" Honda Motor is paying a heavy price for its hasty effort to catch up with rival Toyota Motor in the hybrid market.
Honda on Thursday announced it is recalling some 420,000 vehicles due to design problems with two key components. This is the fifth time the hybrid version of the company's redesigned Fit subcompact has been recalled in the last year. The string of problems prompted Honda management to impose unprecedented quality-related pay cuts on top executives, including President Takanobu Ito.
An official at Japan's transport ministry said it is extremely unusual for an automaker to recall the same new model so many times.
Besides the Fit, the latest return request also applies to some Vezel sport utility vehicles and N-WGN minicars.
..............................
Honda aims to sell over 1 million vehicles in Japan this fiscal year, through next March. It assumed that it would release several new models. But the recalls have forced the company to put new releases on hold, and its prospects for reaching the target look dim. In the April-September half, Honda sold fewer than 400,000 vehicles domestically.
Since spring, new releases have been suspended while Honda engineers focus on quality control for all vehicles, hybrids and gasoline-powered alike. They have been testing vehicles under all kinds of driving conditions."
http://tinyurl.com/klszqqf
