HondaLink Reviews

by Doni_K_888

What a waste of time and money! Paid for the subscription to be able to use HondaLink as a remote. Really wanted to have an option of a remote start of my van in these hot days. Was going to use this future to pre cool the vehicle in summer by remotely starting the engine. Instead I got a useless app that crashes my iPhone every time I want to do something in HondaLink . It just shuts down my iPhone and I have to manually turn in on again. But this is not the worst part. HondaLink is just useless in my case. It would NOT recognize my subscription. I mean I’m logging in using my Honda account credentials, then adding my vehicle using the VIN number and nothing! Just blank screen. It shows me my vehicle at the top of the screen, but says that all my subscriptions have expired. All the fields are blank, like there is no connection to my vehicle. I’ve called Honda support, was told that they will investigate my case and find the problem then will call me back. It’s been a few days already and nothing has changed. Every time I call they’re saying that technical department is still working on my case.
I own other vehicles from different manufacturers and their apps are working just fine and customer support is very responsive, but not Honda’s.
Very disappointed! By the way, the vehicle is 2018 Honda Odyssey Elite, and it has no problems, in my family everyone loves it.
I hope that Honda will pay more attention to issues with their software.

by Pm8317

Okay so my 2019 Accord Sport isn’t the top of the line trim. But I saw the Honda link app on the cars dashboard screen so I thought I’d give it a try. I some how expected more from Honda on what HondaLink would give me. Being able to schedule routine maintenance is useless to me. My goal with a Honda is that I never have to back to the dealer until I’m ready for a new car. Basically I can see my mileage and useful oil life. And I’m not sure how and when HondaLink updates with that info. The user guide would be useful if it was model/trim specific since once connected it should know what features are active. I had one “you last parked your car here” with a picture of a map pop up on my phone. Don’t know what triggered it to send me the alert nor has it done it again. Don’t use the Apple car play often unless on a long trip which I guess is when it updates the mileage. I guess I want connected car features and the car isn’t connected.

by Tognaceous

This review is not to discuss the merits and features of HondaLink , but to highlight a very poor design decision by Honda to have HondaLink start up on your phone every single time it connects to the car. It’s simply annoying, to say the least.

Imagine the user experience: you sit in the car, put the seat belt on, press the ignition button, pull your phone to select a song or grab the address of your destination, only to be stopped mod-action by the this app app, with some useless disclaimers that require at least 3 or 4 clicks before you can get rid of it and get back to what you were attempting to do before being aggressively interrupted.

Why would I need to see the odometer and range of my car every time I turn on the car, through my phone, if the same information is available right in front of me on the dash?

Dear Honda, if you feel someone would have the urgent need and/or desire to have this app pop up on their phones every single time they start driving, make that an option! Don’t brute force your way into people’s phones and routines. It’s called privacy, respected and a good UX practice too.

Final verdict, I could care less for what features HondaLink gives me, it’s been uninstalled. So long, this app!

by SadZebra

I bought the remote services for this app. HondaLink technically delivers what it promises but has a few somewhat large issues: 1) It takes up to 30 seconds to actually send a command from your phone to a car. My friends with other brands of car (including Ford and Toyota) get a response within 5 seconds of requesting an action via phone. 2) The commands seem to fail about a quarter of the time you try to use them, even then the car is parked outside with no obstructions. When they fail, they take even longer to execute 3) If HondaLink is open in the background, it will crash Apple Maps and Messages. The latter don’t start working again until you manually close out this app. This in itself is kind of surprising as Apple’s put a lot of work into sandboxing all of their apps so that they don’t crash one another. 4) HondaLink crashes often. Frankly speaking, I would not have purchased additional services for this app if I knew how buggy HondaLink was.

Edit: With iOS 15 HondaLink actually takes longer than before to communicate with my car and now tells me that my car is always unlocked, even though it’s not. I really regret purchasing this service.

by Earthssecrets

Hay Honda, if you think so little of the CRV touring customers why even bother selling the car… seriously.. HondaLink is absolute crap.. I have a 2018 CRV touring and all HondaLink can do is freeze my iphone13 pro max and cause random errors on my infotainment system.. I found the best fix ever.. DELETE THIS CRAP APP and now my phone has no issues and my car… well the infotainment has KNOWN issues that Honda has NEVER addressed sooooo I don’t really expect that they are the best option for an APP.. 😂😂😂.. did I mention this was my 1st and LAST Honda.. I paid cash for my brand new CRV and will definitely be going back to my Nissan Marano….at least everything in my Nissan works and their connection to my phone has always been flawless.. I have had so many issues with this Honda and as you Honda owners know… nothing is an affordable fix.. I absolutely REGRET purchasing this car.. it’s as pathetic as HondaLink..

