2013-15 Honda Accords Heading in the Wrong Direction
2013-15 Honda Accords are under investigation by The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for a steering issue. Allegations of Accords suddenly losing control without warning have led to 107 complaints. According to a Motor1 report, there are as many as 1,120,470 Accords in the US that could be affected.
This condition occurs under normal driving conditions, without driver input. NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) uncovered 77 complaints to the automaker and another 30 to NHTSA. Two NHTSA complaints included crashes or fires, and two had injury allegations. None of Honda’s complaints had crashes, fires, or injuries reported.
The next step is an engineering analysis to look at the cause, scope, frequency, and consequences of the purported steering control loss. ODI then decides if Honda needs to recall and fix the vehicles after completing their investigation and issuing a report.
Elsewhere, drivers described their Accords veering or jerking out of their intended path, without warning. NHTSA has also begun looking into vehicle owner questionnaires to see if a safety defect does exist.
The difficulty for Honda is the continuing Takata airbag inflator issue, which we commented on previously. Millions of vehicles with the airbags are still on the road, despite increased efforts by the automaker and the NHTSA to make owners aware of the danger. Now, three years of production are under scrutiny for this potential steering issue.
[Images: Honda]
With a father who owned a dealership, I literally grew up in the business. After college, I worked for GM, Nissan and Mazda, writing articles for automotive enthusiast magazines as a side gig. I discovered you could make a living selling ad space at Four Wheeler magazine, before I moved on to selling TV for the National Hot Rod Association. After that, I started Roadhouse, a marketing, advertising and PR firm dedicated to the automotive, outdoor/apparel, and entertainment industries. Through the years, I continued writing, shooting, and editing. It keep things interesting.
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The 2014 Accord I test drove, a "Sport" manual, had the most awful ride I ever encountered on a mainstream sedan. On brand new smooth asphalt it jiggled vertically incessantly, never settling down. The big four was loud and very four-cylindery with a deep thrum. So when I ventured all the way to a lofty 4500 rpm, the sales dude cowering in the passenger seat accused me of "racing". I reminded him this was the "Sport" model, but already knew the car was a loser, so drove him back immediately to the safety of his sales cubicle where he could work out lease deals for losers in peace and quiet. My seven-year-old at the time Subaru Legacy GT was in a different universe of far superior on every count that mattered to me. I have yet to come across a Honda product that has what I consider decent long travel suspension, it seems to be in their genes to "not do that", like the four inch travel they gave cars in the '80a with the magic "wishbone" suspension. On a miniscule four inch travel, double wishbones are no better than anything else. For decades on the way to work across a long suspension bridge, I'd follow and watch Hondas of all kinds slam into the expansion joints with excessive vertical body travel on bumps that the suspension could not absorb properly. As a driver, you get used to anything, and Honda fans who never bought anything else would never know that better existed outside their hallowed brand. What has this got to do with possible EPS failure? Nothing. I just wanted to vent about the fact that Honda believes its own hype, when objective impressions tell an opposite story. Take the current Accord Sport 2.0t -- it has a 10 speed auto with a crap pushbutton selector, and no way to hold an intermediate gear. Very Sporty. Probably has a version of the dud EPS to boot.
apparently no math majors here divide 107 by 1,120,470 statistically insignificant