I’ve driven various Honda models for going on 30 years now, buying from dealers but never living close enough to use them for service. That changed last October with the opening of “Honda of Greenbelt,” the large dealership now just off Greenbelt Road (6500 Capitol Drive) and minutes from Old Greenbelt. It was formerly located on Route 1 in College Park.
I asked Service Director Chris Scripture what’s changed at the dealership, besides the address. Turns out, a lot.
What’s at Honda of Greenbelt
- Huge showroom, with vehicles indoors
- Full-service body shop on-site
- Expanded retail parts boutique
- Automated car wash for all service customers
- Longer business hours
- Very easy access from the main road, unlike the their old site on Route 1
- Plenty of customer parking
- Special express service team of 4-9 people, dedicated to perform services like oil changes.
More Amenities I Experienced as a Service Customer.
There’s an indoor-type reception area that can fit 18 cars where you drive your car in and first talk to and assigned “service advisor,” who’s your liaison with the mechanics. There are 10 such advisors on staff now, 7 of whom speak Spanish in addition to English. (Because of the dealership’s high volume of Spanish-speaking customers, all new hires for this position are required to speak Spanish and English.)
The old location had 16 service lifts; the new one has 46. Many of them are visible in this photo. I walked by on my way to the waiting room.
There are now two customer waiting lounges instead of one at the previous location, and it holds 42 people.
Also for customers while they’re waiting are six “business work-stations” in a quiet room with plenty of plug-ins, and of course there’s wifi everywhere.
It wasn’t long before my “service advisor” relayed to me what repairs the mechanic was recommending for my car, and I was told I could wait OR get a ride home via their shuttle. It was a nice day so I walked home to Old Greenbelt – just 20 minutes to my house near Ridge Road and Westway (where Mishkan Torah is).
My new-best-friend service advisor telephoned me when the work was done and because it was dark and rainy, I asked her to send the shuttle for me. She did and a nice young man arrived at my court soon after for the short ride to the dealership.
Making it my New Service Home
Maybe I have a bug in my craw about reliability, as I’m a woman of a certain age who usually drives alone. I know what it’s like to have your car die suddenly on the highway because it happened to me once on the Beltway, no less, at 10 pm in January – a real January, not the balmy one we just had. And because the dealer is now following my 10-year-old car’s maintenance needs, I feel more confident it’ll get me where I’m going safely.
And with the short walk or even shorter shuttle trip, there’s no more obstacle to getting service from a real Honda dealer.
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