Unsatisfactory of my new Honda Civic

Recently I have purchase a new Honda Civic 1.8S. My previous car was Honda City I-Dsi. It was a simple upgrade from my perspective. But today is coming to my first month of receiving the car, unfortunately I have sent my car into the Honda Service Center for 4 times already. The quality that Honda is giving is getting worst by the days. Is it because of the volume or number of cars they have to produce to meet the demand? Which has resulted in lacking of Quality Assuarance for the consumers?

Even though the demand is more that supply, Honda should constantly maintain the quality of the cars that they produce everyday.



I cannot advise further on how or what are the priorities that Honda should or should not pay attention, but I can share with the readers of my blog are my pains ever since buying this Honda Civic.

1) A couple of days after I have received the car, I notice there is a sound that is coming from the rear end side of the driver's seat. I can hear a noise which it sounds like solid metal knocking on each other. I have report the problem three times already and everytime they say they thighten some screws and Mr. Customer please try again. They even gotten the foreman to drive my car, and he did hear the problem, but unfortunately after the repair, my car is still having the sound.

2) Plastic panels. A week into driving the car, interior plastic covers keeps popping out. I reported twice, and everytime they do, I think they just press it back to place and not trying to figure out why it popped out in the first place. Is this because of the cost savings Honda is trying to do, which is to get lower grade of products. The places where the plastic is popping out are shown in the pictures.






3) Front left suspension noise. I can hear "tak-tak" noises coming out from it whenever I come off the humps. According to the foreman, they will required to replace the damper for me. Fortunately it took on two days for it to arrive. I will monitor further because my new damper was just installed on the 12/09/08.

4) The engine noise, which has a rattling sound whether the car engine is cold or hot. In the morning the sound is much more visible, but the afternoon was noticeable too. It is a nuisance until I feel like I am driving a 10 years old car!! I asked the foreman's opinion and he too agree that the sound should not be like this. Btw, the engine compartment is really noise and Civic should come with better insulations. Even my last Honda City has a much quieter engine if being compared.

5) The air-conditioning system. This too have a rattling sound whenever it is turned on above 3-4 bars. I did compare my car with other Honda Civics, but theirs do not have such loud noise!! and their car is more than 2 years, as oppose to mine, 30 days!!

It is really an unsatisfactory purchase of my Honda Civic. Frankly, I do feel my Honda City have a much better quality of products installed in it, if compared with Honda Civic. Sadly this expereince really teaches me to think twice when the demand of it has increased, there are bound to be some negligence in other areas. I have written a letter to the Managing Director, but I guess it will never reach his desk. If it does, I hope he can re-attention his priorities to producing quality cars for the consumers and not paying attention only on SALES figures.