F&I Management & Training

Honda has indicated that it will cut trim and engine variants by a fifth across its model range, in an attempt to improve product quality. The company’s head of research and development, Yoshiharu Yamamoto, made the announcement on Saturday as the Honda emerges from a spell of product recalls and quality problems.

Mr Yamamoto said the work in developing model variants for all its markets and face-lifting them currently put a ‘big burden’ on its engineers. "In the end, with so many different specs you lose the essence of what a Honda car should be. It also puts a big burden on (engineers) and it's inefficient," he said.

Honda’s Jazz hybrid had to undergo five recalls within a year of launch. The company has also been badly affected by a recall (which also hit Toyota and other auto makers) to replace faulty airbags made by a third-party supplier, Takata Corp.

US authorities fined Honda a record $70m for withholding information about the scale and seriousness of the airbag faults.

Honda currently sells the Jazz, Civic and CR-V in the UK, having announced last month that it would discontinue the Accord saloon and estate because of poor sales of those cars across Europe. However, a new version of the HR-V is scheduled for the UK this year, along with an updated CR-V. There will also be a new Type-R Civic on sale from the summer.

Honda says the reduction is under way, although it wouldn’t give a deadline for completing the exercise.

Globally, Honda’s income has fallen even though sales for 2014 rose by just over 6%. Production at its UK factory at Swindon has been cut, although the company says it remains important as a producer of CR-Vs and Civics.

DATED: 16.02.15

FEED: ARN