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Back on January 17th 2017, I purchased a new HRX217HYA mower from a nearby dealer. I was told that the mower came with a three year warranty, and I paid just over $750 for it. From the very first I have had intermittent problems with this mower, and I have listed them below.
* One of the wheels stopped turning with the transmission engaged. Took it to the dealer and found that a drive sprocket had come off the driveshaft.
* Both rear drive wheels locked up when trying to pull the mower in reverse. Took it back to the dealer where adjustments were made. Dealer unwilling to explain in detail how they fixed this problem.
* Both rear wheel height adjusters froze up and could not be moved. Took it back to the dealer. Two weeks later they had replaced both height adjusters.
* Yesterday after mowing the lawn I turned the mower on its side to check for grass accumulation and discovered oil all over the underside of the deck. Took it back to the dealer today and after a quick check he believes an oil seal is shot. This mower has been losing oil for several months, which I had incorrectly attributed to premature wear. Fortunately I keep a close eye on the oil level and have been adding as needed.

There are a couple other nagging issues but not enough to make me load it up and drive 30 minutes to the dealer. As if all of this wasn’t bad enough, the dealer wants to give me a hard time about covering the latest repairs under warranty. The service manager seems to think that if he can’t get it repaired before Saturday when the three years is up, I will have to pay for the repairs. Needless to say I let him know what I thought about that!

I bought this mower for one reason: Honda reliability. I figured at my age this would be my last mower purchase, and I wanted one that would last. Now that I am out of warranty I have zero confidence that my mower is going to provide the longevity I thought I was getting. Truthfully, if this was a car it should fall under a lemon law. As it is, I’m stuck with an unreliable mower that I paid premium $$$ for. Oh, I also was told by the dealer that my mower is a 2014 model. I can’t believe that because I bought it new in 2017!

Sorry Honda, but you dropped the ball big time on this particular mower. Whether it’s cheap components or overall poor quality in general, I am very sorry I purchased this mower. Having worked for Honda for nearly 28 years(auto), I am certainly knowledgeable about Honda quality systems, manufacturing methods, and supplier network. This particular mower does NOT represent all I came to know and love about Honda products!

Buyer Beware!!!

The red and white GX series engines are the good ones. All the new GC series stuff is built to a price point. All the engine manufacturers have recently come out with "new and improved" engines. They are all pretty much a POS. The chineese Honda GX clones are much better engines than most any of the new engines.

If it was me I would contact Honda customer support at this number, 770-497-6400. Make sure your have both your model and serial numbers, plus the date of purchase. Hopefully you also have the invoices of the work you have had done. 90% of the time I have gone this route I have gotten a favorable result. If nothing else you will have notified Honda of a poor dealer, which I have found they don’t like to hear about.

Ring Honda customer care.
They take their product quality and good name very seriously .
Even more so if you registered it with them when you bought it.

Rivets said:

If it was me I would contact Honda customer support at this number, 770-497-6400. Make sure your have both your model and serial numbers, plus the date of purchase. Hopefully you also have the invoices of the work you have had done. 90% of the time I have gone this route I have gotten a favorable result. If nothing else you will have notified Honda of a poor dealer, which I have found they don’t like to hear about.

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I will definitely call customer support. I’m just waiting to see how all of this latest adventure shakes out. At this point I don’t expect Honda to do anything for me, but they do need to hear about this mower.

bertsmobile1 said:

Ring Honda customer care.
They take their product quality and good name very seriously .
Even more so if you registered it with them when you bought it.

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Back in the late 80’s and early 90’s Honda would sometimes bring associates in the office and have them make calls to customers just to check on how well they liked their new Honda product. Of course, Honda has grown so big since then that customer care is mostly reactive vs. proactive. I’m not bashing Honda, believe me they are a great company, but both the good and the bad needs to be told so people can make informed decisions.

UPDATE: picked up my mower from the dealer Saturday morning. They replaced a camshaft O-ring as well as some type of gasket. I don’t have any specific details because the service manager isn’t exactly the type to answer questions, at least not without griping about it. Couldn’t make out the chicken scratch on the repair order.

So I am now outside of the warranty period and have ZERO confidence that this mower is going to somehow turn into a reliable machine. I plan to call Honda this week just to vent. I’m sure they will be very apologetic about my misfortune.

That is the reason I suggested contacting Honda. They should give you a case number after you explain to them everything which is going on with this unit. I think you will be surprised with how they deal with you, especially if you don’t come on as a bull demanding the world. Even though I am a Toro guy, Honda makes and backs a good mower. Just make sure you have your model and serial numbers, date of purchase, dates of service including problem and how you were treated plus what was done if possible.

