Honda Quality Flaw

[JDMDriver]

Look at the picture above.

Without looking at what I have typed below form an opinion weather it is a good fit and finish or not.

Now think of what car manufacturer can have this design approved. Names like Great Wall, Cherry, Kia maybe starts to go in your mind? For me it did.

Now read below as to what car manufacturer this car belongs to.

It is a Honda (hangs head shamefully). 9th Generation Civic to be exact.

I usually have nothing but praise for Honda. However if criticisms have a real basis and coming from what was is generally speaking an inferior automotive company in comparison (such as racing history, engineering feats, game changing design and construction accolades etc) which in this case is a Hyundai camp, then it becomes alarming.

This may be a little bit of a gripe/bitching session but I have never realised how much the ball has really been dropped until I saw the above photo. Sure we can largely ignore the design language or design interpretation or design directions of Honda but seeing this is really tragic to me. No excuse to fit and finish and the cohesion of the parts no matter the choice of design language.

Look at it. The shape of the dash doesn't flow to the door trim top smoothly, the edge gaps are huge and jump. The dual colours do not blend so that the lines are in line with the other (door to dash). There is no visual illusion of a blending seamlessly of the dash to the door molds. Why this uneven blending is not carried on the passenger side is a wonder or vise versa.

Compare the design flow, fit and finish of the above pic with our CB's which is 22 years ago (over 2 decades!!) and you will see how terrible this is. The reverse is what we expect, that is the CB to lack refinement being older but that is not the case.



How this passed quality control beats me. Being the most current model in this day and age is embarassing to me as a heavy Honda supporter (especially their supposed quality and engineering supriority).

What the article or forum the above picture was taken from missed on mentioning (and thank goodness but still a kick to the groin) is that the fit and finish on the other side of the car is unlike that of the drivers side (inconsistent in its inconsistency). This happens both left and right hand versions of this Honda. Very poor and in fact I will even say a fail since it is upfront, eye level and being constantly seen. It is not like it is in an inconspicuous part of the vehicle like the rear parcel shelf or C pillar section, under the seat or leg areas etc.



However the UK version thankfully does seem to flow, blend, contour more cohesively and show visual quality and attention to design details.



How this happened and why this was allowed is beyond me.

Below is the link to the discussion where the first pic was taken and the criticisms on the Honda fit and finish or attention to detail and design language.

http://www.veloster.org/forum/10-hyu...anguage-v.html

Share your views and comments on the subject.

[DCB7]

I think I get the look they are going for. It's probably what I would call over sophisticating the design. You can see that the plastic bezel is a different colour from either of those on the door, and is meant to be seen as a separate entity all together; and therefore no necessity to flow with any of them.

It's implying on what is already implied It is implied that the black trim flows behind the bezel. Notice the grey bezel is raised an inch from the black dash where it starts in the middle. It would have to be raised an inch from the door, even while curving, to keep consistent with this decision to raise the bezel an inch. To me this could have been solved by having a piece of the black dash peek out from behind the bezel and mate with the line of the door perfectly. But then that would be too obvious and wouldn't be modern enough

This becomes a fail if you see the second implication and missed the first one on which it was based. Basically, when the designers are so into themselves and Honda's deification that they think people are studying and running fingers over every inch of there creation (and every previous version made ) when most may just buy it because it's a Honda and new.

This type of thing I think would appeal more to a super high end crowd who wants 'difference' in every regard rather than the average consumer. Its more akin to something you would find in a Pagani, where 'flowing' is of little importance (in any obvious way at least). Over sophistication, it's something else



It's like looking at some abstract art, or even a Picasso for the first time. Its quite natural, to me anyway, for it to look like shit. But this is 'corrected', or they are better understood by learning of the classic style (like the CB) to know what it is rebelling against, or breaking the monotony of.

I like to find intricate depth in art/design after the fact, but I like to 'get it' right off the bat too. hard to pull off both though.




edit:if this is not the case, then I don't know what the hell they were thinking

[foamypirate]

This has nothing to do with quality, it's simply a design detail that you don't happen to like.

[XCRN]

Well I have noticed some quality missing. My friend's dad's 10 Accord has already started fogging on the inside of the headlight, and after 24 years mine has not and I am sure most of you have not had fogging headlights.

[TheFunk]

I've come to just expect newer things, cars especially, to be made more poorly over the years than their out-dated counterparts.

Most manufacturers nowadays expect 100,000-200,000 miles to be the life expectancy of what they produce, hybrid vehicles aren't expected to last more than 5 years.

The faster and cheaper you make things, the more profit you have... This goes up exponentially as time goes by because the replacement is likely made from cheaper materials or has more things that can go wrong with it.

As long as I have the choice, I personally will never in my lifetime buy a car newer than 2012... And there are very few made after '04-'06 that I would consider buying.
Not to mention I hate the way cars look nowadays.

[spiderpig]

Well I have noticed some quality missing. My friend's dad's 10 Accord has already started fogging on the inside of the headlight, and after 24 years mine has not and I am sure most of you have not had fogging headlights.

