First Toyota, Then GM - Now Accusations Fly That Honda Was Not Reporting Deadly Defects

Honda Motor Co.  asked a third party to determine whether the automaker underreported fatality and injury claims to the U.S. government, which is investigating air-bag failures with potentially deadly defects.

The third-party audit began in September and Honda will soon share its findings with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Tokyo-based company said in an e-mailed statement. Honda disclosed the audit after The Center for Auto Safety, a watchdog group, said the company didn’t report at least two injury-and-death incidents to NHTSA and called for the U.S. Justice Department to conduct a criminal investigation.

Honda said it excluded verbal claims of fatalities and injuries in reports to NHTSA until last month, a practice it says accounted substantially for the fewer reported incidents compared with other automakers. The Center for Auto Safety said Honda’s failure to share the information hampered the U.S. government’s oversight and efforts to spot auto-defect patterns.
 

MDarringer - 10/17/2014 8:18:22 PM

0 Boost

Honda is set for an implosion. Its products are in no way class-leading designs and they have a culture of not owning up to their faults in the styling side so it makes perfect sense that they would cover up durablity reliability issue.

A friend bought an Element in 2004 and the clutch died at 3000 miles. The dealer tried to refuse a warranty repair saying he did not know how to drive a stick. He drives pretty much nothing but sticks and has track training. The passenger window regulator failed 3 times in 10,000 miles. The CV joints failed at 20,000 miles.

He will never buy a Honda again.