Accord Quality Down?

I'm on my 4th Honda Accord lease. Never had any problems with any of
them, until this one.

First I had to have the transmission replaced. Now, they found a worn
front sway bar link that had to be replaced.

Luckily all this is under warranty, but it has me thinking. Did I just
get a bad apple, or has Honda quality slipped a bit? My lease is up
next year so I have some time to decide whether to stick with Honda...

 

Yes.




____________________________________

 

With all the transmission woes over the last 5 years, my guess is that
Honda's quality has slipped--and not by "just a bit".

I'm the fiercest Honda supporter you'll find, so I consider myself
qualified to bitch and moan about this issue like I have been for some
time now.

 

Worn sway bar link??? That definitely sounds like a lemon.

Pars

 

It certainly seems that the days when one could assume top notch quality
from Honda are over.

I just looked up the data for the 2004 Honda Accord on the JD Power website.

http://www.jdpower.com/cc/auto/jdpa_ratings/FindJdAwards.jsp

For Mechanical Quality, Body & Interior Quality and Overall Quality their
rating is :"Does not really stand out"

John

 

That certainly doesn't mean or even imply that Honda quality has dropped.

 

JD Power is not credible. They are the same who put the Sebring as the top
contender, reliability wise. They also rate the Cadillac very high while
Consumer Report put them at the botoom. They are biaised toward American
carmakers.

The Accord Quality is better than before in terms of build. It feels much
more substantial than ever. Reliability of 2003-2004 is still very high,
running with the best.

 

I agree with this. If you look at J.D. Power rating of 2004 Camry and
Focus, they are rated the same as Accord. Part of the problem is that
this rating is based on 90 days of ownership. Hard to stand out in
that time frame.

However, if you look at the long term reliability results for 2001
models (the most recent available), the Accord beats both Camry and
Focus. I personally am skeptical that Accord is that much better than
Camry, but then I don't have much faith in JDP anyway.

 

Yep that's just another of the stupid things about J.D. Power surveys: they
ask for service dept experience satisfaction etc. At 90 days I'd think
most of us would be pissed if we'd had to have that "experience" within 90
days.

Rgds, George Macdonald

"Just because they're paranoid doesn't mean you're not psychotic" - Who, me??

 

Hand Raised! I had that experience back in 1989 when I got my brand
new 1990 Accord EX. I tried to fill up the gas tank and had an awful
time trying to get gas in their. After the second time where it
probably took me twenty minutes to fill up the tank (I was doing all
kinds of tricks to try and get the gas in the tank) I called up the
dealership. The repair shop tried to convinced that I was just
imagining things but once they got the car in they found out there was
a real problem. Somehow the inner portion of the gas hose that runs up
from the tank had collapsed. So you couldn't force the gas in very
quickly at all. They ended up taking the tank out and sending it to
Japan or at least that's what I told.

So I wouldn't have had a good report if someone had questioned me at
the time. Luckily that was the only real problem I had with the car
other than the normal issues that crop as the miles and years go by.

 

Hand Raised! I had that experience back in 1989 when I got my brand

I too had to take my brand new CR-V in to the shop is less than 90 days, due to
loud noise at highway speeds. Turned out the windshield molding came unglued.

Georgie Porgie is an idiot.




____________________________________

 

Uhh that does *not* count as service dept. "experience"!!

<SWAT>

Rgds, George Macdonald

"Just because they're paranoid doesn't mean you're not psychotic" - Who, me??

 

The only accurate method of judging reliability is to read consumer opinions
at epinions.com or many other websites/forums. Consumer reports also seems
to be less biased and more factual based than other publications.

Add to that the incredible resale value of a Honda and you can draw your own
conclusion.

Of course I may agree with you fairly soon after my g/f picks up her new
2004 Accord LX tomorrow evening.

Now consider her car that cost $20k after tax and license will be paid off
in 5 years and it will be worth about half or 10k. That is better than any
car I can think of out there. Her 1999 Chrysler 300m that cost over 30k new
has a trade-in value of 7k. Isn't that a kick in the ass, and the car is
only 5 years old.

CaptainKrunch

 

(CaptainKrunch)
wrote:

Ouch! That one had to hurt. I certainly hope you got the LX for invoice
or less, 'cause they'll make a nice profit on her trade in...

 

(CaptainKrunch)
wrote:

I highly recommend www.edumunds.com
for feedback. You can get it two ways, in the consumer reviews and
ratings on the page for the car you're interested in, and in their
forums. Anyone considering a new car purchase (or used, for that
matter!) should spend time looking at the information they offer. I love
edmunds.