Yeah CB7 's have glass headlights so yeah no issue there lol wow..... BTW last gen of Accord's at least in USDM that had glass headlights as CD5's switched too poly carbonate lenses

[93twodoorLX]

i think the paganis interior looks awfully similar to a playhouse for cats. i think it is terribly horribly ugly. not because its different but because it is simply not visually appealing.

i think that in hondas case they are just being lazy. heck if they even just copied the passenger side over to the drivers side i would have given them a pass. i think we as humans find symmetry naturally appealing.

oddly enough have you seen the inside of some kias? even the low down dirty dogs of the past are getting it right nowadays.

-sean

[DCB7]

It cant be laziness, its not like some guy's making them in his garage. It went through many stages before production. They're going for a electronic device look, while pagani is trying hard not to look like one.
I think some car companies keep the economy cars a little ugly, and save the good stuff for the luxury editions. But even acura is pushing it. Apparently Kia and Hyundai aren't playing by those rules, they're putting their best into everything

[Accrdwgnguy]

I see a design flaw. Why the economy button?? Shouldn't that just function automatically in a 2014 car?

[phatdoughnut]

I see a design flaw. Why the economy button?? Shouldn't that just function automatically in a 2014 car?

THIS X100000! WTF?! That is exactly why we didn't buy an equinox or terrain or any other vehicle with that button. WHY should you have to push a button to get better gas mileage? We got the outback because it was the best bang for the buck that gave us exactly what we wanted.

[ThatOneAccord]

Older Hondas (that I've noticed) have an ECO setting that comes on when driving. Most notably in the current and past Honda Pilot, which features the cylinder deactivation. I'm assuming ECO means 2 cylinders have shut down and it's running on 4 instead of 6. With newer 4 cylinder cars that feature ECO buttons I'm guessing it just delays throttle response, slows down air con, and makes the trans shift sooner and at lower rpms. Although that does next to nothing for Mpgs.

[wed3k]

i didnt notice anything.

[crazymikey]

It's not quite as much of a quality issue as it is a design quirk, but there is still something to be said about the 9th gen Civic quality.

For the 2012 redesign, Honda missed the mark so far that they realized quickly after very bad publicity from the press that their idea to go towards a cheaper more economical Civic is not what the customer base wanted. This, especially coming from the 8th gen Civic which was without a doubt the best generation of Civic up to that point, which I can agree with after owning 3 of them.

Everything was cheap on the 2012. Fabrics, plastics, vinyls, carpets, everything. The 2012 Civic makes a 2014 Mitsubishi Mirage look like a Rolls Royce inside. That's why after only 8 months in production, Honda quickly, yet fantastically went back to worked and turned the 2013 Civic into what the 2012 should have been.

The 8th gen cars were fantastic. Now, I still have my gripes with the 2013's, as they're softer and fatter now, but with age, that happens. Back to the design and quality, I think Honda hit the bullseye when they did the 2013s. Exterior styling is excellent. The interior is miles better than the 2012, but I still feel it is slightly cheaper feeling and looking than the 8th gens.

Since the 8th gens, they've had that goofy dash shape with the vent on the driver side. I never really noticed a fitment issue on my 2008-2011 cars, but with how pointy the dash is when you open the door, I've bashed my knee off of it several times when getting in. Where you circled in the original picture, you can clearly see the design of the dash and the door panel don't flow together at all. The dash looks higher than the door panel. Where the 2 colours meet at the door panel and dash, the upper colour on the dash isn't even with the door panel. It doesn't look all that good when you sit there and really look at it. I also think the steering wheels are too small in the 9th gens. It's a smaller diameter with a fatter rim and it feels like a go kart.

While Kia has been mentioned in this thread, I'll chime in with my 2 cents since I recently bought a 2011 Optima. I can say that fit and finish is excellent in the car. Everything looks great, fits together well and is finished in pretty decent materials. The only issue I have is that my centre armrest can be a little bit creaky when you lean on it. The rest of the interior is up to and above industry standards, IMO. While having a base model, I get the plain urethane steering wheel, it doesn't look as nice as a leather wrapped one. Though over time, the urethane wheel will hold up better showing less wear.

All the manufacturers today are cranking out cars with so much technology and bells and whistles that they need to save costs somewhere. Some choose to go with cheaper materials. Then some days Honda's designers don't show up to work on a deadline and something like the 2012 Civic happens.

[sonikaccord]

Technology is relatively cheap. They should have a fairly large profit margin off a "blind-spot monitor" or "rear-view camera."

It looks like they just mirrored the panels and threw them on. They forgot to modify for the driver's side.

I think Honda is having major quality issues. My 8th gen accord has a bad trans after 70k miles? WTF?! My CB has been abused for 250k+ and still kicking. The car is loud, everything feels plastic-y, its just not the same imo

[XCRN]

True that the technology is cheap individually, when mixed all together it can cost a lot. And they further complicate the system and make it unreliable.