Per Motor Authority
Honda may build Fit in U.S. to meet spiking demand - MotorAuthority - Car news, reviews, spy shots

Haven't seen this on the board, hope I didn't miss it.

Apparently, sales are still excellent - with a 19 day supply

 

I'd rather have the Japanese built Fit any day.

The problems plaguing the latest generation Civics are as much a function of assembly quality at Marysville, OH as they are a function of engineering flaws and component failures.

Even my Japanese Fit has some minor cosmetic flaws, but the overall build is still better than what's coming out of the states.

 

can honda really become US domestic? like in full??

 

Our car won't be "JDM" no more.

 

Buy your 09 Fits now .... before the QC goes to SH!T...

 

Agree!!!


I'd rather wait 4 months (as I am already) for it to ship from Japan.

 

Yes. On Temple of Vtec I insinuated that I believe quality will slip if built in the US, and bow did people retort with passion. I know many feel the same as I.

This is one of the reasons why I have a Fit now and chucked my 08 Accord.

 

Having seen the QC sheets for both Japanese and US Hondas they are the same quality.
However. hopefully we will get a more US friendly Fit with larger engine displacement with slightly revised gearing. higher numerical AT third gear, and CVT transmission. Not much is needed for the MT model.

 

I believe the quality goes down with US plants as seen by GM, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, etc...due more in part the the Labor Unions and their high demands more than anything. Look at what these unions are doing to the domestic car companies, especially GM. Then add in the sharty economy and we get what we have now.

As far as Honda moving assembly over here it is partially a good idea. They can get them built and delivered to customers who want to buy now now now and save on export/import costs. This may also drive the price down a tad bit as well which is even more of an incentive to Honda because it will become even more attractive to potential buyers. On the downside we may see a decrease in quality as seen in Civics and Accords but you never know. Honda is a smart company and they always play it safe, I don't think they would do this unless they thought it would bring them in some more $.

 

It would be cool if they put the K20 in them!

 

Just for everyone's reference, the Canadian and US Civic plants have scored above the Japanese plants in quality more times than not in recent history. There is nothing wrong with the product that comes out of these plants (in relation to their sister plants across the ocean) and it would most definitely be a good thing for Honda to bring the last couple of models still built overseas over.

 

Hmm, I had an 01 Accord, and that served me well for 5 years straight w/ only minor problems. Same with my Canadian-built 90 Civic. I doubt you'll see much, if any, falloff in quality if they build them here. Hell, I had more problems with my Japan-built 06 WRX and 00 Si than I did any of my US-built Hondas.

-Mike

 

I don't believe that unions exist in Honda plants...yet--thankfully. Keeping them out is probably a main objective of Honda's.

Nothing wrong with American labor. The plants in America are run very similar to the plants in Japan, not much room for error. I imagine they use total quality management just like the Japanese do in their factories.

Ridiculous. Why do you think this?

 

This is true, our plants are run much the same as the ones overseas, we have a pretty big Japanese influence (sometimes this is good, sometimes we don't enjoy it so much... LOL)

 

this is why I got my 08 on time....JDM 4 life baby

 

If the parts are quality parts, whether built here or there, they're still quality parts. If they're sh!tty parts, they're sh!tty parts.

All that needs to be done then, is to put them together, whether put together here or there, right??

I don't think it's the people putting the parts together that matters so much (but QC does), it's the company that is designing the parts that matters.

 

Civic Si Transmission...... look it up and you see that all of the transmissions that have been built over here for that car have had numerious problems...

Now thats not saying that Japan built Hondas will be problem free.... it's just I would trust the build quality a bit more on the Japanese built FIT's... .Just my 2 cents...

 

My sis had the City - basically a sedan version of the Fit - the CVT is absolute junk, had to be replaced, luckily it was still under warranty. CVTs are bad news - hate the rubberband effect. We're lucky we aren't stuck with a CVT which is what most of the rest of the world gets in the Jazz.

As for QC - you can see the attention to detail differences in some areas - paintwork in the interior door areas, etc.

 

Why are the US built Civic's having so many problems? Rear suspension comes to mind, along with A/C, etc. I read the boards for Civic and there seems to be lots of complaints. I haven't seen that with the Fit, altho I remember when the first Fits came out, that there was a problem with lousy paint, and some rear bumper issues. I haven't seen anything on the 09's yet. I do agree that the Fit seems to be a better built car, more so than the Civic. I really love Hondas, and I don't want Honda to get into the same mode as the Big 3. I have kinda seen that with Toyotas and Hondas built here. If Honda gets lax with QC, Hyundai is right behind them.

 

I love me my American cars always have always will. It's just frustrating that the quality is always a secondary issue and I know this is due to a few facts like labor unions running up the costs which in turn runs down the costs of quality parts used. Also there is a big difference in work ethic between Japanese culture and American culture. I've learned this through multiple courses in my collegiate career. The Japanese take a lot more pride in their work and on average work 80 hours a week across the board. Americans only want their 40 hour work week, clock in-clock out, I have a job so whatever. Back in the day it wasn't like this in the US but ya know shit changes, people get lazy/greedy and everyone has to do everything for them. I'm getting into a whole nother topic but this is mainly why you might see more problems.

Germans take pride in their work as well, very smart, etc. But why are they so unreliable?