Japanese carmakers are universally renowned for manufacturing reliable automobiles. In the past decade or so, they have had their fair share of hits and misses. The worst offender is Honda, mainly because the company that gave us VTEC knew about the Takata airbag affair since 2009 but didn’t do a damn thing to solve the problem.
This time around, the focal point of the story isn’t represented by shady business practices, airbags, and people who died before their time in Honda cars equipped with Takata airbags. According to a statement from the Japan Transport Ministry and two releases from Honda, the company is recalling the Fit and Vezel due to two separate reasons.
The first of the two recalls affects 164,388 cars, namely Fit hatchbacks assembled from August 2, 2013, through August 17, 2015 and Vezel crossovers assembled from December 10, 2013, through February 13, 2016. These vehicles are being recalled because they’re into spontaneous combustion. Six fires have been reported up to now, all of them caused by a flaw in the start & stop system. Put simply, the system can overload with electricity, leading to heat build-up or a short circuit and, eventually, a full-on vehicle fire.
The second recall affects 118,715 units of the Fit. The vehicles have been made from August 2, 2013, through August 31, 2015, and the fault lies within the electric power steering (EPS) control module. In certain situations, the EPS can act funny and cease to assist the driver. Furthermore, the EPS warning light on the dashboard won’t light up to inform the driver that there’s something wrong with the steering. Honda has been prompted to recall these vehicles after the manufacturer had caught wind of two collision reports.
This is the sixth round of major recalls involving the Fit hatchback in the last three years. The saga started in October 2013, when the automaker called back 4,883 cars to fix their automatic transmissions and control modules. In December 2013, Honda extended the campaign to 36,100 units of the Fit. Then February 2014 came, a month that saw Honda recall the Fit and Vezel over a fault with the engine control unit. By July 2014, the automaker had raised the tally of recalled Fit and Vezel vehicles to 175,356. After that, Honda called back 321,501 Fits and Vezels over engine ignition coils and power supply circuits in October 2014.
When will Honda move past these quality woes, I wonder...
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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