Honda Malaysia: Odyssey sold in Malaysia not affected by VSA recall
On 16 March 2010, American Honda Motor Co. Inc. issued a press statement recalling 344,000 Honda Odyssey and 68,000 Honda Element vehicles over a possible defect on the Vehicle Stability Assist modulator. The recall affects vehicles of 2007 and 2008 manufacturing years.
According to the statement by Honda US, some units of the said VSA modulators might have air-tightness problems, allowing for minuscule air leakage into the module. The cumulative effect of this leakage happening over a period of months or years may lead to increased free play of the brake pedal, or worse still, increased braking distance.
Shortly after the recall from Honda US was announced, Honda Canada, followed up with a similar recall on the same day for the same models, affecting 24,680 Odyssey and 4,137 Element vehicles. This brings up the total number of vehicles affected by this recall to slightly over 440,000 units.
While the Element cross-over is not officially sold in our shores, the Odyssey is, and Honda Malaysia has quickly moved to issue a press statement dated 17 March 2010 assuring its customers that units in Malaysia are not affected by the above recall.
In its statement, the company also highlighted the fact that models affected by this recall were of US-manufacture. Odysseys sold in Malaysia are imported from Japan have different basic component architectures. This further suggests, though it’s pure speculation on our part, that grey-import Odyssey’s in our market are also highly unlikely to be affected by this recall either.
“Odysseys sold in Malaysia are originally manufactured in Japan, which have different structures as compared to those manufactured in the US. Therefore, the units sold in Malaysia are not affected. Our customers need not to worry,” assured Mr. Toru Takahashi, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer.
Honda Malaysia also added that as of now, there has been no reports of incidents caused by such a possible defect.
Pictures: Official Honda release.
