Honda and Acura’s Interactive Network (iN) system is currently experiencing a major outage that began Tuesday and is still ongoing, leaving dealers nationwide across the auto and powersports space flying blind for a second straight day.
What we know: The iN is a portal automotive dealers use for crucial daily operations on the parts and sales side. This is also true for Honda’s powersports dealers.
But right now, when they try to log in, they’re seeing an error message that reads…
“iN Service Disruption: We are currently experiencing an issue that has made iN unavailable and is preventing transactions from being processed successfully. Our teams are actively working to restore service as quickly as possible. We understand the impact this disruption may have on your dealership’s daily operations and sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. Thank you for your patience as we work to resolve the issue.”
The issue is: Without access to the portal, dealers can’t submit finance applications, access recall alerts or new incentive information, or work on more complicated repair orders. (Not an exhaustive list, either.)
“This is actually more annoying than the CDK shutdown last time,” one Honda GSM told CDG News.
“With Honda iN being down, sales can’t see their inventory, dealers can’t RDR vehicles, can’t pull customer payoffs, and even if we call, the lines are down. Also, the dealer hasn’t been able to make payoffs on recent trades, service can’t pull VIN inquiries, and finance can’t run or submit credit,” they added.
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The same dealer added that because their shop is “a 70% lease store,” it’s been extra difficult, and they’re asking customers for refundable deposits to close deals.
“They understand once our captive lender is up, we’ll give them a call to schedule them back in.”
Similarly: An operator at a Honda powersports location in the South shared frustrations nearly identical to those of dealers on the auto side.
“For the parts side, as customers come in, we're using third-party parts fiches and then using Lightspeed to handle transactions, but any ordering or receiving is down,” they said. “Service side is broken, and we're relying on simple maintenance. Anything that requires a techline will be on hold. Sales is down bad.”
The source said it’s also hurting their reputation with customers because they can't track parts promised to owners by specific days.
“For example, I have a warranty repair waiting on parts that were ordered before the outage that I assured a customer would be fixed by this Friday,” they explained, adding, “We can't track parts or have any idea if anything is still shipping right now.”
What we’re watching: Honda has not yet responded to requests for comment, but dealers are hoping the fix will be in place by Friday at the latest, since Monday marks the first of next month’s sales period.
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