NEW DELHI: Honda’s Indian subsidiary will recall over 50,000 of its City cars — a figure close to its domestic annual car sales — in one of the country’s biggest recalls and the second such move by the Japanese giant in just over a year.
The recalls are being made to replace a defective part that could stall engine restarts and will affect 57,853 units of its best-selling City model manufactured between November 2008 and December 2009. Honda has the capacity to produce about one lakh cars but sells about 55,000-60,000 cars in India every year. It has sold 51,045 units in the nine months ended January 2011.
This is the second recall by the Japanese major since last January when it recalled 8,532 City cars made in 2007 to replace defective power window switches that could cause fire. Honda has now recalled more than four million vehicles globally since February 2010, while Nissan has pulled back around 3.5 million in the same period.
Honda said the current recall doesn’t impact City sedans, which are being produced currently, as it has carried out the necessary modification in the production process from December 2010.
Analysts said such recalls are normal practice in the international auto industry. “It is always a preventive safety measure to recall cars by all global auto-makers. There are no statutory rules to mandate recalls in India, but a few companies have been consciously doing it to maintain their brand superiority and restore customer confidence,” said Abdul Majeed , partner auto practice, Pricewaterhouse, an international consultancy.
There are no provisions for a recall in India under the Motor Vehicles Act that covers automotive safety and regulations.
Honda now makes City, Jazz, Civic and Accord cars in India. It also imports and markets the CR-V sport utility vehicle.Sometimes, recalls can get nasty and messy.
Toyota recalled 9m vehicles
Toyota ran into problems after recalling close to nine million vehicles globally between late 2009 and February last year. A bulk of those recalls were in the USA. The move dented Toyota’s image and the firm announced that it could face losses of $2 billion due to output and sales slump globally.
On Thursday, some City sedan customers were not aware of it when ET caught up with them.
“I have no idea...even during the normal service of my car last week, I was not informed of any engineering problem,” said Saurav Chawal, owner of a fashion boutique in North Delhi.
This recall is also part of Honda’s global effort to replace faulty parts in more than 6,00,000 vehicles. On Thursday, Honda spokesperson Tomohiro Okada said in a statement that the firm was recalling 6,93,497 vehicles globally, including 1,67,000 of the Freed and Fit models in Japan. The current move will impact over 220,000 units in Asia and about 1,56,000 in China, he said.
India has been witnessing a spurt in recall as the domestic automobile industry has been growing at 30%. Maruti Suzuki recalled 40,000 A-Star cars last year due to leakages from the fuel tank. Other companies such as Tata Motors faced recurring problems of fire in the Nano and has asked the owneers to re-check their cars but stopped short of calling it a recall. The first ever recall of sorts was that by Maruti Suzuki (then Maruti Udyog) which recalled its popular hatchback Zen in the year 2000 due to a faulty steering system.
ET
The recalls are being made to replace a defective part that could stall engine restarts and will affect 57,853 units of its best-selling City model manufactured between November 2008 and December 2009. Honda has the capacity to produce about one lakh cars but sells about 55,000-60,000 cars in India every year. It has sold 51,045 units in the nine months ended January 2011.
This is the second recall by the Japanese major since last January when it recalled 8,532 City cars made in 2007 to replace defective power window switches that could cause fire. Honda has now recalled more than four million vehicles globally since February 2010, while Nissan has pulled back around 3.5 million in the same period.
Honda said the current recall doesn’t impact City sedans, which are being produced currently, as it has carried out the necessary modification in the production process from December 2010.
Analysts said such recalls are normal practice in the international auto industry. “It is always a preventive safety measure to recall cars by all global auto-makers. There are no statutory rules to mandate recalls in India, but a few companies have been consciously doing it to maintain their brand superiority and restore customer confidence,” said Abdul Majeed , partner auto practice, Pricewaterhouse, an international consultancy.
There are no provisions for a recall in India under the Motor Vehicles Act that covers automotive safety and regulations.
Honda now makes City, Jazz, Civic and Accord cars in India. It also imports and markets the CR-V sport utility vehicle.Sometimes, recalls can get nasty and messy.
Toyota recalled 9m vehicles
Toyota ran into problems after recalling close to nine million vehicles globally between late 2009 and February last year. A bulk of those recalls were in the USA. The move dented Toyota’s image and the firm announced that it could face losses of $2 billion due to output and sales slump globally.
On Thursday, some City sedan customers were not aware of it when ET caught up with them.
“I have no idea...even during the normal service of my car last week, I was not informed of any engineering problem,” said Saurav Chawal, owner of a fashion boutique in North Delhi.
This recall is also part of Honda’s global effort to replace faulty parts in more than 6,00,000 vehicles. On Thursday, Honda spokesperson Tomohiro Okada said in a statement that the firm was recalling 6,93,497 vehicles globally, including 1,67,000 of the Freed and Fit models in Japan. The current move will impact over 220,000 units in Asia and about 1,56,000 in China, he said.
India has been witnessing a spurt in recall as the domestic automobile industry has been growing at 30%. Maruti Suzuki recalled 40,000 A-Star cars last year due to leakages from the fuel tank. Other companies such as Tata Motors faced recurring problems of fire in the Nano and has asked the owneers to re-check their cars but stopped short of calling it a recall. The first ever recall of sorts was that by Maruti Suzuki (then Maruti Udyog) which recalled its popular hatchback Zen in the year 2000 due to a faulty steering system.
ET
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