Filed under: Economy, Japan, Recalls/TSBs, Hatchbacks, Honda
Honda recalls 35,000 Fits
Honda Motor Co. has issued a recall in Japan covering over 35,000 of its subcompact Fit automobiles. According to the automaker, the brake lamp in the Fit may not work due to the misapplication of a lubricant during manufacturing. Only vehicles made between December 2004 and May 2005 are affected, with no problems found with cars bound for the U.S. or other overseas markets. There have been nearly 2,000 reports of the problem from dealerships, but no crashes have resulted.
[Source: AFX News Ltd. via Motor Trend]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Rob 8:23AM (8/01/2006)
y'know, i'm getting REALLY tired of these notifications of FOREIGN recalls here on Autoblog. who CARES about recalls on cars that will never reach the U.S. nor will affect us in any way possible? Before any import-haters start calling me out, I would say the exact same thing for Fords or GM products elsewhere...
I'm simply annoyed by these non-applicable recall notices PERIOD.
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Shawn 8:39AM (8/01/2006)
Rob, maybe the whole "Internet" thing is something new to you, but people in other countries read this blog as well.
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Bryan 8:39AM (8/01/2006)
Rob,
Newsflash: The internet and Autoblog are accessible by people outside of the US!
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Abraham 8:40AM (8/01/2006)
Rob, you do know the internet is not a country right?
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Rob 8:48AM (8/01/2006)
Bryan and Abraham,
Don't give me that BS!
I didn't realize this site was catered to Japan, or that it was in Japanese. Look at any of the prior articles on this site and you'll see they make references such as "not coming to this side of the pond", "here in the U.S.", etc. They are not referring to cars released in Argentina or Namibia. They are talking about the U.S. market.
Plus, I'm sure Japan has more than its fair share of weblogs on cars. I'm sure they can handle this type of recall notice.
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Todd 8:50AM (8/01/2006)
Rob,
You are missing the point. When deciding to buy a new vehicle, you must consider reliability. However it is impossible to know long term reliability of a new vehicle. So a consumer must base judgements on other products released by the same company. So a consumer should consider the recent and significant recalls on Toyota and now Honda. Autoblog is providing us, the consumers, information to use as part of making an informed decision.
A perticular consumer may be content with the recalls, but at least he/she is informed.
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All World Automotive 8:52AM (8/01/2006)
The bad news helps in the sale of domestic car sales. Autoblog is doing a good thing for the US markets. Keep posting.
http://www.allworldautomotive.com/links/search.php?catid=0&searchfor=recall
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bob 9:06AM (8/01/2006)
"who CARES about recalls on cars that will never reach the U.S. nor will affect us in any way possible?"
Umm, the fit is sold here, and is selling out at almost every dealership.
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Rob 9:17AM (8/01/2006)
Todd,
You have a good point. I agree with you on considering a company's recall history when deciding to buy a particular auto. My point, though, was that this doesn't apply to us in any way, and is therefore, pretty pointless. Sure, we have the Fit now here in the U.S., but the article clearly says this only affects cars made in 2004-2005 (we didn't even have the Fit back then) and only applies to Japan.
Similarly, if they were recalling TL's in Japan for -insert car affliction here- (which they wouldn't since they don't sell them there), I wouldn't really care, unless that recall applied to my TL here in the U.S. too.
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TC 9:21AM (8/01/2006)
I bet Honda had a fit when they realized they'd need to do a recall.(Sorry)
Rob: Don't listen to them, we all know that there are no countries outside America (other than terrorists) and anyone who says otherwise are just crazy liberals who have never driven a man-truck.
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Shawn 9:37AM (8/01/2006)
so Rob, by your theory, Autoblog shouldn't post anything on cars that is not avilable in the US?
Here's a simple solution: Skip over the stories that you don't want to read. Easy isn't it?
Or are you of the mindset that everyone and everything MUST eliminate all things you do not wish to encounter because it annoys you?
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Kevin 9:43AM (8/01/2006)
Rob has the typrical American attitude that the US is the center of the universe.
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Jason 9:45AM (8/01/2006)
There are 40,000 Americans living / working in Tokyo alone, you know. I'd expect a percentage of them own a Fit / Jazz as it's a popular and mature model (on sale in Japan since 2001).
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Shawn 9:49AM (8/01/2006)
Kevin, I disagree. Rob is the minority. Look at the posts here in response to him. Making generalized statements about population as diverse as the US is unfair. Most people in the US are immigrants or children of immigrants. We are certainly aware of other countries and cultures.
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Todd 9:56AM (8/01/2006)
Rob,
Maybe I wasn't clear on my point. Although the Fit isn't (or wasn't) sold here in the US. Other Honda vehicles are sold here, and perhaps built in the same factory as the Fits, or very likely built and designed using the same set of best practices. Individual models are not built in a vacume sepearte from all other vehicles. Therefore having knowledge about other vehicles a manufacturer produces is relavent even if you cannot buy that one model.
As I am not completly familier with the Honda car platforms, I will provide a hypothetical example from Ford. Lets say we are back in 2001 when both the Taurus and the Escape were in production. Now you are in the market for a new compact SUV and are considering the Escape. However, this other car Ford produces, the Taurus, has been having a lot of safety recalls. Using your argument that b/c we can't buy teh Fit, its recalls are not important, this would mean that the Taurus recalls would not be important to the potential Escape buyer. However the Escape and Taurus and built in the same plant, and actually on the same unibody platform. (the equivelent of a truck being being built on the same chasis)
Now the information about the Taurus is much more relevent to the potential Escape buyer. So although the individual recall isn't immediatly relevent to US consumers, the secondary implications are.
I agree that this shouldn't be front page news on every major newspaper in the country, but for an auto specific publication such as autoblog it is worth mentioning.
*disclaimer - The recall comments about the Taurus/Escape were made up to show an example. In my opinion the Taurus and Escape have proven to be very well built, reliabile cars, however the Taurus suffered from lack of body styling.*
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Jomil 10:11AM (8/01/2006)
hm yeah well japonese people actually speak a second lenguage that is called english and believe it or not, they speak very good english. compared to the low % of americans who speak any other lenguage. and that is why some japonese people might read this. and uhh yeah theres a whole lot of american people over in japan (in the army right?)
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Kevin 10:40AM (8/01/2006)
Fair enough Shawn.
I modify my original comment to say that Rob's opinions seem to be of the thinking that the US is the center of the universe, and not that this is a general American way of thinking.
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MKBruin 10:51AM (8/01/2006)
"According to the automaker, the brake lamp in the Fit may not work due to the misapplication of a lubricant during manufacturing"
I have heard problems about headlight fluid, but this is the first I have heard about taillight lubricant. /sarc
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Ted K 10:53AM (8/01/2006)
The article was not placed here for foreign readers.
The article was placed here to provide ammunition for the "see, domestic cars aren't that bad" and "foreign cars suck!" and "US RULEZ NUMBAH ONE!!!!11" flaming.
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Ryan 11:09AM (8/01/2006)
"16. hm yeah well japonese people actually speak a second lenguage that is called english and believe it or not, they speak very good english. compared to the low % of americans who speak any other lenguage."
-Okay, normally I'm much more liberal... But do Americans really NEED to speak a second language? Nope. Do Japanese people need to speak English? If they want to do business with the biggest economic powerhouse in the world they’re going to have to. When you are *economically* the biggest and by FAR the strongest you don't change as easily, and if the tables were turned I would expect the same thing.
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