"I couldn't possibly fail to disagree with you less."
20 February 2007Your mileage may varyAlthough this is probably not what you had in mind:
Honda is notifying 6 million owners of Hondas and Acuras that they are entitled to warranty extensions and, in some cases, payments because odometers in their vehicles rolled up miles too fast. That made warranties expire too soon and hit some lease customers with excess-mileage penalties.
Honda says that their spec for odometers — plus 3.75, minus 1 percent — is within nonbinding industry standards: the Society of Automotive Engineers calls for 4 percent either way. For 2007, Honda is tightening their in-house standard. And there's this:
A lawyer in the lawsuit that resulted in Honda's moves now is aiming at Nissan, alleging that its Altima sedans back to 2002 roll up miles 2.5% to 3% too fast. Nissan has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit but wouldn't say more because it doesn't comment on pending litigation.
The lawyer, James Holmes of Henderson, Texas, says he's tested Toyotas and, oddly, found them to routinely register slightly fewer miles than actually driven. Detroit brands, he says, "by and large are perfect." If I remember correctly, Car and Driver ran some tests on this some years back, and then, too, domestics turned in the best showing. The only really good way for us civilians to check this out for ourselves is to compare to measured miles between actual mileposts and then do the math. My last three cars have been pretty accurate, which is to say within about 1 percent or so on spot-checks in the 50-to-100-mile range. (Via Autoblog.) That's exactly right. And then of course one can correct it by getting a different tire size, if one is so inclined. Posted by: Jeff Brokaw at 7:18 AM on 22 February 2007Provided, of course, that tire size doesn't cause problems of its own. (Today I saw a picture of a pimped-out Navigator with 27-inch wheels, which means that either the sidewalls are about as high as a gnat's eye or the first 60-degree turn is going to scrape the fender well. Either way, we can safely assume that the buyer of this atrocity — and someone will buy it, you may be sure — is both wealthy and stupid.) Posted by: CGHill at 7:55 PM on 22 February 2007 |