My driver side airbag suddenly deployed while driving - Honda refuses to acknowledge this as a safety issue and will not cover the $1,500 repair expense. Their customer service has been curt to the point of rudeness, stating that this is not a Honda problem. I’ve asked to meet with the local Honda rep and been told he would call - that was 3 months ago. I’ve never encountered such bad customer service - as a result I’ve gone from a Honda-only customer to a never-Honda customer. Any ideas on what I should do about this other than contact NHTSA which I did?
Try another dealership.
I thought they had a recall on their airbags, but that was for some 2012 models. Call your insurance company, a call from them might get some attention. As mentioned try another dealership.
If the OP is trying to work with the dealership on this issue, that is the wrong approach.
Instead, he/she should be dealing directly with Honda of America,
Contact information can be found in the Owner’s Manual.
I did write directly to Honda customer support first - their only response was that this was not their problem - contact my insurance company. However, I wasn’t in an accident so the insurance company won’t touch it either. This seems to be a common problem with over 100 incidents of unintentional airbag deployment and no recourse.
Model year and mileage??
Honda Element 2005, at the time of the incident the mileage was approximaely 90K
Sorry, but vehicle warranties do not last forever. Yours is long over. As far as Honda (and everyone else) is concerned, the airbag is just a failed part that is the owners responsibility to replace or not replace…
I would think that an airbag suddenly deploying while one is driving is a safety issue. One person had the front airbag deploy in his Honda.
When the DOT mandated air-bags, they accepted the entire package, including the inevitable random, unexplained deployments and failure to deploy in crashes when they should have. The failure rate is probably .5% but that still results in thousands of 'bag malfunctions a year…Nothing is perfect, especially mass produced, disposable consumer products like cars…
I thought airbags have an 8 yr warranty.
It might be helpful to file a report at https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq/.
It won’t impact your individual case, but if enough of Element owners have a similar problem, it would show up on the NHSTA’s radar screen.