Honda; "Toyota is the front-runner representing Japanese cars"
 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Honda-....html?x=0&.v=1

Blessing or a curse?

Honda may also benefit from the global recall of millions of vehicles by larger rival Toyota Motor Corp., particularly in the key U.S. market, although Kondo -- and analysts -- said the opposite could also happen.

"There's a chance that the image of all Japanese cars will worsen in North America and elsewhere," said Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at Akiyoshi Investment Management. "We just don't know. There are things we still can't predict."

Honda had to initiate a recall of its own last week, saying it would recall some 646,000 of its Fit/Jazz and City models globally due to a faulty window switch after a child died when fire broke out in a car last year.

"Toyota is the front-runner representing Japanese cars," Honda's Kondo said. "In that sense, we're somewhat worried that there may be a knock-on effect on other Japanese brands, but we'll need a little more time to gauge any impact."

Very interesting point but I dont think it will be a blanket kind of thing. I think Toyota will end up taking the hit on this one.

I agreed with the statement. Toyota is the biggest in Japan so when these trouble hit, I believe people will look at Honda with a little more caution as well.

Toyota will take a bit hit but I believe the other japanese brand will also take a hit as well maybe a small one but a hit nevertheless.

Nice to see Honda showing some respect, but Honda has other important things they should worry about rather than potential fallout from this Toyota situation.

Subaru will prevail!

I still feel Honda sales will go up because of the Toyota recalls.

It is a legitimate point and concern. After all, many people continue to make the blanket decision to not buy any "American" car regardless of how good they become. But of course that's been long ingrained. Japanese cars have a long enough history of having the best quality though that I think the damage will be minimal.

On a side note, this my 5,000th post! :)

Make it so! :thumbup:

I tend to agree that the American consumer is not so forgiving when a problem arises (we don't forget that easily), the only chance of them being more forgiving is if there is no where else to go. This still maybe the case at this time, since the GM and Ford alternatives are not very attractive or desireable.

Honda is in a lucky position now to have the Toyota recalls overshadow their own smaller recalls (most recently for the Honda Fit), but I am sure at this time Honda is scrambling in the background to triple check everything from their parts suppliers & production lines to quality controls just to make sure that this Toyota issue does not happen to them.