Honda mowers are hard to pull back on because of the plastic bushings they use on the driveshaft. The tranny is also engaged when pulling back so you have the gearbox motion to overcome also. My advise is to get rid of it and get something else pronto. I have my JD rider now and my Honda is used just as a trimmer but I'm seriously thinking about a new Toro as my trimmer this year. https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...522D436D722134A61259522D436D722134A&FORM=VIRE

Honda is the only brand where I recommend all of m customers registering their mowers, even if they bought it 2nd hand.
More than once they have gotten an upgrade notice for a free service to do the upgrade.
They take customer service very seriously.
When a model is about to be superceeded some times they offer really good trade in deals even on 20 year old mowers.

You were sold a pre- owned wore out mower that was never registered when it was new.

I ran into this similar fiasco with a Honda generator.

UPDATE:
I wanted to wait until I discussed my concerns with Honda before commenting again, and I am now ready to put closure on this. The positive that has come out of this is that Honda has confirmed that my mower came with a full 60 month warranty, not the 36 months the dealer kept insisting it came with. To confirm, Honda called the dealership and informed them that my mower does indeed carry a 60 month warranty. The dealership said they did not remember anyone telling me that my mower only had a 36 month warranty, but both the service manager as well as the office receptionist told me this.

To back this up, Honda sent me a PDF of all the pertinent info regarding my mower such as service work already performed, purchase date, serial #, and length of warranty.

All of this has restored my faith in Honda’s willingness to honor their warranty, which based upon my history with this mower I will surely be using again. The down side to the story is I still have a mower that I believe to be a lemon, one that will not provide the kind of service I was expecting when I purchased it. At any rate , I now have almost two additional years of warranty that I was told I didn’t have back in January, and for that I am grateful.

Thanks to all who commented on this thread.

Glad you got resolution.
Now very important, find some one else to do your repairs.
You have caught the dealer out in a lie
All they need to do is spray some oil inside the manifold followed by dust take a photo and you have offically abused the mower by running without an air filter or with a faulty one & the warranty is voided.
While this is sort of rewarding them because they did not want to do warranty work in the first place you can do your best to make sure it bites them on the bum firstly by telling every one you know on social media your story and in particular that you don't trust them and found them to be dishonest .
Some dealers have the idea that your are their for their benefit & the sooner they are bankrupted the better.

I can see where the warranty length confusion can come into play. The HRC versions only carry a 24 month warranty, The HRR and HRS carry a 36 month warranty and the HRX carries the 60 month warranty.

Thank you for the update. Three things can be gained by you telling us what happened. First, warranties can be confusing, depending on models and their use, but good dealers should know which models they are working on. Second, your dealer was definitely trying to pull a fast one and as said you should let others know you are finding a new dealer and why. Third, if unhappy with your service on a particular unit, don’t be afraid to contact the manufacturer, the good ones will work with you to resolve the problem. Might not always be the outcome you desire by it is something most people are reluctant to do.

Thanks everyone. I have already located a new dealer. The closest one to me is at a Northern Tool store that I check out once or twice a year. Next time I’m there I will be speaking to them about having them service my mower going forward.
I knew the dealer was lying to me all along and was very grateful that Honda contacted them directly because otherwise they would not have honored the remainder of my warranty.

After all of this I have zero trust in that particular dealership. It’s just disappointing that a dealer will take over $1,100 of your hard earned money for a mower and a trimmer then try to give you the shaft when you need service. I still remember the 1st time I took it to them the service manager’s first question was “did you buy it here or a big box store”? I specifically told him I bought it from his dealership because I wanted to establish a good relationship with them if and when I needed service.

Ya just never know!

That would have bought three or four MTD self propelled mowers I suspect. Sometimes you actually don't get what you pay for.

tom3 said:

That would have bought three or four MTD self propelled mowers I suspect. Sometimes you actually don't get what you pay for.

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Well, you may be right about that. As a long time Honda associate, now retired, I wanted to support the company that had been so good to me and my family. I guess the moral of the story is sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t.

RetireeRon said:

Thanks everyone. I have already located a new dealer. The closest one to me is at a Northern Tool store that I check out once or twice a year. Next time I’m there I will be speaking to them about having them service my mower going forward.
I knew the dealer was lying to me all along and was very grateful that Honda contacted them directly because otherwise they would not have honored the remainder of my warranty.

After all of this I have zero trust in that particular dealership. It’s just disappointing that a dealer will take over $1,100 of your hard earned money for a mower and a trimmer then try to give you the shaft when you need service. I still remember the 1st time I took it to them the service manager’s first question was “did you buy it here or a big box store”? I specifically told him I bought it from his dealership because I wanted to establish a good relationship with them if and when I needed service.

Ya just never know!

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You will probably find the store is owned or run by an accountant .