First Toyota... now Honda

Honda in crisis?

To say the past seven days has been a bad week for Japanese car-makers would be an understatement. Toyota's mass recall of their flagship eco-mobile, the Prius, has damaged the Toyota brand and now Honda are doing a similar recall over airbag inflation concerns.

With over 437,000 cars being recalled by Toyota, including 2010 standard Priuses, plug-in Priuses, Lexus HS250hs and Sai hybrids over faulty breaks, Toyota's eco poster-child's reputation has been hit hard, especially as it seems to be the coup de grace after initial floormat-accelerator issues. Honda are no doubt looking at Toyota's current crisis as they issue a recall for almost a million cars

The airbag problem was originally announced in late 2008 involving less than 4000 Accord and Civic sedans, then expanded in mid-2009 to cover another 510,000 vehicles. Honda have now added another 440,000 cars to this, saying the new recalls covers Japan, Mexico, Taiwan and Australia.

Honda's woes

Honda, Japan's second-biggest carmaker after Toyota, said the defective airbags are prone to over-inflating and bursting, "resulting in metal fragments passing through the airbag cushion material and possibly causing injury or fatality to vehicle occupants".

The fault has already been linked to 11 injuries and one fatality.

"We cannot be completely certain that the driver's airbag inflator in the vehicles being added to this recall at this time will perform as designed."

Unsurprisingly, like Toyota before it, Honda's shares have been hit hard.

With Toyota's string of problems, it is not surprising to learn that Honda has also been hit back a string of product defects.

Last month, Honda had to recall 650,000 Fit hatchbacks worldwide to fix a switch defect that could cause a fire. It said the fault could allow water to enter the power window mechanism, making components overheat.

However, no matter how great Honda's current woes are, they are nothing compared to Toyota's.  A US Congressional committee has cast doubts on the company's ability to fix accelerator problems, citing "substantial evidence" of redesigned floormats failing to stop the pedals sticking.

This week's recall of 436,000 hybrids is merely the latest incident, that has seen more than 8 million Toyotas recalled since last October for problems with slipping floormats and sticking accelerator pedals, linked to crashes that have killed at least 19 people.

Relevant articles:

Toyota's recall crisis | Toyota annouces a mass recall | Has the US hit a 'car saturation' point?

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