Honda to Recall 45,335 Civic Hybrids
09 February 2007
Honda will recall 45,335 Civic Hybrid sedans worldwide to repair a defect in the DC/DC converter that could cause a short circuit that would stop the engine.
The problem apparently is that the weight of a passenger on the rear seat backrest could bend the wiring terminal, potentially damaging the insulation and causing the short.
Honda will recall 7,219 of the vehicles sold in Japan and another 38,116 sold overseas, mostly in the US. Cars affected are the entire production from the period 9 Sep 2005 to 2 Sep 2006.
Several posters on GCC have opined that the Big Three and some other carmakers are dragging their feet on hybrids. Some even think it's part of a conspiracy by the oil companies and/or the government. I've read questions like "why do they have to do so much testing?" Why don't they just start mass producing millions of lithium batteries, BEVs, PHEVs, etc.?
Well, this is the reason. Recalls are very expensive and bad for publicity. Even a top-notch engineering company like Honda can make a mistake. Engineering a reliable vehicle is complicated. So they go slow when introducing new things. If they didn't they'd go out of business.
Posted by: JamesEE | 09 February 2007 at 08:36 AM