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Honda have a 90-acre facility in Avonmouth that refurbishes several thousand used cars each year, before they are sent to main dealers.
Find the best value Hondas in your area
Used Car Expert visited to ask, why?
Our visit unearthed a range of benefits for used car buyers around the country. Especially those interested in buying cars prepared to last and wanting value-for-money rather than a quick cheap fix.
The first thing that becomes apparent at Honda’s refurbishment centre is the level of detail that they go to in search of quality. They have processes to deal with things that wouldn’t even cross the everyday car buyer’s mind.
For example, not only is every car parked so that doors cannot knock another car, but keys are left half out of the ignition so the battery won’t be drained. Not only are seats left right back so the trim is not scuffed as drivers get in, but staff have to cover rings, shoe buckles and belts. Anything that could possibly scratch or dent a car – even slightly – is anticipated and eliminated by processes.
Watch this video to see the used car refurbishment process...
Find the best value used Hondas in your area
They have a three-person team who are just focussed on quality. They continually examine processes and results and look for ways to improve quality. These are then set out for all staff in the in-house ‘bible,’ the Honda Vehicle Condition Guide.
Within 6 hours of arrival at the centre, all cars are graded as 1 (which is new) 2 (which is used approved standard) and 3.
A grade 3 car doesn’t look tatty. It doesn’t have to have any big dents or major mechanical problems. If valeted it could easily be put on a forecourt and sold. But not a Honda forecourt. Grade 3 is not good enough for a Honda main dealer.
But a grade 3 car would be a good condition private sale and cars of similar quality can be found up and down the country in supermarkets, at online brokers or in independent garages.
If a car is given grade 3, it is sent round the refurbishment system to get it up to grade 2.
Watch this video to see cars before and after refurbishment...
Find the best value Hondas in your area
All cars are inspected in a special lighting bay to ensure imperfections are spotted. Cars that look nothing more than dirty outside are revealed to have little parking dents and stone chips under these lights.
A door panel with scratches, chips or dents that an independent garage or supermarket might touch up, tend to be earmarked for a complete panel re-spray.
The dark blue Honda CR-V pictured looks perfect from a distance under normal lights. Looking up close under the inspection lights however, reveal two small imperfections in the rear offside door. Honda’s inspectors have marked these with yellow dots.
The fix that Honda propose is to strip the door of all its trim, including the handle – and re-spray both the door and the panels either side. They won’t just mask a handle or piece of trim if there is any chance of the paint forming a rib that could later lead to the paint peeling off.
Honda explained that a ‘smart repair’ is just a euphemism for a touch-up. Pushing a stone dent out and painting or polishing over won’t last. In a couple of years that panel will rust or the paint will peel and so on. So that’s not good enough.
Because all the staff and infrastructure costs are paid for by Honda (rather than by billing the car owner) and the centre doesn’t make a profit they can do work to a standard and don’t have to worry in the same way about the cost.
So, they take small problems like these and repair them for both the long and short-term. In the short–term the car needs to look like new, so they paint more than one panel to blend the colours together. And it needs to last for the long-term, so trim comes off so that the paint covers the entire panel evenly.
But before they get to the body shop, they have to be serviced and checked for any outstanding recalls or updates (like the latest engine management software).
It is impossible to really capture the level of care taken at this stage. But, for illustration, tyre pressures are checked and re-set using specially calibrated machines. These machines deliver a print-out confirming that the tyre is now the correct pressure. Again, this is a process set up to remove the chance for human error.
Finally, the cars are valeted, where even the water temperature is strictly regulated so that it doesn’t remove the wax.
Summary
Whilst not all used Hondas are sent via this facility, they do deal with around 7,000 cars a year and their work sets the standard for main dealers when they prepare a car themselves (see Behind the Scenes at Honda Chiswick).
If you buy a used approved Honda, especially if the log book says the first owner was ‘c/o Honda UK’ you can be sure that you have one of the best prepared used cars on the market.