, their work shop is huge and modern. There is no steep bump up to the driveway like the one at Highway Honda. They also do a very thorough wash and window clean (both in and outside), unlike some other place only do a quick 5 minutes spray and wipe.

With regard to the ongoing occasional rattling noice from driver's door penal which has annoyed me for quite a while. I showed them the print-out of work/ractification that have carried out at previoius dealer. They said the only noise they can hear is creak from window rubber, so they cleaned and selicon lubricated the window rubbers. I will see how it goes tomorrow when I travel to Gatton ( got some rough bitumen there).

overall, I am very satisfied with today's experience at Austral Honda. It will be even better if they can provide Free service loan car. (Highway Honda does provide me loan car coz i bought my car there)

While I was waiting there, I took the opportunity to test drive the 05 Euro Lux. 17" feels only slightly firmer on road. The friendly young sales rep(Brenton Hebrard) told me: with normal day to day driving, you wont be able to feel much difference, but only when you corner hard. The car we test drove today is a brand new car (not demo), so I dont want to ruin its tyres by cornering too hard. They also have a Milano Red Euro there, man... it looks so racey hot.

[coladuna]

I bought my car from Austral Honda too.
It's a shame that they don't loan me a car.
My sister bought Citroen C2 and they even come all the way to our place (20km away) with the loan car and drive back with my sister's car for service all free of charge.
I'm disappointed that I don't get that kind of service when I spend a good $15000 more on my car.

Anyway, apart from that, the level of service at Austral Honda is very good.
Everyone there is friendly and helpful and looks like they fixed the rattle coming from the driver's side dashboard pretty well.

They also topped up my engine oil free of charge when it was running low a few days before the service.

10,000km service cost me just over $110 which is pretty good for a dealership service. Even crappy K-mart charges $85 or something with mineral oil for minor service.

[Alpine]

Our experience at Austral Honda was terrible.

We wanted to buy a new Accord V6 but they didn't have any in stock for us to test drive. So they said they will get one in within a week for us to drive and to just come back next weekend as the car will be available. Fair enough.

So we wait a week and go back the next weekend. Firstly we were kept waiting for ages and when we finally managed to speak to someone, she had no idea about the Accord but she said there are some that we could look at in their holding yard under the building.

So we walked downstairs. Still no sales rep looking after us. Whilst we were looking at a very dirty "just off the boat" Accord in the holding yard, a guy comes up to us and asks if we need help. He turns out to be the Sales Manager. We told him that nobody is helping us even though we've been waiting around for 30 minutes. He apologizes and then proceeds to look after us. "Now we're getting somewhere" I thought. But I was wrong. We told him one of his sales reps was supposed to get an Accord in for us to test drive today but there's no sign of him nor does there appear to be any Accord for us to test drive as the one in the holding yard already had a "SOLD" sign on it. The sales manager said that the sales rep we were talking to the previous week resigned and is long gone. "WTF" I thought. So the manager apologizes again and says he will get one of his other sales reps to get an Accord in for us to test drive within the next week. "Not again" I thought and I told him that we're not going to waste our time coming back if there's not gonna be a car here and they should call us instead when a car is available. The sales manager promised a car will be available for us to test drive in the next week and that he will personally call us as soon as it arrives. OK, so maybe we'll give them another chance.

After we left Austral Honda...we decided to drop into Southside Honda, just to see what they have. Well, they had heaps of Accord on display and after a test drive we ended up buying one right there and then. Top service from Southside Honda!

A MONTH later (yes a whole MONTH later), we get a call from Austral saying they now have an Accord for us to drive. I told them they're much too late as we got one from somewhere else. They lost a sale for being so slack as we were prepared to buy that very same day, but they wasted our time by making us come back for nothing and stuffed us around.

[h22a accord]

Alpine,
interesting read. sounds like your experience was a very bad one. Glad you found a dealer that could give you efficient service.

[baboo]

Austral Honda = Southside Honda.
They are sister company.

I think if Austral doesn't have the car and model that a customers want, they will ask Southside to provide & vise versa.

[Nikoy]

Those who dissed the look of the milano red on the euro when it first came out were wrong.

It looks so much better in person.

I can attest to that as i stare gazzingly at mine every day.

[coladuna]

I got abusive phone call from Southside Honda because we went to other dealers to get a better price after talking to them.

BTW, I think red accord euro is butt ugly. doesn't go with the car at all.

[raziel]

haven't had any dealings with the sales staff at austral but have dealt with their spare parts and service departments and have received fantastic service from both .... service dept was extremely helpful with the balance shaft seal factory recall on my accord ( it was never done years ago ) found me the parts at very short notice so I could get it done (after the seal popped out and dumped my oil in my garage )

thumbs up austral parts and service

[PNR888]

Alpine: I am sorry to hear your story.
When I was in the market for my Euro. I've been to Austral too, and we waited a long time before we were looked after. It wasn;t a good experience at all. The feeling of being neglacted is so bad. But mind you, it was a Saturday, all their sales were flat out.
I also have dealt with Southside Honda too. The sales there (Tim) was so nice and patient. If it was for the fact that he give me $0 discount and absolutely no freebies, Otherwise I would buy the car from him.

Dealers with slack or snobish attitude don't deserve our deal. Dealers who look after customers, keep promises, give reasonable prices will win our heart and business.

[zacz]

Ive been getting the VIP service treatment here in Adelaide also - at NORDIC HONDA.

The guys always take time out to go for a drive with you to pinpoint rattles etc and ive always had a free loan car (mind you one needs to book almost 3 weeks in advance!) - and my car is always washed when i pick it up!

So I would highly recommend NORDIC HONDA to anyone who cares about their HONDA.....

ZZ

[albii]

austral honda sucks hard....went there to buy a silver euro standard and was told $37500 drive away with no trade(also quoted same at westmore). i said thats too much so he offered me a test drive and asked if i was interested in the demo satin silver euro and i said yes.but he then proceeded to thrash the living daylights out of the demo car and the lowest he would go was $35000 with 4000km and damage to rear bar.....i then proceeded to tell him to shove it and drove to northside honda where i negotiated a brand new satin silver euro standard with tint mats and bonnet protector for $33500 drive away and i bought it and took delivery after 4 days mind you. then i get this call from the sales manager at austral and i told him his salesman had a problem and i bought a car 30 mins after leaving his dealership..he was not happy at all..stuff them i say..money better in my pocket.

[PNR888]

If you are young and looking for new a honda, dont go to Westmore Honda. They are the most snobish dealer I have ever encountered. Many of my frineds and colleagues (both Asian and Aussie) have very similar experience there too.
When you after for a test drive, they will say: "Are you buying the car today?" and "Are you the one that can make dicision? If not, get your parents (or decision maker) to come and then we will do the test drive."
Once is enough,I will never go there again.