by BriZ795

So I have a 2018 odyssey elite. After the trial subscriptions, I renewed the remote subscription so that I could start my car from farther then just a few feet (which seems like it with the car key remote). Like inside the store on a hot or cold day etc. And to also lock my car in case I forgot. Well, I do not have the icon box with the van outline indicating if the van is locked or unlocked. After 2.5 months of back and forth calls and cases created and factory resets and deleting apps and cars and all kind of stuff... I’ve been told that I don’t have the box of info because I do not pay for the security subscription. Security is emergency phone call, data wipe, roadside assistance... I pay for remote subscription which includes remote start, remote lock and unlock. It’s completely asinine that I don’t have access to info to see if my car is locked when I pay for the capabilities to remotely lock and unlock it!!!!! This makes no sense!

by @VBrown Of 808Talk.com

So right after I got my 2019 CR-V HondaLink worked and connected to give me the basics of oil and car mileage. Nothing fancy, but that’s all you get with the CR-V. Then about a week later it stopped connecting and now hangs up with the connecting screen each time I open HondaLink . Tried everything from deleting HondaLink , deleting the Bluetooth connection, and rebooting my phone and the CR-V infotainment system. Nothing works...then per HondaLink I submitted a trouble ticket. Got a call from tech support but they had no advice and actually stated that HondaLink is “junky” and works better in vehicles that have the pay service and Wi-Fi. The final suggestion they gave me was to do a complete factory reset on my car infotainment system and my iPhone. I was like, yeah right. Anyway don’t waste your time on HondaLink, I was losing sleep at night about it, but today...I just deleted it. That’s all...wish I could ZERO STAR this review, but I’ll have to settle for a ONE STAR. Thanks “junky” app.

by Alien1989999

I have a 2019 Honda Civic hatchback. When scanning the vin of my vehicle it showed me all the features for my vehicle through HondaLink . Wrong it never worked. Keeps saying Bluetooth connection required. Although it is already connected through Bluetooth. I called the support number and it was a joke. The support rep told me that they would put a ticket in for it to be escalated to the next tier support. Well finally the other tier support gave me a call. After going through all the trouble shooting it was obvious that HondaLink was not going to work with my car. I was told your going to have to wait until a update is available. I asked when that would be and I was thought that support did not tell them that information. After waiting for a update it still is yet to work. Way to go Honda. My 2013 Hyundai worked with the blue link app through Hyundai. It has older technology that my 2 year old car.

by SeanSFromArl

I have a Pilot. The information about how much gas you have, tire pressure, oil life, odometer, and whether to doors are locked or not can be very helpful at times. The ability to get the location of your car, activate the lights or horn and unlock the car through HondaLink can be a life saver.

But HondaLink is REALLY annoying. Every time you connect your iPhone to your car so you can use Apple CarPlay, HondaLink will automatically start and pop itself to the front. So while you are trying to lookup directions in Google Maps or start a playlist in your music app, HondaLink pops up for no obvious reason and interrupts whatever you were doing. There does not appear to be a way to disable this obnoxious feature. I have no idea why they would make HondaLink do this but I really hope they remove this feature at some point. It would also be nice if I could remote start my Pilot with HondaLink .

by Jerodgreen

If you own a CRV HondaLink is nearly useless. The only information here is what you’d find on your dashboard when sitting in your car, and it’s not information anyone would care to have in hand or taking up space on their phone. HondaLink is not well designed, even I noticed a few typos while I was getting setup. There’s honestly no useful information in HondaLink . I don't know why I have HondaLink . Maybe, just maybe, the schedule a service appointment will work. I’m really skeptical. Other than that thanks for letting me know how many miles are on the car? I just don’t see why this was presented at as a perk. It’s just useless. I’m including 2 stars to account for some value that an owner of one of Honda’s more luxury vehicles would get. Am I supposed to be insulted that the posh owner of a beautiful Pilot is offered the same app with better features? As if I was non the wiser? Wow—oil usage is at 80%? Gosh, sure happy Honda creates and app that can divide by 100. I guess it’s not about Honda. It’s about me. For CR-V owners like me I’ll suppose we’ll just pound sand and eat leftovers like the plebeians Honda wants to remind us that we are with such preferential treatment.

by Evan Wike

HondaLink could be sooo much more. I have a 2017 Honda Accord Touring. I can remote start it from the key fob, yet for some reason this functionality is absent from HondaLink . Most of the other information isn’t useful. Just about the only thing I can see anyone using HondaLink for would be to schedule maintenance, but then again, who schedules maintenance? When the light comes on you go by the dealership. A much more useful feature would be to allow HondaLink to act as an interface, letting users see the actual codes associated with warning lights so they can find out exactly what’s wrong. As said previously in another review, HondaLink is finicky in the best of times. My phone will already be connected to my car via Bluetooth yet it will sit there saying connecting for few minutes before failing. Overall, HondaLink is hardly what I would expect from a major company like Honda. It needs to be completely tore down and rebuilt from the ground up.

by Momofgab

I have a Honda Odyssey Elite 2019 that is paired with HondaLink.

