Honda Also Facing Recall Troubles
Most public attention whammy automakers recently has focused on the recall problems facing Toyota, but Toyota is certainly not the only automaker facing matching troubles. Honda ' s auto recall woes are burgeoning; earlier this go; its recall encompassing 443, 000 vehicles was expanded to encompass 378, 000 additional vehicles. This recall is expected to cost Honda $2. 2 to $3. 3 million.
In the United States, the latest round of Honda recall notices forward to 2001 and 2002 models of the Accord, National, Trek, CR - V, Flyer and 2002 Acura TL and CL vehicles.
What may prove more troubling for Honda than the total figure of cars needing repair is the point of the potential defect with the airbags in the vehicles. On deployment, excessive pressure can shoot metal shards through the airbag fabric, potentially injuring vehicle occupants. The Wall St. Diary reported that one person has died and 11 were injured in car accidents involving defective Honda airbags.
The decision of a device intended to increase inhabitant safety harming occupants who might single escape injury in a collision is not one likely to set well with Honda owners.
Honda has distanced itself from contract for the defectunderlying its airbag recalls, placing the blame on a particular parts manufacturer. Yoichi Hojo, Honda ' s unrivaled pecuniary officer, told Reuters that the U. S. fraction of Japan ' s Takata Corp. deviated from the design agreeable by Honda when manufacturing the airbags. Honda is seeking pecuniary compensation from Takata.
Because of its perceived foot - dragging in ordering recalls, Toyota is currently the affair of agonizing Congressional attending. With Honda having issued its first controversy of recall notices in November 2008, its assistance dissension in July and its feeler in February, it too may find itself the controversy of investigation.
The cost of any auto recall decreases with allotment; when more vehicles in the model class are retired from the road, the automaker has fewer cars to recall. As a aftermath, delaying a recall may feather cost - reserves for manufacturers.
If a manufacturer knows of defects and delays impartial bustle to correct them, however, any capital could be countervail by punitive damage honours rendered in product liability lawsuits. Unlike compensatory damages that repossess injury victims for harm suffered, punitive damages are awarded to punish wrongdoers and deter future complementary misconduct.
