Has Honda quality dropped off?

[mfisher1967]

I have owned three new Honda vehicles since 1998 (CR-V, Pilot and Civic). Each vehicle has had small, quirky issues, but the issues have not been bad enough to prevent me from buying Honda again.

It seems as though every Honda forum that I visit, this one included, contains posts that detail problems. Transmission issues, noise issues, tire wear problems, leaks of every kind, and many, many other problems are routinely discussed. Most of us bought Honda because of the reliability that the brand implies.

My questions are:

1) Has Honda lost their edge when it comes to reliability and quality?

2) Do other brands, such as Toyota, seem to be having these issues as well?

[portabuddy]

what no... dont be silly...


[/sarcasm]

[remz857]

true that true that......... I've thought about it for a while, the most prbs started occuring now, they fixed some. Give them a year or two, maybe three, I have a feeling Hondas gonna be on top for japanese cars, and quality too, give it some time

[trogers8]

When your on a forum of 20k plus people with the same car...your bound to see thread after with people complaining of small, quirky issues such as squeaks, noises, sunroof rattling ect. I mean other than the transmissions..do we really have any MAJOR issues to complain about? Not really. You don't see our water pumps busting, radiators breaking, bumpers falling off, windows not working or anything like that.

I really don't think you have anything to worry about, and honestly, if you ask anyone on these forums I bet you'll get a million reasons why you SHOULD buy this car than why you shouldn't.

[portabuddy]

honestly i love my car. go onto any other car forum and see there problems. out cars are solid and have very little real problems...

[e60.deluxe]

interior plastics: easily scratched but really not a big deal
interior cloth of Si: complete crap. no excuses here.
build quality of interior: everythings sturdy, solid, no popping out panels or anything. definetly a step up from the 7th gen, probably on par with 6th gen and earlier. i have zero rattles or creaking panels at 16k while my sisters 02 was rattling almost immidiatly.
mechanical issues: i have zero but i suppose others do.

i know someone with an 04 camry, and the entire interior squeaks all the time. you move your butt and it squeaks. you put your arm on the armrest - squeaks. everything is always squeaking and creaking.

[08blacex]

I have an 08 to be honest i wish i would have researched before i got it.. not happy with the tranny... the Drive by Wire crap.. and the alignment problem..mine is a lease so wont have it for very long.. its still a nice all around car.. great on looks and gas.

[KenB]

This is my second Honda car, but the first one was a 1988 Accord so it's tough to draw a quality comparison.

But speaking about Honda motorcycles, the quality has definitely dropped. They still have bulletproof engines, but other Japanese brands eclipse Honda quality in the same price range. Inferior paint, horrible clearcoat, heat issues, bearing problems, terrible seats, etc. -- it's just not as good as it used to be. I recently bought a new Suzuki Bandit 1250 and it's head and shoulders better in quality than my last Honda (919) motorcycle.

So I'd have to say there has been some signs that quality has slipped for the sake of profits.

[rbsjnh]

My questions are:

1) Has Honda lost their edge when it comes to reliability and quality?

IMO no, but I'm a loyalists, all cars have issues and always have...no matter what forum you hear people gripe...IMO its the internet age and thats why its prevalent...I also believe it has something to do with the price cars are these days...when a new civic was 10 grand, you'd blame it on the fact it was a cheap car, but with a 20,000 price tag you'd expect more

2) Do other brands, such as Toyota, seem to be having these issues as well?[

very much so, new camry's and avalon's are having major tranny problems, hyundai's suck, kia's suck...no one is really better...

[SilentBob420BMFJ]

Originally Posted by trogers8

When your on a forum of 20k plus people with the same car...your bound to see thread after with people complaining of small, quirky issues such as squeaks, noises, sunroof rattling ect. I mean other than the transmissions..do we really have any MAJOR issues to complain about? Not really. You don't see our water pumps busting, radiators breaking, bumpers falling off, windows not working or anything like that.

I really don't think you have anything to worry about, and honestly, if you ask anyone on these forums I bet you'll get a million reasons why you SHOULD buy this car than why you shouldn't.

i thot about this.. if there is a 5% chance of such and such breaking on your car, then thats gonna be 1000 people complaining (if there are 20k on this forum), but a 95% reliability rate is awsome.. altho ive heard so many bad things about 06 si's, i hope it dont happen with my 08 si, which currently has zero miles.. what would be great is to give a list of the top 50 problems with the 06+ si to every si owner, have them test it out for a month and check everything on the list that is also happening to them.. then we collect all the lists and tally the problems, and divide by number of civic si's sold, and you will have the reliability %.. this is pretty much what consumer reports does, but on a much smaller scale

[nayilsi]

i had rattles....but it went away ... the car just fixed itself....
i have the rare 2nd gear grinds....only when im "if i say it...this thread will get locked" its like the car detects im doing it

all in all....i like Honda's quality


For answers..........ask someone who grew up with Mr Honda.

[KenB]

Originally Posted by nayilsi

i had rattles....but it went away ... the car just fixed itself....

For real? I have some interior noises but I think it may just be from the frigid temps we're having here in western New York. Plastics contract in the cold and rattles and clicks happen. Where are you and how many miles was it when it "just fixed itself"? Inquiring minds want to know - thanks!

