Think Honda was feeling jealous that Toyota was hogging all the bad publicity? Not likely, but it decided to announce a small recall of its own.
Turns out there's a small problem with the window motors on what we know as the Honda Fit in the U.S. Under harsh weather conditions, water can seep into the window compartment and cause damage to the main wiper switch. The switch then becomes susceptible to fire from overheating.
Honda said the move covers Fit/Jazz cars made between 2002 and 2008 in Japan, China, Brazil, Thailand, Malaysia and India. About 646,000 Fits fall into this category.
lmbvette says:
09:55 AM, 01/29/10
You left this out of your write-up, but it turns out a child was killed when the switch caused a fire. That's a pretty serious issue.
cr_driver says:
10:38 AM, 01/29/10
Honda helps toyota move forward, this just fits!
flicmod says:
10:40 AM, 01/29/10
Also, if it pertains to the 2002-2008 Fit, I don't think you should be showing a picture of Edmunds' 2009 LT Fit in the blog. That's very misleading.
bodyblue says:
12:13 PM, 01/29/10
Toyota's and Honda's reputation for quality is what is misleading.
hondacura4 says:
12:39 PM, 01/29/10
Good to see Honda address this after just three cases.
flicmod says:
01:22 PM, 01/29/10
Thanks for the highly intelligent and always noteworthy comments, bodyblue. Your contribution is duly noted...
redliner says:
01:30 PM, 01/29/10
This smells fishy. I bet Honda waited until Toyota was getting all this bad press to announce their recall.
flicmod says:
01:38 PM, 01/29/10
If you're right, redliner, it's a genius marketing decision rivaling GM's sniping of current Toyota-owners with special incentives. But, like hondacura4 said, at least it only took three cases to get them to do something about it.
redliner says:
01:49 PM, 01/29/10
@flicmod
Agreed. I think its brilliant. It's what I would do.
Wanna take a ride in my 'flaming orange' fit?
flicmod says:
03:33 PM, 01/29/10
LOL. +1, redliner.
mzbamf says:
10:00 PM, 01/29/10
http://money.cnn.com/2009/10/13/news/companies/Ford_recall/index.htm
Have we forgotten about all of these? Recalls have nothing to do with long term durability and reliablity of a vehicle lineup as a whole. ALL manufactures have them and many of you are being childish about any of these companies when it comes to recalls. This includes ford, gm, toyota, honda etc. whatever, doesn't matter who.
estreka says:
03:59 AM, 01/30/10
At least these recalls are happening. Ford was in litigation for years over the Explorer and got away with never having to compensate most owners.
mheikka says:
11:25 AM, 01/30/10
I think the recalls reflect the fact that insufficient "real world" testing occurs before the car gets green-lighted for production. Perhaps Toyota and Honda relied too heavily upon its suppliers testing of component parts (rather than its own internal testing of completed cars) to determine whether the completed product was production-ready and safe for consumer use.
Hopefully automakers will enhance their "real world" testing programs to reflect how consumers (especially American consumers) actually use and abuse their products.
firstwagon says:
05:27 PM, 01/30/10
Automakers spend vast amounts of money and time on real world testing. It is impossible to foresee every possible failure.
That's why EVERY automaker has had recalled for dangerous issues... most of which are over exaggerated by the media.
If car owners put even a fraction of the effort into their own safety that automakers do accidents would be almost unheard of.
ballerdc says:
12:29 PM, 02/ 5/10
mheikka,
as far as I know Toyota "is" along for the ride in terms of testing when it comes to its suppliers, and more so than any other manufacturer. So with Toyota, it's not about them "not catching this" before consumer production began, because as Firstwagon pointed out, it's impossible to catch every glitch pre-production. For Toyota, it's about them not doing anything about it since, like what 2007, when the problem first surfaced.
Automobiles are complex machines, especially today with all the computer integration. We are destined to see some problems show up that require recalls, even from the best automakers. The point of a recall is to fix things you don't catch until after a vehicle's launch. I also agree that the media can make a recall seem like a bad thing, when it's actually a good thing. Recalls save lives. It only becomes a problem IMO when a company has frequent recalls or when a manufacturer tries to cover up an issue. The latter is the case with Toyota and this gas pedal issue. It's newsworthy because it's Toyota, a company most people never thought would even have such issues, let alone try and cover it up.