Radio says Honda settled, but I didnt see the exact terms. I received a letter in Dec saying that I was a member of this suit. The proposed settlement was that Honda would pay for repairs inccurred up to 38K miles instead of 36K due to inaccuracies in odometers. Plus leasees would have 2K mileage overchanges refunded.
I do not know if 5% odometer inaccuracies are consider engineering norm or rather sloppy by current standards.
domestics only have to be 90% accurate. that's /twice/ as sloppy as you're alleging there's a problem with. a lawsuit for 5% between miles
36k & 38k??? that's utter bull.
They are the norm, really, since Speedometers are rarely accurate, and most Odometers are run by the speedo.
Some of us get great benefit from this suit. My Speedo and Odo are pretty spot-on, so I get a couple thousand miles of free warranty... ;-)
Give me a break. If the inaccuracies were random, some would be high and some would read low. Amazingly, all read high.... thus the lawsuit.
what's "random" got to do with it? the point is that it's less than other vehicles, [or to put it another way, twice as good as some] so why the lawsuit for honda but no one else? /that/ is the bull.
contrast that with something that's a safety issue such as red rear turn signals, but that's /not/ a lawsuit? this is domestics vs. imports b.s. pure and simple. detroit can't build a better car? start a lawsuit!
Of course, if nothing breaks during those 2K, you didn't really get anything.
I don't know - not all together bad. There has long been a practice to target the odo to be 5% on the high side. Manufacturers are now put on notice that they will be accountable for the full mileage as promised.
Sorry it had to happen to my favorite car company, but I don't think it is going to cost them too much. And I bet every speedometer coming off every assembly line just got more accurate and every existing warranty/lease just got 5% longer.
Yeah, speedometers (and therefore odometers) have always been optimistic. I don't know if it's to give the owners more self-esteem, or help them avoid tickets.
Some other advantages for the manufacturer:
Warranty expires earlier Scheduled maintenance comes up more frequently Gas mileage appears better Car seems to last longer Car gets replaced sooner
While we all get an extra 5% (that's1800 miles on a 36K warranty), the law firm that took on this class action got about (from what I read) 9 million bucks. Who's best interests were served?
On 3/3/2007 7:09 AM L Alpert spake these words of knowledge:
Is this a trick question? Given your numbers the easy answer is Honda owners with less than 37800 miles on the clock, and the law firm. Were you thinking this was some sort of either/or proposition?
RFT!!! Dave Kelsen
I'd bet that the lawyers will take in more than Honda will render in added warranty service. Now, if they extended the 36 months time frame by 1.8 months, I'm sure that would have helped much more .
as far as this newsgroup is concerned, i don't care about the lawyers - what blows my mind is that the troll that started this thread got so many people's panties in a bunch over something that is:
a. trivial, and b. irrelevant to them!
Other winners: Lease holders who had to pay for excess mileage when they turned in their cars. Also everyone who buys a new Honda (or other brand as they are all taking note) who will get a car with an accurate odometer and won't have to sue to get the full warranty/lease term for which they paid. Is that worth maybe $10 per car on the average? That would be about $1.6 Billion for consumers over the next ten years. The lawyer's share comes to 0.6%, paid for by Honda. You're welcome.
I'd be willing to bet that 9MM in revenue for the law firm will be much higher to the corporate percentage than the $10 is to any one consumer.
And that would be relevant... how?
This is the point of class action lawsuits. A company can make significant money ripping off thousands or millions of consumers for a few bucks each. No one instance of rip-off would justify legal action (try to find a lawyer who will sue for $1000 and charge less than $1000 for his work.) But collectively, the consumers can sue and the total damages make it worthwhile for a law firm to take the case.
This is a great example of the free market at work. A law firm sees a profit opportunity in helping organize consumers into a body, a corporation if you will, to recover money which is rightfully owed to them. If he is correct in his judgment that the case can be won and he conducts it well enough to win it (or to get the corporation to settle) he will make a profit. If he miss-judges the merit of the suit, or he bungles the execution, he may lose his substantial investment.
Businesses do not avoid cheating people out of the goodness of their corporate hearts. They avoid it when they perceive that it is in their financial best interest not to cheat the consumer. Class action law suits are one thing that keeps them honest. Small claims court is another. Businesses would like to eliminate both and run their subtle PR campaigns to disparage lawyers who do class action suits. Don't be duped.
"rip off"??? dude, are you out of your freakin' mind? you're talking about the difference between a 5% and 10% inaccuracy, which is within the limits of those requited by the d.o.t. and certainly less than that of other manufacturers. tire pressure alone can account for more of a problem. and the economic impact is what exactly? and since there's no technical grounds for your position, do you instead have evidence of fraud instead? were honda subpoenaed for corporate memos directing their engineers to deliberately fudge instrumentation? no?
if you want to shill for domestic manufacturers, declare that. don't pose as "an outraged member of the public".
All he did was post the rationale behind class-action lawsuits, and the justification for the law firms making money off of them.
He did not say that Honda ripped anyone off, nor was Honda found guilty of such.
In lawsuits, perception is reality. This was a cheap price to pay, for Honda, from a PR point of view.
Don't want to shill for anybody, just want an accurate odometer. Yes, there are external factors, like tires, that can affect accuracy but that is separate from the fact that odometers almost universally overstate mileage. I assume that is the case here or there wouldn't be a case.
I have no ideas which manufacturers might be better or worse in this regard.
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