[DKMahant]

This is the post for people who are either current or potential victims of Honda Digipad / AVN unit.

1. I purchased a Honda City, V-MT on May 29, 2017. The car came with a fixed warranty for a period of three year. The dealership was quite insistent on issuing the extended warranty but I chose not to avail this. The dealership tried to assure that the extended warranty shall further give a confidence in terms of electronic equipments for a period of 5 years.

2. In terms of service requirement, I sent my car after routine interval. In all services, I routinely informed the Service Manager to make sure that the car is fully looked after and to inform me of any problem whatsoever and any assistance required from my side.

3. The instant post is to bring to your attention of the actions and omissions on the part Honda India in rendering thousands of vehicles nationwide including my vehicle, in precarious condition due to non-functioning of the Digipad / Audio Video Navigation (AVN) system.

4. At the outset, never once did Honda did a complete check on my vehicle else it would have pointed out the disfigured alloy wheels among other things.



5. Biggest problem is in the form of non-functioning Digipad / AVN system about which I informed Honda in September 2019. At that time, the dealership tried to wash away the issue as “Blutetooth lag”. Even during the feedback call I told the person the same thing. A month later, I sent the car again to Honda for a repair job on the trunk. At that time, guy who undertook the work also informed me that Digipad shall be attended to and the navigation chip will be updated after some time.

6. The lock down which begin in March this year and continued for months was the period where my warranty of the car expired, May 28, 2020. Interestingly, even Honda was shut during this entire time. The moment I had to use my cars for traveling to the Supreme Court and Delhi High Court for my work, I noticed that the Digipad had died totally. I contacted Honda and booked a service for the vehicle.

7. Even during this service, there was no mention of the disfigured alloy. Naturally because there is no checks and balances at Honda. The damage post service are alignment of the car is not proper, the horn has stopped working regularly, car was not even washed properly, among other things. Nobody even tried contacting post service for the feedback.

8. The Hon’ble Supreme Court, knowing fully well the hardships faced by the citizens during the pandemic, relaxed the time limits for every litigant in the country and extended time for approaching Court even in those cases where time is not extendible per statute. However, in a totally perverse and frivolous manner, Honda has been denying benefits to so many customers who faced warranty expiring during the lockdown. Interestingly, even outlets of Honda were closed in the intervening period but the honest practices of the Company demanded that citizens must line up outside the closed showrooms and put themselves in life threatening danger and breaking the law.

9. Coming to the faulty AVN, Honda conveyed that the replacement of the device shall be to the tune of Rs 50,000 approximately. After I repeatedly informed of the warranty, it was ignored illegally. I tried to do some online research and found that there are hundreds of car owners, using Honda Jazz, City, and others who are facing such problems.

10. Honda has designed, manufactured, tested, warranted, advertised, distributed, sold, vehicles, which contain a defective integrated in-vehicle communication, navigation, and entertainment system – commonly referred to as “AVN” – that causes many of the Vehicles’ features (e.g., navigation system, rear-entertainment system, audio system, backup camera, cabin watch system to malfunction.

11. As a result of the defect, the Vehicles’ infotainment systems frequently freeze or crash (in which case no features connected to system are operational, including the navigation technology, the radio, and the rear-view camera). These malfunctions pose a safety risk because when the system malfunctions, unexpected audio or video – or a blank or blue infotainment screen – can cause the driver to become distracted. The defect can also render safety-related systems (including backup camera functions) to fail.

12. While some are being denied assistance taking alleged lapses of warranty, some are being denied replacement of AVN who even had availed extended warranty. Now the company is telling them that AVN was never part of the extended warranty!

13. Most pertinently, Honda needs to answer to Government of India and Government of Delhi Transport Ministries about the practice the Company follows for the cars sold in USA, for instance facing such problems.

14. For US customers, Honda has a dedicated page at https://owners.honda.com/service-maintenance/recalls where entire information is provided of the vehicles which the company has put in the recall list for faults. The recalls are free and replacement is done at the cost of the Company in USA. In India, no such zeal can be seen by Honda India.

15. Recently, in August 2020 Honda recalled more than 30 lac vehicles in USA for replacements of faulty part. One such recall is accessible at https://www.simmonsandfletcher.com/b...lion-vehicles/ where it is reported that Honda has recalled more than 11 lac vehicles in USA only for the fault of rear view camera not working and or dashboard display malfunctioning.

16. Another such news item from 2018 is where Honda is seeing recalling 232,000 Accord and other models over backup cameras https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/h...ackup-cameras/ The news item has following most pertinent points which are shocking to an Indian consumer.

“According to documents filed Thursday with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the software problem can cause the infotainment screen to fail to display the images from the rear backup camera on select 2018 Honda Accord and 2019 Honda Insight hybrid models. This leaves the cars on the wrong side of the law per the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard on rear visibility.

The campaign isn't just for US models. Honda is also recalling 14,000 vehicles in Canada, 6,000 in Germany and 3,000 cars in South Korea for the same issue, according to the Associated Press. The good news is that the fix only involves a software update, so it should be relatively quick and easy for dealers to remedy.

"The software error may cause the center display assembly that normally displays the rearview image to not provide the rearview image when the vehicle is in reverse," Honda said in a statement Friday. The company also said it has "received no reports of crashes or injuries related to this issue."

17. Meaning thereby, even without any injury reports, Honda pre-empted and recalled vehicles. Also, mere fact that there is no legal obligation under the Indian Motor Vehicles Act, Honda is abdicating the responsibility of taking safety of the Indian consumers and citizens lightly.

