Say It Ain't So: Honda Recalls Over 800,000 Minivans Over Dangerous Seating Situation
It’s never easy to find out something you thought was objectively perfect has a fatal flaw. Honda is recalling over 800,000 Odyssey minivans due to faulty passenger seating that has resulted in around 46 reported injuries. According to the manufacturer, vehicles from the 2011-2017 model years may have second rows that latch improperly.
The solution? Honda says its working on that and will be issuing an official recall late next month, once it knows the best way to approach the repairs. In the meantime, it has provided step-by-step instructions on how to properly position the second row outer seats and confirm they are securely latched to the floor. The final step involves shaking the crap out of a seat to insure it does not tip forward.
If an owner follows the diagram religiously, there should be no problem. However, forgoing those steps could result the seat tipping forward under hard braking and risk injury to the person occupying it.
While safety recalls are never a good thing, Honda’s still coping with its $484 million settlement tied to Takata’s dangerously faulty airbag inflators. As of this fall, roughly 20 million vehicles possessing the units still needed fixing and a more-than-fair-slice of those belong to Honda. That number is expected to grow significantly by the end of 2018, as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration attempts to implement a plan that replaces the most dangerous examples first.
While Honda is, by no means, the only manufacturer affected by those recalls, it was among the hardest hit. The company has said it is doing everything in its power to expedite the process but, with so many vehicles involved, progress remains slow.
[Image: Honda]
A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.
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But it is not Ford, it cannot be true. Fake news. Honda is perfect.
Always amazed at how the part where Honda silenced their own engineers back in 2004 over Takata airbags, and asked Takata to change failure data to make them appear safer is always left out of these stories. Poor, poor, Honda, just a bad supplier among many others who used a bad supplier.
There was a TSB for this latch issue because our’14 EXL had it taken care of. It was easy to miss the rear latch after removing the seats, but why wouldn’t you check for sturdiness? There were a few times I thought it was locked, only to push down and find it not. In 3 years, the only other problem with our Odyssey was that when it was delivered, the front doors were grazing the fenders when they opened. Embarrassing and not confidence inspiring, the dealer and Honda took care of it quickly. Nothing like dropping your new car at the body shop with 37 miles on it to fix a factory defect. No sliding door issues, no transmission issues but I didn’t care for the way it shifted (6spd auto). If you look at Tim Cain’s long term of his van, his gripes were similar to mine. We have a ‘17 Sienna SE now and I’m not impressed with Toyota. Neither is my wife, who loved our Odyssey. I’d go back to the Odyssey in a minute.
I don't understand the Honda hate. I owned a 99 Accord and apart from the crappy transmission, it was exceedingly well designed. It had no takeoff power, but it was the 4-cylinder. I recently entered the world of minivans and got a '11 Odyssey and am pretty impressed with it. The engine and transmission are very smooth and there's plenty of mid-range torque, not to mention the vast interior. And allowing the 2nd row seats to be spread apart means that my daughter really has to stretch to clobber her brother. My only complaint is that there's this weird flapping noise that seems to come from the roof, and I can't figure out what the heck it is. Oh, and the picture in this post is from a pre-11 model.