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Honda Accord Quality Control Issues
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Comments
Honda builds and designs thier own trannies and they do not operate the same as others. Just as thier engines are a tad more efficient.
TRANSMISSION DELAY does not = BAD ! ! !
Transmission delay= performing within acceptable parameters.
I read some post saying the tire pressure should b 38 psi. But today i find the manunal indicates:
front 32 psi
rear: 30 psi.
I check my tires they are about 36~38 psi. What should I follow, 38 or 32? Thanks.
Facts are facts.
How many of you folks with the 03 V6 auto have a slight (1-2 sec) delay and can hear/feel the transmission engage two times? I would really like to understand the magnitude of this condition as I want to inquire with the dealer WHY he wants to replace MY transmission and not all of yours!
colour me stupid but i can't for the life of me figure out why they wanna replace a working tranny in your car. i presume you are still driving your accord and it's not sitting on the dealer's service lot. please ask the service manager why they are putting a new tranny in your car. WE are all interested...!
I know with my old '98 Civic, it took a good second to shift from R to D, but it in now way affected the performence or reliability of the transmission.
still waiting to hear what was really wrong with your car...!
honda wouldn't just stick another tranny in your car for no good reason. so, what is that reason?
I tought I was dreaming. My first new car, it just couldn't be that a new car had a misalignment. They will check next week when they try to fix for the second time Problem #2 (see below)
Problem #2: Front break noise at low speeds when not breaking. Got it fixed at 6000km. It's back again even though they changed the calipers. Has anyone had them fixed but had to go back again? Dealer says they will likely change disks and pads now. Will that fix it? I'll let you know.
Problem#3: Rattling dashboard noise passenger side. Kind of intermittent. But I now see I'm not the only one. I have not seen a solution to it though on this post. Is there one? If mine gets fixed properly, I'll update you.
Problem #4: Bad carpet rear right side. Got it replaced. Must have been a defect from supplier.
Problem #6: Strange vibrating noise when going from first to second gear when engine cold. Looks like I found the reason here. ABS pump "fills up" my dealer says.
Problem #7: Driver side belt height adjustment device. When driving over highway, the spring in the mechanism makes a vibrating noise. It sounds silly, but the thing is just at me ear level and it dose it especially on our not so nice canadian roads and highways. And it's driving me nuts. Anyone experienced this? Is it just a bad one? Dealer will look into next week. I'll let you know again.
PS. Long story, which I will type out later, regarding the continuing replaced story.....
still waiting on that tranny news...
jebinc -
what exactly is happening with the car now? they replaced a transmission, with a bad one? and now they are saying that it is normal?
i hate to ask, but what exactly is wrong with it, if all cars are doing the same thing?
thanks!
My note from last night was short and abrupt because I didn't have the time to type out more information. Again, to summarize or clarify --
RE: Tranny and other issues - Yes, the Service department made a mistake (two managers and a tech). The replacement tranny works the same as the old one. It is also over filled and some wiring harnesses were not hooked up. Additionally, some other problems were created as a result of the replacement. This is one area where I have issue with the dealership. Secondly, the car has been back several times for other minor issues that have not been resolved. In one case the service department claimed to replace the center console compartment. After the first visit when it was not fixed, I marked it to see if they would replace it the second time like they promised. Well, after the second time, they said the work was done and it was not. In a very polite way, and by following the advice of my original salesman, I began working directly with the sales manager. I honestly told him that I lost confidence in the car and service department. I acknowledged that the Lemon law didn't apply and asked him what he could do to swap the car out. We both agreed this was fair if he could work the math out. NOTE: I paid less than MSRP and more than invoice for the 03. He offered the 04 at cost and will give me full retail on the 03. That will be pretty close to $0. Again, no threats.
Re: Lawyers - I never threatened or even mentioned legal action to the dealership. I always give folks the opportunity to make things right (which doesn't translate to giving me a new car as one of you implied). In fact, I'm letting the Service and Sales manager figure out a fair solution to my issues. The Lawyer comment was related to my line of work and the fact that I don't have time to review all the paper work due to business travel. I typically delegate these tasks to my legal team. I was not suggesting hiring a lawyer and suing the dealership but I was suggesting getting some help to work this through while I'm out of town traveling next week. Sorry for the confusion.
