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Honda Odometers Inaccurate

By Alborz Fallah |

Honda in America is notifying a good 6 million owners of Hondas and Acuras (Honda’s Luxury arm – doesn’t exist in Australia) that their cars Odometers are inaccurate and as a result are entitled to warranty extensions and, for those leasing Honda’s, payments maybe reissued because odometers in their vehicles rolled up miles too fast.

A lawyer determined to find out why his trip had gotten longer ever since he switched to a Honda brought about the case and made Honda admit fault. He is now aiming at Nissan, alleging that its Altima sedans back to 2002 roll up miles 2.5% to 3% too fast.

Toyotas were found to routinely register slightly fewer miles as oppose to the other way around! The Lawyer suspects odometers are deliberately set fast to help automakers trim warranty costs. But the car companies say they’re just following an industrywide standard that allows a few percent variation in odometer accuracy.

The Society of Automotive Engineers in America has a voluntary standard of plus or minus 4%, or no more than 4 miles high or low in every 100 miles (this equates to an inaccuracy of about 6.5 kms in ever 161 kms or 4km/100km).

Honda America says its odometers were accurate to within 3.75% on the high side and 1% on the low side. However, given the negative publicity, Honda will extend the warranty mileage 5% and will pay lease-mileage penalties due to fast odometers. Current estimates suggest that Honda will be paying back at least $6 million just for overcharges on vehicles leased directly from the manufacturer.

“No odometer is going to be perfect,” says Honda spokesman Chris Martin. But prompted by the class-action lawsuit, Honda realized, “The customer expectation is that it would be based on zero. We weren’t. So we decided to settle the suit.”

Honda says that from 2007 its odometer will be near perfect.

Does this affect Honda vehicles delivered in Australia? Australian Design Rules have a leeway of 4% so Honda is well within its legal right to have this inaccuracy. Honda Australia has been contacted for comment.


 
  • Foggy

    It would be interesting to see if they also offer compensation for a lower re-sale value, and more frequent service intervals too.

  • http://www.alborzfallah.com alborz

    I really doubt it,

    its actually rather interesting that they have a 4% margin for error,

    when you think about it thats 4,000km for ever 100,000ks! so your car loses resale value a good few months quicker than it really should!

  • Igor

    one other thing is that most cars show that you travel at 100km/h where in reality your only travelling anywhere between 92-98km/h which is another reason why the milage creeps up quickly. My wife’s TJ Magna is natorious when it comes to speed accuracy at 100km/h.

  • Botlier

    My new 2008 Outback speedo and odometer both read 9% too high. My old 1998 Holden reads only 1% high! Compared with GPS and roadside km posts and other cars. When I asked Subaru Service Dept to fix it during a service, they said 10% high was their standard because it was an Austalian standard. Even the Austalian head of Subaru customer service would not take interest in the matter.