Sorry to add such a long post to a long thread.
I still hold the view that ALL car manufacturers have serious faults from time to time. Jumping ship to another brand may not make you immune from faults. Its how well they resolve the issue and treat the victims of their mistake - ie their customers, that makes the difference.
Although there are some encouraging signs that Honda are at last beginning to behave more honourably with regard to warranty repairs ,and who pays to correct Hondas mistake , it still seems its those victims who have learnt the facts and able to argue their case that succeed best. How many have grudgingly paid major repair costs but will get their revenge by never buying another Honda or recommending them to their friends and family? I did have a vague plan of passing my Jazz on to my daughter, but I certainly dont want to lumber her with a potential future major repair bill .So even if I buy another Honda myself they have lost a potential new buyer.
The argument has been made that a recall would result in a shortage of spare parts and workshop capacity.
This did happen with the Takata airbag recall a few years ago. Come on Honda, either only a few cars are affected and you can afford to fix them, or there are a lot of cars involved and you cant afford not to fix them. Especially if you hope to charge a premium price based on a reputation for reliability. Instead you chose to prioritise using new parts to produce more new cars rather than repairing the faulty ones that are ruining your reputation.
Not wishing to minimise the seriousness of those situations I can see parallels with the major scandals being revealed in the UK , contaminated blood, post office, etc etc where there is evidence Managers, professionals ,politicians etc followed a policies that protected their own reputation, jobs, financial profits etc.
Is situation worse in Rip off Britain? Main dealers typically have several Franchises. They love to sell to fleet buyers, sell financial packages, and charge premium prices for repairs. If an owner decides to quit Honda they will happily sell you a Kia or whatever from their other Franchise. If Honda withdraw from Europe there are plenty of other car makers from China etc looking to expand their dealership networks.
If you have a warranty problem there are several hurdles to negotiate. The dealership, happy to charge you if they can. Then the warranty is administered by "Honda administration" which in reality means "TWG Services Ltd" This is basically an independent warranty providing company who operate on an insurance underwriting basis. The service they provide is to Honda UK, Not Honda Customers . TWG provide Honda Uk with a call centre and staff to 'handle' claims. Staff experienced in looking for small print and reasons to reject claims. Put crudely the more claims TWG can reject the bigger their profits, and cost savings they can offer Honda UK. . But its not TWG's reputation at risk. Its Hondas. To be fair to TWG and Honda UK, several other Car manufacturers and organisations such as the RAC administer their warranties in this way. At least in the UK.
The next Hurdle, if your case even gets that far, is Honda UK. I am only speculating here but I imagine Honda UK are accountable to Honda Japan, and the more money they can save administering and paying out on warranties, the better their performance appears on a balance sheet to their bosses in Japan. And the real cost to Honda in lost reputation may never reach senior managment. Or they might decide the number of cars sold in Europe doesnt justify trying too hard and prefer to maximise profits as much as they can.
At present I love the Hybrid system, and the Jazz is an ideal size for me. But when i change I will look again at the alternatives. And if Honda overprice the Jazz there will be more alternatives in my price range.
