Honda recalls 761,000 vehicles, including the Accord for a faulty fuel pump.

The Honda Motor Co. recently announced that it would be recalling around 761,000 vehicles globally to replace fuel pumps. Honda has stated that the fuel pump could fail and result in problems with the engine. About 628,000 US vehicles will be recalled that includes cars sold from 2018 to 2020 model years. The recall covers some of Honda’s best-selling models like the Accord and the CR-V and also a few models. The Japanese auto giant will be sending out emails to owners by the end of May 2021 and dealers will replace the fuel pump, free of charge.

Honda has always been one of the most reliable and dependable car brands in the country and these huge recalls just tell that. Honda’s Cars like the Accord have always had very high-reliability ratings from agencies like J.D.Power and it is this core value of dependability that has helped Accord sell in huge numbers. The Honda Accord is one of the most successful nameplates in the whole of the auto industry and that’s because it has always struck a good balance between performance, practicality, and reliability.

Consumer analytics companies like J.D.Power, that study product quality, customer satisfaction, and buyer behavior for the auto industry, rate Honda cars very well for their reliability. The Honda Accord gets a score of 82/100 and is ranked 3rd in its list of the top consumer-rated sedans which is pretty impressive. J.D.Power rates cars in the US market across 4 different areas like quality and reliability, driving performance, and resale that help buyers decide if the car is reliable enough. J.D.Power collects inputs about the above said parameters from real verified owners and hence is a trusted, unbiased and genuine source for understanding the reliability quotient of a car.

The quality and reliability section of the J.D.Power measures the level of malfunctions and defects experienced by owners and rates the car based on comments received from users. The 2020 Accord gets a score of 82/100 and a ‘great’ rating in this area. The driving experience section of the J.D.Power report evaluates the vehicle’s design, performance, comfort, and technology. The Accord gets a score of 83/100 and a ‘great’ rating for its driving experience. The dealership experience of the Accord gets an ‘average’ rating and a score of 78/100. The dealership experience part of the report gauges the owners’ experience with the brand’s dealerships during the entire purchase and service process and perhaps Honda needs to work a bit more in this area. J.D.Power also forecasts the depreciation of the vehicle in the next three years and cars with low depreciation get a higher rating. The Accord gets a score of 84/100 and a ‘great’ rating for its resale value. All these ratings for the Accord are really very impressive and clearly say that it indeed is a pretty reliable vehicle. All other Honda cars have similar reliability ratings and in fact, some Honda cars like the CR-V are rated even better than the Accord. All this is enough to prove that the Accord and Honda cars on the whole are pretty reliable.

The first recall that the current generation Accord has had was back in December 2020. The recall was done to fix certain system malfunctions like inoperative windshield wipers, defroster, rearview camera, and exterior lighting. Honda had received lots of complaints about this and had identified an issue with body control module (BCM) software. Honda recalled all such Accord and other models with faulty BCM and updated the software, free of charge.

The Accord also has about 56 complaints registered against it on the NHTSA. Owners of the Accord have complained about almost every subsystem of the car but the good news is that none of the complaints registered report of an injury or a death. Now, 56 complaints might seem a large number compared to the number of recalls but compared to the number of Accord units sold so far, 56 is a pretty tiny number.

The current recall is being done to fix an issue with the rotating part of the fuel pump. Honda says that the fuel pump could have a defective impeller that could damage the entire pump which further could inflict damage on the engine. To protect the engine from any bigger harm, Honda is calling back the Accord models and all the cars that have been identified to be fitted with the faulty fuel pump. The number of cars being called back is simply massive and it just simply highlights Honda’s commitment towards serving its consumers.

Apart from the Accord, the other cars being recalled include the 2018 and 2019 CR-V, 2019 Civic coupe, sedan and hatchback, the 2019 Fit, 2019 HR-V, and the 2019 Odyssey, Passport, and the Ridgeline. The 2020 Acura TLX, MDX, and RDX too are being called back along with the 2019 ILX.

Honda will be notifying owners via emails whether their car is included in the recalled or not. Otherwise, you can simply log in to recalls.honda.com or recalls.acura.com, enter the VIN number to find out if your Honda or Acura car has been identified with a malfunctioning fuel pump and if it is going to be recalled in the coming months.