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What is with the scratchy hard plastics Honda?

6K views 21 replies 11 participants last post by  Nickolodeon 
#1 ·
While my 2 year old civic was at the dealer having photos taken of the alloy wheels which are sadly all deteriorating fast (black and silver 'diamond cut' alloys) as evidence in a bid to get them replaced by HUK, I had a look at all the brand new offerings, HRV, CRV, new Jazz, Civic in the showroom, and couldn't believe Honda is still fitting that hard, scratchy brittle plastic not just on the door cards, B pillar bits etc but all over the TOP of the dash on HRV, new Jazz, even CRV. The civic was the only one with the soft feel dashboard, and the plastics elsewhere on these are decidedly scratchy and cheap. These cars ain't cheap brand new. Sure the Honda purists will say the engineering makes up for it, but really, in this day and age shouldn't we expect a decent interior as well? I don't look at new cars very often but is this still the standard?
 
#2 ·
Cars are slowly changing from simple A to B modes of transport to being things to show off. They are getting bigger, fancier and more expensive as a result. I think it is a shame that many manufacturers favour look and feel over engineering and reliability. You can't have it all unless you want to pay through the nose for it. Personally I think the 8G Civic was perhaps a bit too basic with its trim but I think the 9G is a good.
 
#6 ·
Honda isn't a premium brand.
 
#7 ·
I think the problem with cars is they are getting more and more expensive. Buying a brand new car is an impossible dream for most people. The more manufacturers add to the cars, the more expensive they will be and the more people that will find the cost is out of their reach. Like was said, Honda is not a premium brand. I think they should stick with what they are good at by making cars that are rock solid reliable and well engineered. The finish inside needs to be somewhere between budget and premium. Honda cars are often quoted in the press for being more expensive than rivals. They can't afford to make them more expensive.
 
#8 · (Edited)
HRV dash doesn't look hard in the most of the pictures as it's usually shown to the press with full leather. However, I have turned this pic up which appears to confirm what you say and show what looks like hard looking plastics with cloth:



However, that being the case, I think Honda will pay the price for it, at least in the crossover section of the market. The HRV starts at £18.5K. and goes up to £26K without options. That's firmly in Quashquai territory which also starts at £18.5K and goes up to £26K for the 2wd models.

The trouble for Honda is the Quashquai as the UK's best selling crossover commands a premium and has a very very high quality interior - I sat in one only last week and the dash was lovely and soft touch. This was the best cloth interior pic I could find of the Quashqui:



Pictures bely the quality. Equally, even the cheap little Nissan Juke, has a real quality dashboard - soft plastics and even a leather instrument dial shield to keep the sun off the dials. Interiors of both were top notch (Jukes a little bit down to personal taste with the painted panels, not my thing but otherwise very nice) and walking away I even felt the Jukes dash was better than the Quashquai's for quality.

Where this leaves Honda as I see it is with a car they're trying to sell against a top quality market leader at the same premium as the market leader. A tough call in any event. However, if the HRV has hard scratchy plastics, personally I can't see it taking Quashquai sales. Nor can I see the Jazz taking Juke sales for the same reason, as again the material used are very high quality.

 
#13 ·
Whilst I agree that for most people, the look of a car is important, I don't personally feel it is THE most important factor. It is one of many factors that influences a buying decision.

To be honest I have no idea on the difference of cost for the cheap scratchy plastics compared to the soft touch plastics. The cost difference is presumably very little if you produce as many cars as VW and Toyota do. Honda, and other smaller manufacturers may struggle to compete due to economies of scale. Honda sell half as many cars as VW, but unlike BMW (who sell less than Honda) Honda are not a premium band so will have less profit on each sale.

Honda are on par with Fiat for market share:

Automobile market share worldwide: key manufacturers 2014 | Statistic
 
#17 ·
I agree with what you're saying here. The tech spec of the Qashqai particularly the low powered and fairly antiquated Renault engine certainly doesn't appeal. In fact it put me off so much I didn't choose one as a company car and chose the Civic instead. All those colleagues who have the 1.5 Dci complain about just how slow these things are. I am going to be a passenger in a 65 plate 1.5 DCI 110 Qashqai ( 5 up) on a road trip up to Leeds next week and I'm not expecting the thing to remove the skin off a rice pudding in terms of performance, I will however have plenty of time to admire the superb high quality dense interior plastic!
 
#21 ·
I think in the sector the Civic is in then, yes, possibly it is the standard. I looked at the Mazda 3, Seat Leon FR, Giulietta and all had plenty of scratchy plastic. Of course the A3, Golf and A Class are a little better in terms of materials but this comes at a price. The lower trim in my F-RV was equally cheap looking as that on my Civic but lasted very well over eight years of hard use and cleaned up pretty well when I traded it in.

For the 10G if Honda were to use more soft touch materials, more soundproofing and a proper carpet and this put £500 onto the price I think it would be worth doing.
 
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