PROS: like HondaLink for the following features: remote start, the lock/unlock doors, security alert and find vehicle. HondaLink also shows how much gas you have and the miles you can travel, the PSI for tires and any alerts or recall messages. It also gives you locations of Honda dealers.

CONS: It takes so long for HondaLink to connect to the van. When you access HondaLink and click the start or any function, you will see a line that shows how long you have to wait to connect to the van. Sometimes, it will tell you that the van is not in a good location so HondaLink can’t connect. But, the van is just in front of our house and our room is in the front. I’m thinking if HondaLink is connecting to the van thru its gps that uses the satellite, it should not have that problem. I find HondaLink pricey for $110 a yr subscription and this doesn’t include road side assistance which is another $110. For a few features and some that you don’t really use everyday, $110 is an unreasonable price.

by Jaydog4372

I just bought the new Clarity plug-in hybrid, and I like how HondaLink shows the current charge status and range of the vehicle. It also allows me to start the climate pre-conditioning remotely. It's really clean and easy to use.

However... It's frustrating that the charge status doesn't update anywhere close to real time. The page refreshes, but the charge status lags by as much as two hours sometimes when it's on my home outlet (120v), which is pretty useless. There's no way to get it to"force refresh" that I can tell.

So far, there's also a missed opportunity here in that it could interface so much more with the infotainment system, allowing you to explore and change your settings, upload pictures and apps, etc., from anywhere. Feels like they rushed it out. Which is fine if there's a future version with more functionality planned. I only wish they'd share what the future plans are and when they plan to do more with it.

by Noeldlt

The biggest missing feature is an anti charge schedule. While HondaLink allows you to set one charging schedule, which is helpful if you are only charging once a day, what we really need is for the car to charge whenever it’s plugged in unless it is during specific time. This would be helpful if you want to avoid charging during peak hours when electricity costs are higher, or if you only want to charge while you’re generating electricity from solar p els. The problem with the current schedule is that if you unplug the car for a trip, the car doesn’t automatically start charging when you plug it back in, because the car waits until the next start time. You have to remember to go back into HondaLink and manually start the charge, which often takes a long time to load, and sometimes fails.

by Ken Tampa, Fl

Great functionality, but the vehicle location function doesn’t work while the car is being driven and moving. Why can’t a car with Wifi HotSpot cannot be located makes no sense. This is something that should be added so owners can use the function and have the ability to locate the car when needed. Beyond that, all the other abilities are useful and really make life easy.
The lack of tracking ability is why I gave it only 4 stars. If they update it and make it available I will change it to 5.

by Kmdangerous

I really enjoy all of the functionality of HondaLink. It is awesome to be able to check the status of my car (locked/unlocked, fuel and range, oil life, etc.). I especially enjoy being able to remote start the car on days when it is very cold or very hot. It’s much more comfortable to enter a car that is a tolerable temperature. I do wish that it would allow you to know if the windows and sunroof were open and if so remotely close them. Sometimes during the summer I like to vent the sunroof to help heat escape. But if a rain is coming it would be nice to have the ability to close it remotely. Honda is also very responsive to glitches with HondaLink and tech glitches in the car itself. I’ve been 100% pleased with my 2018 Honda Accord Touring.

by FitGuy314

I’ve had HondaLink working in my new 2020 Accord for about two weeks now. I didn’t want to use it initially after reading the reviews on HondaLink Store, thinking it was a junk app, but the features were so cool I had to give it a shot. At first, no, it did not work. Only showed the odometer reading and fuel level. Called the support number through HondaLink and spoke with Honda customer service. The tech on the other end was very nice and very helpful. He sent a reactivation signal to my car and voila! Now I can remote start it from anywhere, see the interior temperature, lock and unlock the doors, etc etc. Its a great app, glad I took the time to call and get it working.

by Tapping

Version 3.4.3 downloaded on 3/2/18 to an iPhone 8 works great with my 2018 Clarity. Download and pairing w car was quick and easy even for this 63 year old Neanderthal.

