Honda Accord Quality Control Issues
To date, the Honda Accord is the number #1 sedan sold in the United States for 2001. The majority of the Accords are produced in Ohio with a few being exported from Japan. Has the quality control of the Accord gone down hill in the last 3 years since the inception of the 6th generation model? There seems to be various issues debated regarding the quality of workmanship of the I-4 and V-6 Accords produced in the United States. Some of the issues I have been reading at Edmunds.com are transmission problems with the V-6 Accord, balancer shaft seal problems with all Accords, front brake and rotor problems, fuel sending unit problems as well as paint and finish flaws. Is it me or are there more quality problems developing in the US built Accords? There seems to be a host of problems listed on the Maintenance and Repair section of Edmunds. Comments please!
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Anyway, my biggest complaint about Honda's is that they never mastered the transmission -- automatic or manual.
The "problems" mentioned here have been greatly overblown.
Any car can and will have an ocassional problem. Since Hondas are so reliable, when something DOES happen it gets front page news.
They are better than ever!
FWIW my own experience with an '89 Accord has been quite satisfying. It was built in Japan. For the short time I had an Ohio made '01 Accord there weren't any major initial issues. I have to agree with Isell, I think Honda has such a good reputation that anything bad is magnified.
A supplier, unbeknownst to Honda decided to change specs on some part in the V-6 transmissions. This would cause a loud "clunk" while backing up. It did not cause total failure.
Honda was blindslided by this.
And, few cars were affected. To this day, I have NEVER heard this clunk and I've backed up literally hundreds of them.
The problem cars were fixed under warranty, case closed.
If anselmo wants to think Hondas aren't as good as before, I'll respect his opinion even though I totally disagree.
I'm not trying to make light of this, but, let's think about it.
Fuel sending problems...well, big deal! Fixed under warranty. Another problems I've only heard about in these forums.
Balancer shaft seal? Yep, honda discovered that this seal *can* fail (it rarely does) on I think 1994-1997 Accords so on their own, they offer an update seal kit at NO CHARGE to the owners of these cars.
Problems....? Yeah, you bet!
Find something with fewer problems!
" Gee...now that you mention it, I think my gas guage may be off too" or " I better go back up 50 times to see if I have that terrible clunk"
Just human nature I guess...
The gas guage one is the one that puzzles me the most. I have NEVER heard of this except for right here, in these forums.
A "lot of misery" ? Amazing!
Somehow, I don't think it's that widespread. Of course when it hits home, it's a REAL problem!
The balancer shaft seal failures are also very isolated. The vast majority of owners never had a problem with this.
Still, Honda is doing a product update for the affected models at no charge.
No car is perfect, anselmo and I would challenge you to come up with the name of a more reliable car than Honda.
I just have to wonder why you continue to rehash all of these "problems"?
I still contend, however, that given the hundreds of thousands of Accords produced that these problems are few and far between.
Naturally, in these forums any problem is magnified as it is discussed over and over again as others chime in with stories of their own.
As problems arise, Honda always does a great job of taking care of their customers under warranty.
So, has quality slipped? In my opinion, not at all but I'm sure others would disagree.
Discussing these issues is what a Town Hall forum is all about, isn't it?
Isellhondas::: I respect much your views and insights in the business of selling cars, but to be so 'stubborn'and not to accept the fact that even Hondas (specially models of late) are not as perfect as you would like others to believe, is quite frankly, a little bit overboard and erodes your credibility.
Having owned several Honda/Acura products since 1989 all I can say is that the quality level of the current Honda/Acura breathen has deteriorated considerably and this applies to the great majority of models assambled in North America. My sister has a '99 Honda Accord LX Auto (Her third Accord car)and she has been having chronic problems with the front brakes in terms of premature pad wear and rotor warping. However, the service received from her dealer has been very good so far.
My best Honda products were the 1989, 1990 and 1994 Honda Accords. The 1995 Acura Integra LS sedan was another excellent car. The 1997 Acura 2.5TL (Assambled in Japan) had many little nagging problems beginning at 4K miles.
Places such as Edmunds do serve a great purpose to keep consumers informed and up to date with the issues, please let's not bully them.
I spend quite a bit of time in the shop and hear a lot from the technicians. The sky is NOT falling! I'll repeat these problems are NOT frequent but are pretty isolated. Naturally if YOUR car is affected then it becomes a major issue. I understand that.
