Well after doing months of research on this vehicle ( much of it in this forum) I decided jump in anyway after reading about the issues. Even after my best friend has a 2019 who has had both the timing belt issue ( car had to be towed) and the fuel pump issue , I jumped in anyway and looks like another bad luck mistake.
2019 white/black RTL-E. Build date of 12/18 if that helps anyone. It had been on the dealer lot here in Montana for about 7 months. They were eager to deal and the price was right. I spend hours with the salesman ( good guy) going over the concerns and of course pulling a Carfax ( always even on a new vehicle) and looking at the recall receipt that was done on the fuel pump. I spend over an hour going over the vehicle practically detailing it on the lot, checking body panels, all the other area's pointed out here etc. Had them do a battery test since the car had been there so long. Sat in the car with the salesman going over everything. Did a short test drive as I have already driven one many times. Everything felt fine. It was only about 70 degrees during the drive.
Do the deal, cut the check and start to drive home at 82 degrees and immediately notice that the A/C is barely pushing cool ( let alone cold) air. All the way on "lo".. recirculate etc and it's barely doing anything. Call and make appointment to go in after reading that there are issues with the A/C ( missed those in here ) and sure enough there was just a TSB issued for the 2019 Ridgeline in addition to other Honda's for "dryer hose"..O-rings attached to the compressor. 2 days after I buy the vehicle they added the RL to this Honda issue. Unbelievable. The service manger showed me the bulletin and I'm sure its on-line somewhere by now. Just horrible timing. Had I saw this a week ago I would have not bought the car.
Dealer/Servie took the vehicle in and immediately said "Yep we need to replace the parts and looks like we have them in-stock because we have replaced to many"
That's nice. He said they would get right on it and gave me a loaner. Good guy... he felt bad ( I think). He also told me that they used to have to pull the whole front end of the car off to do this fix but their tech has found away around that. If they had to pull the front end off that car I'd blow a gasket.
So it gets better. Service manger calls me an hour later and says " Honda is just issuing a new improved part to fix this issue so they are going to wait for that and now I have an appointment for next Tuesday to hopefully have a brand new RL that has functional A/C. So does that mean the old replacement part is bad and those that have had this fix are going to have to hope?
Sad part is I really like this vehicle. It is perfect for my needs. I also bought it for Honda reliability. And after reading so much about these issues I jumped in anyway and could not be more disappointed.
2019 white/black RTL-E. Build date of 12/18 if that helps anyone. It had been on the dealer lot here in Montana for about 7 months. They were eager to deal and the price was right. I spend hours with the salesman ( good guy) going over the concerns and of course pulling a Carfax ( always even on a new vehicle) and looking at the recall receipt that was done on the fuel pump. I spend over an hour going over the vehicle practically detailing it on the lot, checking body panels, all the other area's pointed out here etc. Had them do a battery test since the car had been there so long. Sat in the car with the salesman going over everything. Did a short test drive as I have already driven one many times. Everything felt fine. It was only about 70 degrees during the drive.
Do the deal, cut the check and start to drive home at 82 degrees and immediately notice that the A/C is barely pushing cool ( let alone cold) air. All the way on "lo".. recirculate etc and it's barely doing anything. Call and make appointment to go in after reading that there are issues with the A/C ( missed those in here ) and sure enough there was just a TSB issued for the 2019 Ridgeline in addition to other Honda's for "dryer hose"..O-rings attached to the compressor. 2 days after I buy the vehicle they added the RL to this Honda issue. Unbelievable. The service manger showed me the bulletin and I'm sure its on-line somewhere by now. Just horrible timing. Had I saw this a week ago I would have not bought the car.
Dealer/Servie took the vehicle in and immediately said "Yep we need to replace the parts and looks like we have them in-stock because we have replaced to many"
That's nice. He said they would get right on it and gave me a loaner. Good guy... he felt bad ( I think). He also told me that they used to have to pull the whole front end of the car off to do this fix but their tech has found away around that. If they had to pull the front end off that car I'd blow a gasket.
So it gets better. Service manger calls me an hour later and says " Honda is just issuing a new improved part to fix this issue so they are going to wait for that and now I have an appointment for next Tuesday to hopefully have a brand new RL that has functional A/C. So does that mean the old replacement part is bad and those that have had this fix are going to have to hope?
Sad part is I really like this vehicle. It is perfect for my needs. I also bought it for Honda reliability. And after reading so much about these issues I jumped in anyway and could not be more disappointed.