In article <2LCBe.4025$GB4.873@trnddc02>,
John Horner <jthorner@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Most of the repairs (excepting normal wear items) which are needed by
> any modern properly maintained vehicle in the 37k-100k mile time frame
> are a result of poor engineering and/or poor manufacturing controls.

Yup.

At 35K miles and 42 months of age (right outside the warranty by time),
the idle air control on my Odyssey went bad. That's a $300 repair.
Fortunately, my dealership stepped up to the plate (it's good to have a
good relationship with those folks) and just replaced it for me, and in
the background made Honda pay for it.

And they were right--it wasn't right for me to have suffered something
like that. I'm glad they took care of it, and Honda does indeed take
care of their customers who know to ask, but there are plenty who don't
know to ask--and they're buying some big ticket items like transmissions.

And that's just plain wrong.

 

"Elmo P. Shagnasty" <elmop@nastydesigns.com> wrote in message
news:elmop-B32C00.19021614072005@nntp1.usenetserver.com...
> In article <11ddr70sepe6f01@corp.supernews.com>,
> "Ron M." <nobody@nowhere.net> wrote:
>
> > > True enough, but on my recent problem the failure mode is a casting
> > > defects in the main case which allow fluid to leak through. I would
> > > expect Honda to at least get the basic case casting right.
> > >
> > > John
> >
> > Hi John,
> >
> > I agree with you 100%. At this point in time casting defects shouldn't
be an
> > issue.
>
> The 02 Odyssey, at least, had some porosity issues with the engine block.
>
> Let me tell you, Honda has stopped being an engineering company.
> Non-engineers are running things, and they're running Honda's
> hard-earned reputation into the ground.
>
> Once lost, it's lost (GM, anyone?). Hyundai doesn't have a particularly
> difficult job ahead of them; all they have to do is make rock-solid cars
> and service their customers well, and they'll capture those who came to
> expect that kind of service back when Honda did that.

Since I work as a mechanical engineer myself, I can tell you from first hand
experience that the majority of the quality problems with *our* products are
indeed due to our accountants preventing us from spending the appropriate
amount of funds for better materials and tooling. It is VERY difficult to
deal with this on a daily basis as an engineer. Just this week I did some
extensive analysis on a product of ours and clearly demonstrated that it is
HIGHLY likely to fail in the real-world application. Mainly due to the fact
that my superiors insist on using a "cheap material" to help increase the
profit margin on the product. So when customers start returning these parts
I am DEFINITELY going to say 'I told you so!!!' Funny how we don't have the
money to do things right the first time, but we've somehow got the money to
do things over, and over and OVER in order to straighten out the screw ups
that COULD have been prevented up front. It's just insanity the way that a
lot of companies operate.

It's true that Honda is on course to become another GM if they don't wake up
and change their business model in a very timely fashion.

Ron M.

 

"Elmo P. Shagnasty" <elmop@nastydesigns.com> wrote in message
news:elmop-B32C00.19021614072005@nntp1.usenetserver.com...
> In article <11ddr70sepe6f01@corp.supernews.com>,
> "Ron M." <nobody@nowhere.net> wrote:
>
> > > True enough, but on my recent problem the failure mode is a casting
> > > defects in the main case which allow fluid to leak through. I would
> > > expect Honda to at least get the basic case casting right.
> > >
> > > John
> >
> > Hi John,
> >
> > I agree with you 100%. At this point in time casting defects shouldn't
be an
> > issue.
>
> The 02 Odyssey, at least, had some porosity issues with the engine block.
>
> Let me tell you, Honda has stopped being an engineering company.
> Non-engineers are running things, and they're running Honda's
> hard-earned reputation into the ground.
>
> Once lost, it's lost (GM, anyone?). Hyundai doesn't have a particularly
> difficult job ahead of them; all they have to do is make rock-solid cars
> and service their customers well, and they'll capture those who came to
> expect that kind of service back when Honda did that.

Since I work as a mechanical engineer myself, I can tell you from first hand
experience that the majority of the quality problems with *our* products are
indeed due to our accountants preventing us from spending the appropriate
amount of funds for better materials and tooling. It is VERY difficult to
deal with this on a daily basis as an engineer. Just this week I did some
extensive analysis on a product of ours and clearly demonstrated that it is
HIGHLY likely to fail in the real-world application. Mainly due to the fact
that my superiors insist on using a "cheap material" to help increase the
profit margin on the product. So when customers start returning these parts
I am DEFINITELY going to say 'I told you so!!!' Funny how we don't have the
money to do things right the first time, but we've somehow got the money to
do things over, and over and OVER in order to straighten out the screw ups
that COULD have been prevented up front. It's just insanity the way that a
lot of companies operate.

It's true that Honda is on course to become another GM if they don't wake up
and change their business model in a very timely fashion.

Ron M.