I will post the final outcome but the dealership is being very fair and I expect to reach final resolution on this early next week (but I will be out of town). Someone mentioned in an earlier post that this would be a great dealership... Indeed it would be and I believe it is. This is why I continue to send business their way.
Again, facts, not threats are what I use.
But when the service department at my local Honda dealer replaced the transmission on my 2000 Accord, the car looked just like it did before. And it ran just like before, except that the tranny glitch was gone. So a transmission replacement can be accomplished without screwing up the car overall.
It seems that your experience was a monument to incompetence at every level. The decision was bad, the actual work was shoddy... unbelievable!
I hope they follow through on the exchange. Best of luck for a satisfactory outcome.
I had a transmission replaced on my Nissan Dealer without a hitch. I wasn't thrilled that it had to be done, but they did a good job. Trust must the first thing I did was put it on a lift and check everything. I'm a mechanic and I'm thorough when I do work. I will tell you this, about 70 percent of the time, when I have any work done by a dealership or car service center, I find something not installed properly. This includes car dealers (Honda, Toyota, Nissan), tire centers and muffler shops. I hate to take my car in for any repair because it is the exception that the work is totally done right in my personnel experience. This even happens when the service manager has told me they have their best master mechanic doing the work. That's why my goal when I buy a car is to never set foot back in the service department. I do all of the work myself unless it's is a warranty part that has to be replaced.
I hope your dealer gives you a new car and hopefully you will never drive on their lot again. Good luck!
Lexus make it nicer than most though by providing nice shiny new Lexi to drive around while they are screwing your car up worse. makes you just want to trade it in. I drove a new IS300, ES300, and RX300 while I was going through this. I wasn't even upset about the incompetence.
Questions for Honda to ponder -
Where are Honda's technical experts and why aren't they more involved in educating their current and potential consumers?
Why are dealers given such latitude to independently differentiate normal from abnormal?
Why doesn't Honda require an approval process before undertaking such a large repair as replacing a transmission? In other words, if Honda was involved, perhaps their engineers would have caught this error in judgement before it progressed to this level.
Given Honda's recent quality issues, they need to be keenly aware that their consumer base is legitimately paranoid. To overcome this, they need to more than willing to educate their consumers and dealers. I am pretty fortunate to have a dealer that is responsive, patient and has a service manager that is intelligent and informed.
To all of us as consumers ... it's our responsibility to seek out reasonable answers, and when doubtful, to get another opinion. It's also important that we resist being paranoid. These are very complicated machines and they don't always sound/act as we'd expect.
Cutting corners by utilizing error prone suppliers seem to be what is bringing the Honda Accord down. In addition, the once stellar Honda plants in the USA and Canada are now producing quantity instead of quality.
I read the JD Powers Survey regarding the 2003 Accord and was shocked by its scores. Honda needs to address these quality issues ASAP to reassure its customer base.
Now when honda is not riding its reputation, deserved or undeserved, we're supposed to use a grain of salt?
Actually the problem with anecdotal use of the reports is that they are historical. They don't evaluate the reliability of a particular car bought today. The problem is not the statistics. I'm sure JDPowers knows that about 1500 samples gives a good representation of the items they are collecting data about. I'm sure JDPowers knows well how to randomly collect samples.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Yes, in fact, they were. They've always been poor and still are. Poor methods are poor methods, whether you're happy with the conclusions or not. I'll reserve my right to view their results with skepticism... sorry if that bothers you so much, but that's life. There are lots of opinions regarding the overall validity of their research, some positive, some negative.
I take JD Powers with a grain of salt regardless of their results. I don't care if they like Honda or not. My lack of confidence in their findings has nothing to do with whether or not I agree with their results. I find the whole client funded and advertising driven premise behind JD Powers to be inherently flawed. So you don't have to get all hot and bothered about me having "conditional" confidence in them... I NEVER put stock in what they say.