You call me stubborn in my attempts to explain things....perhaps. Remember, I have nothing to gain here. I'm not here to sell cars and the "regulars" know that.
The best example is the fuel guage problem. Never heard of it except here where it seems to be a MAJOR issue.
I'm only trying to share my perspective as I see things. Sorry you see that as "bullying" people.
And...sorry to say this, but I strongly suspect your sister (or another driver?) is extremely hard on her brakes. Again, this is very uncommon.
Just traded our 98 Accord LX (same brakes) with 52,000 miles. Original pads measured 4 mm. they come with 9-10mm new. Lots of traffic and hills in Seattle too.
I have both a 88 Accord LX and 2001 Accord EX, can they have problems ... sure .. but much less than other cars I even considered VW, GM-Pontiac-Saturn, toyota... to name a few
1. Take it to a good dealer or mechanic
2. Drive it correctly
3. Be happy its an excellent quality automobile!!!
I can think of a lot of other brands where you'll see a heck of a lot more cars being fixed!
Try a domestic or VW dealer sometime!
Funny...I never managed to warp my rotors. The original pads will probably go another 30,000 miles provided a non abusive driver buys it.
Don't try to portrait current Honda products as the ultimate and glorified quality benchmark...
fast foward to 2001...domestics are no longer the junk of the Disco era and VW has also move forward in this regard.
Of course you will never admit that in the open.
After reading some of the entries made in the Honda Oddyssey, Honda Accord and Honda Civic boards, further substantiate that Honda's have lost the edge for quality they once enjoyed. Honda is still a small company by comparison with a very small product line also by comparison...they can't afford to cut corners if they want to remain soverign and independent from future take overs.
Some domestics are very, very close to the quality indexes of current bread and butter Honda offerings...Honda lives off of a reputation gained and lost long ago.....
I'm not sure of the reason for this, but I think the newer people here need to know this.
And, I'll admit it, I'm a bit (or more than a bit) defensive about a product that I own, sell, and believe in.
We should probably leave it at that.
No one car will please everybody and people should buy what suits them.
Has quality slipped? Honestly, I don't believe so but I do know that it's the buyer's PERCEPTION that really matters.
Honda will have to continue to build a great, reliable product or they will suffer the results.
It's a nice car, but the initial problems have been many and do reflect poorly about quality control, design , suppliers and assembly.
Because of the above, my confidence has been shaken and for peace of mind I have shelled out another large sum of money for the Hondacare extended warranty. Being a Honda no longer means bullet proof, at least in my opinion.
My first choice to replace it would be with the current Acura RL, but that is $44,000. While looking at that car, I also looked at the TL and CL, which are built in the US. IMHO, they are lesser cars, in quality appearance, than the Japanese ones.
Similarly, when I look at the exterior and interior of an Accord, Camry or Impala, I'm not struck by one having any quality advantage over the other. In fact, there are many elements of my 86 Acura that are of much higher quality.
I conduct a fair amount of business in Japan, and one of the common features of their manufacturing is low speed, and often, low volume.
Almost all of the early generation of Japanese cars fit into this category, and their quality levels were very high.
In Southern California, I see lots of 1980 Accord Coupes, like one I had in Chicago, still running around. One of my friends has a 1984 Accord sedan with 220,000 miles on it and this prompted him to buy an 01 Accord. Nice car, but I'm not sure it's content is as good as the 84.
When the Japanese became mass producers in the US, they were shopping the same component manufacturers as everyone else. Obviously, engineering and design play a part in this, and the Japanese, as well as the domestics, have an edge.
My conclusion is that the quality of Japanese namebrands produced in the US has definately slipped from the quality that gained the beachead. At the same time, domestic quality has increased dramatically.
Since expectations are so high for Honda and Toyota, they are subject to criticism on things domestics might get a pass on. But the worst thing for them is to live solely off their reputation.
In the old days, we might buy a domestic car and be thankful if it went 100,000 miles. Now people expect, with reasonable maintenance, that their Accord will go 250,000 miles. Honda has proven this with earlier products.
The question is, can we expect the same from the present generation of vehicles?
HTH
TB
Problems...sure! A few like ANY car. The question here relates to a slipping of quality.
I don't believe so, but it's the opinion of the public that really matters.
For the sake of Honda, I hope this isn't the case.
You should probably buy something different and better if you can find it.
Anyway, lugwrench and isellhondas: please do keep up with your comments. You've done nothing wrong, and actually contributed a lot.