Understatement of the Year: Car Edition

[asterroc]

I just received a nice Safety Recall from my friendly Honda HQ regarding my 2006-7 Honda Civic. Quoting the relevant part, emphasis mine:

Honda Motor Co., Ltd., has decided that a defect related to motor vehicle safety exists in certain 2006-07 model year Civic vehicles equipped with anti-lock brake systems (ABS). The ABS module uses wheel speed sensors located on each wheel hub assembly. Some wheel sensors may have been improperly installed and do not seal the hub assembly. Water may enter the hub assembly and damage the wheel bearing. In areas where road salt is used, the wheel bearings may corrode even more quickly, which may cause the wheel to separate and fall off, increasing the risk of a crash.

I should think having a wheel fall off while driving would "increase the risk of a crash."

Ironic that I choose the Civic partially for safety features like anti-lock brakes. (I think I'm using the word "ironic" correctly there.)

Irritating that this happened right before a long road trip - but good that I found out before.

Comments

[rubicat.livejournal.com]

getting a new car, then?

*yikes*

So... how DO they resolve this, anyway?

[marquiswildbill.livejournal.com]

Now knowng the full story I would say that this is honda being super careful (rather than ford being like oh shit, our cars blow up when people start them every 7th time, time for your 70th recal mr ford owner, one of the reasons I bagged my focus). Honda probably had 2 problems out of the million plus civics from that time period and decided to recall because even one lawsuit for that could cost mroe than a recall (deciding this is Jack's job in Fight Club). And Honda is so well known for build quality and reliability that I see them taking this very seriously. A safety problem associated with the civic would probably sink them. It would hurt them very badly at best. And if you ever need to, steer into the skid to regain grip then out of it to straighten out a car. This is another reason why we should have the german style of driving test. You go to driving school to learn how to handle emergency road situations and are then tested on them, unlike America where you have to drive around the block and parallel park at worst, or drive around a closed course at 15mph like I did (I took it at 25 but the guy said I could go as slow as I felt comfortable). I also think all road tests should be with a manual trans. You should need to know how to drive to get a liscence dammit.