I've found that Consumer Reports has invariably reflected my experience with cars for years. While their sampling isn't perfect either, I just find their whole methodology and premise to be a much better foundation. So I'll stick with them, and leave JD Powers for others who have confidence in them.
1990 Acura Integra with 124,000 miles
1991 Acura Integra with 134,000 miles
1992 Acura Integra with 125,000 miles
1994 Acura Integra with 110,000 miles
1989 Civic wagon with 108,000 miles
1993 Civic EX with 134,000 miles
1996 Civic EX with 108,000 miles
new 1998 Civic EX
2000 Civic SI X 2 (we had his and hers)
new 02 SI X 2 (first one met unfortunate death)
new 03 Civic SI (looking at this one right now in the driveway)
1993 Acura Vigor with 60,000 miles
1991 Honda Accord EX with 100,000 miles
1993 Honda Accord EX with 135,000 miles
new 99 Accord EX sedan
new 01 Accord EX V6 coupe
new 03 Accord EX-L coupe
new 04 Accord EX-L sedan
That's 20 Hondas. Not to mention the 99 Civic my sister had, the 83 Accord hatchback she had prior to that, the 93 Accord gee bought for his Mom, the 90 Civic wagon his sister had, and the 00 Accord that she has now.
We've got lotsa experience with Honda products. As long as they keep building reliable cars that we like we will keep buying them. Out of all of those Hondas we have had NO catastrophic problems (knock on wood). Just regular maintenance. We have yet to find a car that offers such a nice balance for US. We've owned outside of Honda and had the following:
new 00 Silverado: spent first 2 weeks in shop and still wasn't fixed.
new 01 Protege: Great handling car, engine sucked for highway trips (which we love)
95 GS300 bought @ 135,000: Sucks gas (20MPG) which sucks with gee's 80 mile round-trip commute. Had to fix the power steering wheel. Otherwise it's been flawless.
1994 Lexus LS400 Anniversary Edition: Gee's baby. 8,000 miles in over 2 years. Needless to say this car doesn't make it out often enough to break.
1997 Dakota V6: Bought at 67,000 and sold it at 73,000 almost 3 months later. Nice truck if you are truck people but we aren't. It miraculously turned into a blue 03 Civic SI. Couldn't make it up hills even with a 3.9L V6. No problems though. It will make someone a great truck.
new 1997 RAV4: The only car we've ever completed a contract on. In 48,000 miles nothing ever went wrong. No rattles. Nothing. Just a little small and a little buzzy on the highway.
So as you can see we've owned some of everything .. except Korean. It's always the Hondas that we come back to. The one time I bought something other than a Honda for me I traded it in 7 months. Haven't looked back. We considered everything under the sun before we bought our 04 Accord. Again, it was the best car for us and for the money by far. It can't be beat in terms of interior comfort, performance, predicted reliability, and safety.
I think we are the type of buyer that keeps Honda where they are. We bought plenty of used Hondas and now that we can afford a new car we are staying with Honda based on those used car experiences. So far, all of our new Hondas have not let us down. Even the new 98 Civic with a paint flaw did not let us down because Honda gave us a new Accord for invoice and some compensation. Probably another reason we keep coming back. We have faith that if there is a problem with a Honda they will take care of it.
are u and gee married...?
Sam
GOT MARRIED FRIDAY!!!!!
Yeah I'm a happy camper. Lucky camper too.
"So you don't have to get all hot and bothered about me (sic) having "conditional" confidence in them..."
I don't understand why you are attacking me so sharply and personally.
You may disagree.
I am welcome to my opinion.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
We're taking a honeymoon later. I mean when you've been living together for 7.5 years, what's the hurry.
They send the questionnaire to ALL of their subscribers, and the result is a huge sample. And the questionnaire is worded as carefully as any that I've ever seen. There's no more likelihood of "anecdotal" results than with any other survey, including JD Powers. Any survey can be filled out with the intent of complaining or boasting about one's experience with one's car if the person is so inclined, again including the JD Power surveys. Finally, the CR surveys aren't funded by the very companies that are being rated, and the results can't be used in advertising. Unlike JD Powers, whose surveys exist primarily for the advertising potential.
Just my opinion.