I saw this article in AOL Patch today and could not believe my eyes. It has been my experience that New Rochelle Honda is absolutely the worst car dealership I have ever dealt with. Both my wife and daughter would second that, probably even triple that. How bad is it? I have bought or leased 4 Hondas in the past three years. I bought the first one at Honda of New Rochelle. For the next three I went to a dealership near Binghamton, NY — just to get as far away from Honda of New Rochelle as possible. The contrast between Miller Auto in Vestal, NY and Honda of New Rochelle was so vast as to be embarrassing.
Without a byline, Patch has an article that looks like the best sort of self-serving media goodness that only money can buy — the claim that woman love Honda of New Rochelle.
Really?
My daughter went in there to lease a car and left in tears. The salesman was pushy, rude, abrasive. Every time she tried to ask a question he pressured her to sign a lease that, upon reflection, was a terrible deal. I found it was about $100 a month more than she should have paid. How do I know that? Because she got a deal for a $100 a month less plus a few other goodies from Miller Auto in upstate New York.
When my wife talked about her “deal” from Honda of New Rochelle with a salesman at another Honda dealership the guy said “Wow, they really did not want you back as a customer.” He ran the numbers and showed my wife they had overcharged her by about $5,000.
In my experience, that is how Honda of New Rochelle treats women — like marks to be had not customers they expect to see again.
Gripedaddy said it best: “Honda of New Rochelle…you suck…you suck!”
Back to Patch. Is this an actual news article or an infomercial?
Consumer Organization: New Rochelle Honda Gets Good Grades From Women
The article quotes Honda of New Rochelle General Manager J.R. Buchbinder:
Honda of New Rochelle is proud to be recognized both as a Women’s Choice Award recipient and as a Top Dealership for Outstanding Customer Experience by WomenCertified. In a very competitive New York market, we value every opportunity and are aware that our reputation is a key component to our growth. These awards are a representation of Honda of New Rochelle’s relentless commitment to providing ALL customers with an outstanding sales and service experience.
Wowee. A Women’s Choice Award. Just imagine!
And what is a Women’s Choice Award? Why that is an award from WomenCertified! And who is WomenCertified? It’s a web site created by a woman named Delia Passi who lives (or at least lived) over near Irvington, NY. Her bio says she was the publisher of Working Women and Working Mother magazines. Yes, more than 10 years ago. Working Woman magazine folded in September 2001. And so what has she been doing since? Hmmm. She wrote a book and declared herself “the collective voice of the female consumer”. I know I for one am glad to hear that one woman from Westchester has organized all those female voices across the country into a collective and she now speaks for them!
OK. So what about these automative awards?
They are based on a WomenCertified Female Customer Satisfaction survey. And who runs that? That would be Delia Passi. And who is paying for all of this surveying and promotion? That would Dealer Communications. And who are they? Their claim to fame is running the Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition which runs an annual conference in Florida for franchised automotive dealers and managers. Funny, right? After all, isn’t J.R. Buchbinder a manager of Honda of New Rochelle? And who runs Dealer Communications and their Digital Dealer expo? That would be Mike Roscoe. And who is he? Clicking the link on his name might tell you a lot about Mike Roscoe, if the folks commenting about him are to be believed.
In other words, this amounts largely to the franchised automotive dealers and managers giving awards to themselves with Delia Passi and Dealer Communications serving as the cut outs. Maybe she should change her name to Delia Passthrough.
A good question might be to ask just what sort of dealership would pay money to “win” an award for Outstanding Customer Experience as a “Top Dealership” for women? Perhaps a dealership that has a deserved reputation, at least in my house, as absolutely terrible in how they deal with women.
Another might be what sort of journalistic enterprise would accept money to run a story like this, if that is, in fact, what happened?
All of this aside — because are you really going to a car dealership because they “won” an award from themselves — the real question is with Patch and how exactly this WomenCertified award merited news coverage.
Here’s a thought. Just maybe the car dealerships, Dealer Communications and WomenCertified have a deal with Patch. I suppose I could be wrong…but I doubt it.
I remember I was interested
I remember I was interested in a new car. I walked in Honda of NR, and one of the first lines thrown at me was, “what kind of monthly payment are you thinking about.” Answer that question, and they know they’ve got a sucker. Unfortunately, the guy just didn’t know how to shut off the pushy sales tactics. I had to walk out. I deal with enough of that garbage with Quill salesman barging into my office. It’s sad that people still train their sales staff to use those worn out tactics. On the other hand, there are those who still fall form Nigerian email scams.
Who spends time writing about this nonsense? Who is Robert Cox?
Robert Cox is obviously a disgruntled writer with too much time on his hands to write about Patch’s news articles. Its funny how he writes that these press releases are not valid when his very own talk of the sound just published the same sort of article last week:
ex: CNR Student Recognized as an “Emerging Voice” By Women in Media and Ford Motor Company Fund
By Talk of the Sou… on Wed, 06/13/2012 – 16:13
Press Release
Education
His hatred on Honda is comical. Does he realize that NR Honda in his neighborhood has one of the best reputations around. Just because HE had a bad experience doesnt make them bad. Does he realize they must deal with over 10,000 customers a year and not everyone will be happy. You can say the same for ANY business throughout the country including the best ones, even Disney World “the happiest place on earth”. If a few people have a bad experience, should Disney be considered a bad place to go?