Features such as range estimates, battery/charge/status information, climate preconditioning, charging locations, scheduling, etc are working as expected and updating every time I open HondaLink . Only the odometer reading seem slow in updating but eventually gives the correct reading. But really, the odometer doesn’t need to update frequently. Is your car going to go somewhere without you?

I can stop/start/schedule charging, see the battery charge state, and get a time remaining for complete charge. App indicated 30% charge and dash gauge had 6 bars and at 70%, 15 bars. I can also schedule the climate preconditioning from my phone whenever I am out of range of the key fob as long as both car and phone can connect to Honda’s server.

It appears that the Clarity is communicating by cellular data to Honda’s server and not by satellite or WiFi as some have speculated. Tested/proved this by parking under concrete parking garage where phone said there was no WiFi and I could still connect with Car when distant.

I think the negative reviews were either because of old versions or attempted usage on older model Hondas. HondaLink is really for the newer model Hondas.

So, bottom line: All features working with no problems.

by A Software Engineer

If you own a 2018 Odyssey Elite or 2018 Accord Touring, ignore the majority of negative reviews on HondaLink. Those reviewers failed to comprehend the 3 sentence headline about HondaLink being for these two models only (as of Dec 2017). Free apps have a PR problem with compulsive downloads without applying any upfront effort to understand what problem HondaLink solves. We love our 2018 Odyssey Elite. We previously owned Audis, but our family size outgrew even the full size Audi Q7. HondaLink, when paired with the paid subscription, works flawlessly for us. Remote Start is great on very cold mornings or very hot afternoons. HondaLink shows you the inside cabin temp, and let’s you extend the 10min runtime. Remote Lock is great when you are already in bed and not sure if the you locked the car in the driveway. It’s also great if you don’t have the keys on hand to unlock the car. You can check fuel levels and oil life from HondaLink , as well as find the car if you can’t remember where you parked it (or more importantly your spouse doesn’t remember where they parked the car.) I haven’t used HondaLink to schedule maintenance appointments yet but like the idea if I can remember to use it.

by MontyM23

Edit: HondaLink has gotten a LOT better. Does not crash that often. I can get in and start my car and do other things without it closing HondaLink or freezing my phone. Great work on getting it fixed!

Original comment:HondaLink has everything that I need it to do! But the problem is that it is laggy. CarPlay wouldn’t work the other day because HondaLink Honda app kept opening on my phone and froze my phone. I have had to write this review 3 times because the Honda app has started up randomly and tries connecting to car when my car is nowhere nearby. And when it goes to the screen where it shows a phone with dots leading to a car that’s when there is trouble. That’s when HondaLink freezes and it froze my whole phone and went into a force restart. And I have a brand new 12 pro max so I know it’s not the phone. Their were no problems before I got the Honda app. If HondaLink just worked smoother and didn’t freeze their would be no problems! 18 Honda Accord touring is my car If needed for reference

by Vrater

I’m so annoyed at this update! First, the redesigned app completely logged me out so my electric car charged when I plugged it in instead of when electricity is cheap and didn’t give me any notice so I didn’t even realize I wasn’t connected to HondaLink . Now that I am, it worked fine for several weeks but last night, it didn’t charge my car at all! No warnings, no notifications. And it’s annoying that it is constantly trying to start HondaLink whenever I get in the car and start Waze (thank you, Apple CarPlay, for access to an excellent nav app!), always in the way. But the Not Charging thing is really terrible. I’m going to try to set the adjusted charging time through the charger’s app since I don’t think I can trust HondaLink anymore and I can’t just have an empty car when I get up in the morning.

by 🔥🤬🤯😤😝🔥

After 3 months of hassles dealing with app issue, I finally have a working app. this app Customer Service is short staffed, Long waits. I, however, am disappointed to find out that CR-V owners do not have the full Honda Link benefits. this app App is geared for the Honda Pilot(Top Models). Nothing on HondaLink is worth paying for a this app subscription unless you purchased a Honda Pilot. Mileage, Oil Life, & Gas tank range are the 3 things HondaLink displays for Honda CR-V owners. You are only able to enter a limited amount of favorite destinations. Don’t plan on using this for long vacation drives. Google Maps/WAZES are far better. Recall notifications are usually mailed/emails. Vehicle mileage, Gas, & oil life are on you dash display.
this app needs to gather a large group of actual Honda owners of different models that have this app on there vehicles to gather opinions, issues, preference, & DYI techniques. Then incorporate them into re-inventing the this app.

by HoorayFerSocks

HondaLink is trash. I’ve seen similar apps for other makes and they work great, but this one barely even has the basic functionality it advertises. I got this to remote start my car, especially when it’s cold and snowy outside (I live in an apartment and work in a large office building so I don’t have the range to use the key FOB). It hardly ever works on snowy days, but ironically works on days that it’s nice outside and the walk to my car is enjoyable.

