Last November I wrote an entry regarding the problems I had with my Honda Insight. Specifically when I went to do my first oil change I noticed that 8 screws were missing from the underneath of my car. I wrote to the dealership I purchased the car from, and up until that time had been the only place to work on the car, and the end result was they said they were sorry and mailed me a free certificate for an oil change. I knew better.....but didn't listen to myself. So May 4, 2005, like a good little consumer, I brought my car in for it's 30k checkup. Since it was going to be there for the maintenance I decided to use my free oil change. Previously, I has seriously considered asking them if they'd just give me the oil and filter....but decided that since I was obviously using something that was generated by a manager complaint I thought perhaps they might actually make sure not to fuck it up. I was clearly wrong. Flash forward to yesterday, roughly a month and 1/2 has passed since the work was done. Jen and I are in the car driving out to look at patio sets and we notice a rattling coming from the front of the car. So i pull over and we start looing around the car. That's when the fun begins. Looking in the front passenger side I notice a screw is halfway undone, and figure no big deal....probably just worked loose...I can just tighten it up. Then I look over and see the center is sagging like no tomorrow. No way I can drive it like this rattling all around and falling apart....so we take it back home and switch cars. Today I was finally able to get underneath it and tally the problems. I found 3 issues, that i've labeled on this picture I took previously of the undercarriage skirt (warning...big picture):
Problem 1 (number on picture above): The screw that connects the platic so the aluminum bar is only 1/2 in, and the backing is just simply spinning around. It's not tight to the body and subjective to shimmying around.
Problem 2: The screw that connects the passenger side metal skirt to the black plastic wheel boot is only halfway in....of course this is only because whatever moron put this in probably used a power tool and managed completely sheer off the plastic and J-clip as shown in these pictures.


That basically means that entire black plastic part in the second picture above has to be replaced because there's simply nothing left to connect a new J-clip to. Problem 3: The screw that connects the metal and plastic center parts of the underskirt was also sheered/spun out. Probably again by use of powertools by an inexperienced person of low intelligence.
Here's a farther away picture:
The end result of this free oil change? At a minimum both black pieces of plastic and the rear aluminum bar need to be replaced with new parts, as does the front passenger black plastic piece that was sheared out. All because I was stupid enough to take it back for another oil change. I really thought that seeing that free oil change card would indicate to them that "hey, perhaps this guy got this card because of a previous problem". Lord knows how much this will cost to repair....I certainly can't drive it like this rattling around. I'm hoping the dealer will give me the replacement parts and some extra 10mm flange bolts and J-clips and I'll just fix it myself....I basically paid them 363.07 to break my car....sooooo frustrating. update: oh yeah, i forgot...they also lowered my air pressure from 38/35 (honda recommended) to 32psi on all 4 tires....even put it on the freakin' invoice like they were proud of it.