[DNieves]

I think some of our perspectives on this site are a bit skewed in the sense that many people here are under the assumption that Honda is God's gift to the automotive world and when they hear a squeak and rattle their worlds fall apart causing them to lose all hope in Honda. When you look at other car forums and the major problems they complain about (like motormounts, electrical, reliability and etc) the vast majority of our problems are insignificant, trivial or typical of cars in general. There's room for improvement with every car (Honda is no different) but some people need a reality check -you did spend good money on a new car but you didn't buy a Maybach.
If you want to feel better about your Honda purchase see what the Mitsubishi & VW guys are griping about.

[AllShowNoGo]

if anything, i think honda's quality has gone up a bit. the 2001 to 2005 were notorious for tranny problems (both MT and AT). my 02 civic's tranny started slipping at 70k miles, the starter was replaced at 30k miles, and the alternator replaced at 40k miles (this was bought as a brand new car). the golden years of honda, IMO, was 92 to 00.

also, no matter what car company you look at, every company will have their own set of problems, though some companies (ie ford) may have way more than others (ie honda).

[Special Ringpop]

I disagree. The Civic quality falls flat on its face when you look at it compared to the other Honda vehicles. It's not "bad", but it's not nearly as good as the other vehicles Honda sells.

However, the way I've been treated by the Honda dealerships and by Honda Corporate make me question where my loyalties lie.

I can handle rattles (I'll still whine about it, though), but I cannot accept a faulty transmission. That's just pathetic, and Honda is lucky the media hasn't gotten ahold of it in the past, because the pitchforks would be out.

[AllShowNoGo]

^with all due respect special ringpop, i really think u got a lemon bro. i do alotta driving (ie 6 months of ownership this feb. 7 and i have over 12k miles on it). the only thing i've encountered with my Si is this random hissing noise which went away after a few miles of driving after it started hissing (which i wonder what it was and have created a thread).

[I Vtec, do you?]

^^ Agreed (To mike), Honda is generally very good but I feel like the civic was very overlooked in this dept. All it takes is one look at a Honda fit to see that the Fit, a ~13k car, was built with much better materials of higher quality.

[AllShowNoGo]

^^the fit is built in japan. of course it's gonna be that much better!

[e60.deluxe]

Originally Posted by Special Ringpop

I disagree. The Civic quality falls flat on its face when you look at it compared to the other Honda vehicles. It's not "bad", but it's not nearly as good as the other vehicles Honda sells.

However, the way I've been treated by the Honda dealerships and by Honda Corporate make me question where my loyalties lie.

I can handle rattles (I'll still whine about it, though), but I cannot accept a faulty transmission. That's just pathetic, and Honda is lucky the media hasn't gotten ahold of it in the past, because the pitchforks would be out.

so if you disagree to the civic quality going up, what do you think about the 7th gen interior? i think its a POS in comparison to the 8th. not other hondas, but the 7th gen civic.

[Yankees2519]

Originally Posted by DNieves

I think some of our perspectives on this site are a bit skewed in the sense that many people here are under the assumption that Honda is God's gift to the automotive world and when they hear a squeak and rattle their worlds fall apart causing them to lose all hope in Honda. When you look at other car forums and the major problems they complain about (like motormounts, electrical, reliability and etc) the vast majority of our problems are insignificant, trivial or typical of cars in general. There's room for improvement with every car (Honda is no different) but some people need a reality check -you did spend good money on a new car but you didn't buy a Maybach.
If you want to feel better about your Honda purchase see what the Mitsubishi & VW guys are griping about.

this man said it best, my tranny grinds when its still cold every few weeks, big deal- its cold. I have rattles when its under 20* out, big deal, its cold. The only serious complaint ive seen is airbags going off. tire wear issues from people who lower their cars, a lot of it is self inflicted. leave the car alone and it will last. And not to throw out any names, but if you look at every "Tranny grind, rattle, cheap materials" thread its almost always the same people offering theyre opinions. if your so unhappy with the fact that your felt needs to be cleaned every couple weeks, or that you need to run a wet rag over your door panel, sell the car. Im sure there is someone out there who will love the car for what it is, a fun, sporty, quick and reliable economy car. To answer your other question about toyotas quality, i can offer my opinion on lexus, toyota's luxury brand. Ive been working as a certified lexus technician for over 2 years, and i can most definately see a difference between a 1998 and a 2008. Every lexus vehicle used to be made in japan, now most are produced in Canada and US. the difference in build quality is very evident. I honestly blame american workers, coupled with the fact that we are producing more vehicles than ever, and you sacrifice some quality. They are still amazing vehicles, true there are some transmission problems (on the camrys which im sure use the same transmission as our ES350) which can usually be solved with a simple reflash. There have been, to my surprise, very little electrical concerns given the amount of technology in cars these days. Every system on the vehicle now has its own ECU, multiplexing is the new standard, and almost everything has some type of safety feature/fail safe mode. Not to drag this on even more (sorry for the long post) but having worked for Dodge for a while, Having read up about the cobolts, mitsu's, and even the new mazdas i can honestly say that in my opinion Honda and Toyota are the leaders in quality and reliability by far