This guy Robert Cox uses his blog to hate on local businesses like Patch, Honda and anyone else he crosses that he feels didnt perform to his standards. Hard working employees go to work everyday to do the best they can and this guys tries to bury them with his non-sense. He should find another profession.
you spend the time
“Who spends time writing about this nonsense?”
I guess that would be you, considering that you just spent time writing about this “nonsense”.
Such venom
Who are you attacking here? Patch? Honda of New Rochelle? Delia Passi? I looked at the item that got you so fired up and it reads like a standard press release. You do get press releases, don’t you? All media editors get hundreds of them daily, and often use them verbatim. It’s not a conspiracy. It’s called marketing and PR.
Re-read the article
If you do not understand what I wrote try re-reading it. I think it is pretty clear.
Just because something is acceptable in the general does not make something else acceptable in the specific. In any case, if you think of Honda of New Rochelle is deserving of this award or that Patch should be in the business of running press releases like this one (meaning that it appears to be a paid ad masquerading as a news story) then say so. While you may not care, it is considered an unacceptable practice in the world of journalism which Patch claims to aspire be a part of.
We run press releases. They are typically from government agencies as a sort of Public Service Announcement. We rarely run press releases from businesses and when we do it is often to promote an event such as a grand opening or some sort of public-private partnership. If businesses want to promote themselves on Talk of the Sound they can buy an ad. We also mark our press releases as “press releases” (or at least try to, sometimes I forget to click the button to do that when I am rushing).
Then there is the part about this particular dealership being “outstanding” in customer service…with women. I am hardly alone in my belief that Honda of New Rochelle is an unlikely candidate for an award for Customer Service and more so with women in particular. In my experience they are the absolute worst I can ever recall even hearing about. I would NEVER buy or lease another vehicle from them based on how they treated my wife and my daughter.
Spin
It is much clearer now. You do know a press release when you see one yet chose to spin it into a grand conspiracy theory to support your grudge against a dealer that done you wrong.
Not really
You ought to familiarize with the business practices of Patch. If you were to do that you would realize that one of the criticisms from within the organization has been to obliterate the line between sales and reporting. I believe this is just an example of that criticism but applied to specifically to New Rochelle. What drew my attention to it was my own experience with Honda of New Rochelle and those of my family members which contrasts sharply with the claims made on Patch.
In any case, what exactly is your issue? That you disagree with my opinion or that I should not have an opinion or should not express am opinion
So far you are not doing that. What you seem most intent on is the idea that you should decide whether I or anyone else is entitled to have an opinion. Any regular reader would know that I am encourage all points of view save one, the point of view that someone else should not share their views.
I think Honda of New Rochelle is terrible. I have given my reasons why and my vow to never shop there again. If you like Honda or have a different experience by all means express that.
Patch also promotes the NR Inhumane Society…
and they are a kill shelter blessed by Noamy, so the credibility of Patch is suspect at best.
But if you know Honda of New Rochelle to be so bad, why haven’t you left a comment saying so on the Patch site?
waste of time
Used,
Why would I bother leaving a comment on a site few people read when I have my own site which lots of people read.
Come on, is this a serious question.
Ummmmmmmm…………
you read Patch, don’t you?
Is YOURS a serious question?
Seriously, don’t bite off the hands that feed you. You want to be snarky, go pick on Noamy.
mmmmmmmmmU
And you think you are the hand that feeds me? Puh-leeze. I could care less whether you read this site. I am confident that people do not read Talk of the Sound to learn what YOU have to say. So, I will be snarky when and where I please and if you don’t like you can bugger off.
That said…
Normally I ignore Patch (as do most people). I monitor the site via RSS to look for stories to link via our Delicious Feed which appears in the Newsletter and on Twitter. Occasionally I see one that catches m eye like this one. But I am not going to waste time engaging people on some other site when I have my own site that keeps me plenty busy.
If you like you can go there and post a link to my article. Or not. I could not care less.
Honda
Do you go all the way to Brewster Miller Honda for service after you bought the car there? time and gas is more than the one hundred dollars you where goin to overpaid if you bought it in New Rochelle.
Real Estate taxes for a dealership location in Brewster is a lot lower than in The Queen City of the Sound this must be the reason for the lower price. SHOP LOCAL, Keep New Rochelle sales taxes here not in Brewster.
Car Sales Tax
Joe,
Car sales tax is not paid to New Rochelle except for people who are from New Rochelle. Wherever I buy a car in New York the sales tax goes back to New Rochelle. Everyone buying a car is always “buying local” if by that you mean having the tax dollars go to New Rochelle rather then Brewster or Vestal.
It is a major reason why towns do not want to have car dealerships (and therefore why we have so many). You get all the problems and none of the benefits.
In any case, since when do I need to go to the local Honda dealer to get service on my car?
Tsk, tsk,
such anger. Such vitriol. Such an inability to recognize a decent suggestion.
And here I thought your blog was so note-worthy, and your posts so learned and well thought out.
I guess this means you’re just going to complain about Patch here, where they will never see it.
Tsk.
Tsk.
rest assured
You can be certain that Patch is monitoring this site closely as is every other media outlet in the area;
Can’t believe Honda’s “women” award
I had an experience n the service department which was quite pointed: being taken advantge of because I am a woman. I could say more, but won’t.
Honda Bad Neighbors
Honda is a disgrace. Try living in back of this dealership. They park all over the neighborhood, leave their garbage all over the streets, ignore the parking signs and block parking spaces in front of their dealership.
They have overrun our area with the blessings of city hall.