04.14
VTECnical’s 2007 Honda Civic was taken into the dealership after a local Circuit City installed a Pioneer AVIC Z2 navigation system. After an inspection and diagnostic, they deemed Circuit City’s wiring a “fire hazard” and told VTECnical that he couldn’t take his car home. After being quoted by the dealership a whopping $12,119 worth of damage, he is working on getting Circuit City to cover the bill.
This story brings up a few issues that need to be made more clear. The 8thCivic.com forum thread shows that Circuit City is currently working with him on getting this sorted out. But in our opinion, if Circuit City really gets smacked with a $12k check, they are the ones getting screwed. First of all, the bill that was written up is blown out of proportion. Worse case scenario is they mucked up the wiring, dash, and heater. If it really takes a shop 40 hours to replace that, then they obviously have no idea what they are doing. Secondly, a 2007 Civic is only worth about $14,000 according to Kelly Blue Book. If he wanted site navigation so bad, he should have just paid the few extra bucks for the OEM setup. On the other hand, he will probably get a new car out of all this, so props to you VTECnical!
I had to register to comment on this. First off, my 2006 Civic EX Coupe has a KBB value of $19,120 so I knew you must have messed up that KBB estimate somehow. Notice this is a 2007 Civic SI while your “research” brings up a 2007 Honda Civic DX… BIG difference there.
Whether or not the damage estimate was overshot, the responsibility lies on Circuit City to pay for this. If they invested a little more in training they could avoid costly negative PR.
If the dealership, a verified place where they know they can fix the car properly, quotes 12K for the bill, Circuit City must pay that amount. And also, it’s an estimate for a reason. It’s not finalized.