It’s never had an accurate read for the fuel in my vehicle. It hasn’t update the odometer in months, and when it DOES remote start, it takes forever and displays an inaccurate cabin temp (that never changes either!)

The worst part is that there is an annual fee for the service! WHAT ARE WE PAYING FOR? Don’t you use some of that money to pay a computer-smart person to repair your trash app? C’mon Honda. I love my car, but you should be paying ME to use this futile app.

by Caddberry

Sometimes has issues updating status, but everything functional costs like $90 / year or something. Comes with a “free trial” but when I went to activate it, they said it had been past 90 days since I bought the car so I couldn’t start the trial. I figured someone would tell me something like that when I bought it but they didn’t. The sales rep for Honda Link gave zero craps and made it abundantly clear he didn’t care and couldn’t help.

Pretty lame to buy a car for $35k and then you find out the ability to start the car from your phone costs extra per month.. seriously Honda? Charge extra for “concierge” but let me start my $35k costing 2019 Accord from my iPhone.

This whole experience really made me feel like some number out there instead of any sort of valued customer.

by 19Sweets78

I have a 2018 Honda Accord Sport, but HondaLink does not have much functionality at all with this vehicle, seeing what others have said. I like the fact that it does track gas, mileage, and maintenance essentials. But would you please revert back to some of the older functions before HondaLink update; like, showing the date and time HondaLink actually last connected. It’s so helpful. If you look at HondaLink , it’s misleading now because it doesn’t always connect to the vehicle once the vehicle is started so therefore your data is no longer accurate. The date and time stamp would let you know exactly the last time HondaLink synced with the vehicle. The connection is also very slow when it does finally try to connect to the vehicle.

by WinstonFl

Sometimes new and improved isn’t what it is all cracked up to be. Sometimes HondaLink does what it’s supposed to do even though it may throw you an error message anyway. The old version of HondaLink worked pretty flawlessly and faster. HondaLink is clunky and filled with bugs and you’re never sure if what you want to do is actually working. Even scheduling an appointment doesn’t work 100% because it doesn’t let you put text in the boxes where they want information. It’s an embarrassment and disappointing that we spend money on your car and then pay an annual fee to use the services provided and then Honda doesn’t have the courtesy to fix HondaLink bugs months after the release of app. You can see the ratings have tanked this year. Get it together Honda, this is not good.

by Soljie

A welcome update to App, looks good . Glad you listen to your customers . Like than you now have assigned Dealers. Nice that you now have calendar integration.
You are still missing the Apple Watch app which should be a no brainer when making apps as Apple Watch is very popular and convenient to use . Check out ViperSmart Start see what impressive stuff their App can do from the Apple Watch .
WHY I’M NOT SEE TIRE PRESSURE FOR 2018 HONDA ACCORD TOURING 2.0 ??.

Keep updating . Well done so far . Updated my ratings 4 stars
NOTE:
For those who are saying car locating option is miss it’s there when you swipe up, look at screen shots of the new app and you can see it .

Previous review:

If you are gonna make an app at lease make it do something. I have a 2017 CRV Touring and HondaLink does nothing it's been stuck on the same info ever since i downloaded and connected to it . If i'm at home it says i'm at work , nothing works properly or even work at all .

Honda you need to get a better app building team and good beta testers .

All the other manufacturers apps are leaving you guys miles away in the dust .

For the 2017 CRV Touring we should have remote start and GPS tracking from HondaLink but then again what's the sense HondaLink doesn't work .

COME ON HONDA WAKE UP !!

My entire family buy Honda, at least give us an app that does something.

by Gadget_B1

Finally updated for iPhone X! Early adopter problems I know lol. Its a good app that works most of the time. The issue I have is with the feedback from the car. HondaLink is slow to update if it even updates the cars status at all. Example I remote start the car sometimes it shows its started and how long its got left to run other times it just gives me a thinking circle and doesn’t update. Additionally the run time remaining doesn’t have live updates (or timer), you have to refresh the screen to get the time to change. Finally I wish it would tell you how many times you can extend the remote start time. Instead it just gives an error if you have exceeded the run time. Also Honda whats up with the super short 10min run time, you can’t heat or cool a car that fast, extend the time or at least let users set their own run time.

I will say that the send to car directions works great 9 out of 10 times that I have used it. One time it said it sent but never showed up on the car.