The reason you express for never buying a Honda again is the same as
mine for never buying another Ford product. Ford was in my family for
years and years. I grew up in Michigan (south of Detroit) and my family
was totally immersed in the auto industry. My father was a manager at
Ford for 36 years and we NEVER drove anything but Fords.

My wife however liked Toyota Camry's (much to my chagrin) and couldn't
be talked into buying an American car brand. That is until one day when
her Camry was starting to show some signs of wear at 175,000 miles and I
decided to purchase 2 brand new Ford vehicles. She went along with it
although skeptical. She ended up being right.... Her car (a Mercury
Mystique or Mistake as she called it) broke down several times. It was
in warrantee so Ford fixed it at no charge.

She got tired of dealing with the car so we put it up for sale and she
bought another used Camry. The Mystique's air-conditioning broke down
(just by sitting in our driveway) and the car was only a thousand or two
miles out of warrantee.

I went through the red tape and jumped through the hoops that Ford makes
you go though only to have them deny my claim and not do anything for
me. I paid for the repairs and wrote them a letter stating my
disappointment and how I would never buy one of their products again. Of
course I received no response.

I've since purchased a used Honda Accord and happily put over 120k on it
with nary an issue. When this on goes TU I'll buy another one.

So now my wife and I drive Japanese cars (but they are built here) and
are totally happy with them. The frosting on the cake for me was that I
see where Toyota just took over second place from Ford in US car sales.
What is Fords response? To hire some expensive PR firm to prop their
sagging image. They are clueless that in this day of $3.00 a gallon gas
they need to build a better car and getaway from the sugar-tit that is
the big SUV and pickup truck. Heck, I see that Honda is now making a
better full-size pickup truck than Ford's F-150. Ford though they would
never see the day when that happened.

Oh yea.... to keep this airplane related and avoid the dreaded OT in the
subject.... I drive old Japanese cars so I can own and fly my Mooney!! :-)

Jon Kraus
'79 Mooney 201
4443H @ UMP




Matt Whiting wrote:

Kyle Boatright wrote:

"Matt Whiting" wrote in message
...

john smith wrote:


With the news that Piper will produce the Hondajet, I am wondering
if Piper will be able to produce the finished product to meet
Honda's quality standards.
Piper has not built anything bigger than a Malibu for 20 years.
The Cheyenne IV/LS-400 was the biggest aircraft Piper has produced.


I don't see why not. Americans at the Honda plants in Ohio produce
cars and motorcycles to Honda quality standards. And, based on my
experience with an 84 Honda Accord, purchased new, those standards
aren't all that high. The engine failed at 80,000 miles. Haven't
owned a Honda product since.


Matt



That's a rare case. What was the failure? I know of plenty of people
who put many, many miles on 80's vintage Accords with excellent
reliability.


I agree. It problem was a random manufacturing defect. The reason I
won't own a Honda again isn't the failure, it is due to Honda's response
to the failure (see a post I just made). Accusing your customer of
neglect in response to an unreasonable failure of your product, is
simply stupid and I refuse to buy products from a stupid manufacturer.
There are just too many choices today to have to do that.

Matt