18. The discriminatory approach which Honda has for citizens in USA compared with Indian can be most conclusively elaborated. It was in 2014 that rear camera visibility was made mandatory in USA and vehicles are required to comply with. https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/...and-navigation However, https://www.todaysmotorvehicles.com/...gnition-31414/ gives a picture that Honda, for its US consumers, had made effort even prior to any such regulation and achieved status of a safety oriented company. No such instance has been found for the Indian consumers.

19. Indian Government needs to have a statutory body like NHTSA which has a dedicated page for consumer awareness on vehicle recalls. https://www.edmunds.com/car-safety/h...-recalled.html

20. Honda needs to disclose as to how many complaints it has received nationwide since the launch of the Digipad 1.0 and then 2.0 for the faulty Digipad and what has been the resolution.

21. Honda either knew of the defect before marketing the Vehicles or failed to conduct adequate testing of the Vehicles system prior to its release. Regardless, soon after the release of the Vehicles, Honda must have known of the defect based on the numerous customer complaints it received, and yet Honda continued to market the Vehicles.

22. But Honda has not found a solution to the infotainment system defect. Instead, Honda simply replaces defective parts with equally defective parts, thereby leaving consumers caught in a cycle of use, malfunction, and replacement.

23. Despite the fact that the Vehicles’ infotainment systems continue to fail despite being “repaired,” for some owners, Honda continues to replace the defective parts with identical or substantially similar defective parts. Thus, the defect is inherent and permanent in nature. Honda concealed material information from buyers regarding the existence and extent of the defects. Honda also concealed the material fact that the replacement components were defective.

24. Any such limitations or exclusions have been imposed unilaterally by Honda via adhesive, “take it or leave it” contracts with no ability by buyers to negotiate the substance or coverage of the warranties, and buyers did not have any meaningful choices of reasonably available alternative sources of supply of suitable Vehicles free of the above unconscionable conditions.

There are so many people online who are complaining against Honda since years but Honda has not resolved the problem.

This is my first post here. Hoping the buyers and potential buyers are educated from the post.

Stay safe. Wear a mask.

[Abhi5868]

The audacity to conduct business is such a manner. The laziness/uninterest of Japanese(especially Honda) has always been a heavily discussed topic amongst us car enthusiasts. Ford/Maruti Suzuki/Hyundai extended their services to honour warranty amidst Corona, even Toyota did, then what's stopping Honda to do so.

In the wake of GNCAP results, many of us are worried about the growing dominance of the Koreans in the Indian market. But how can they not? When it's almost free real estate. With the attitude as posted by OP Honda isn't going anywhere in the future, Toyota is more than happy with two cult products and rebadging & Nissan is almost dead.

Coming to the actual topic, have you thought about getting an aftermarket HU? Even the premium ones wouldn't cost half of what Honda's quoting. Otherwise try taking the upper level management in loop, that might help but the chances are meek. That's why one should always take extended warranty unless one intends to change the car every 3 years, however you've stated that the problem lies within Honda so that's surely a case of incompetency.

[yesyeswe]

A class action lawsuit should be filed against Honda, even my friend who has an Amaze faced some issues but the touch screen unit but it was replaced under warranty.

So many owners facing a similar issue deserve a recall or a class action lawsuit, and nothing else. And i thought the Japanese were better than others, but it's all about making profit and nothing else!

[iamgyan]

I'm in the same boat. Only difference being, still under warranty and replacement under warranty is approved too back in september. However, Honda says they don't have stock and cannot say when new stock will arrive citing Covid and what not . I've tried taking it to the higher ups also but they all seem very thick skinned and nothing much apart from when the part arrives, we'll let you know


Below is the link to the detailed update from my ownership review. The system though is still working but does hang more often now.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-...ml#post4925815 (Long term ownership review - My Honda City VX CVT)

[aaaajwedk]

I agree on the lack of quality of Honda's Digipad. My WR-V bought in June 2018 started getting a random bubble on the touchscreen around July of this year. Note that this was immediately after the warranty would've ended had I not got the extended 5 year warranty.

Took it to Honda and they replaced it but had to wait ~2 months since it wasn't in stock. Now I'm noticing a light leak around the buttons on my new one. Hopefully it won't give me any more issues.

[fhdowntheline]

The Digipad is an extremely slow system, especially the 1.0. I had problems with hanging multiple times. All the dealer promised was a free replacement of the same system. The system on my Creta is far superior in all aspects, quality, display and functionality. Not to mention the Bose speakers are also much better balanced than the City speakers which sounded boomy. It is this attention to detail that pleases customers I guess, something that Honda has not bothered much about.

[DKMahant]

Originally Posted by Abhi5868

The audacity to conduct business is such a manner. The laziness/uninterest of Japanese(especially Honda) has always been a heavily discussed topic amongst us car enthusiasts. Ford/Maruti Suzuki/Hyundai extended their services to honour warranty amidst Corona, even Toyota did, then what's stopping Honda to do so.

In the wake of GNCAP results, many of us are worried about the growing dominance of the Koreans in the Indian market. But how can they not? When it's almost free real estate. With the attitude as posted by OP Honda isn't going anywhere in the future, Toyota is more than happy with two cult products and rebadging & Nissan is almost dead.

Coming to the actual topic, have you thought about getting an aftermarket HU? Even the premium ones wouldn't cost half of what Honda's quoting. Otherwise try taking the upper level management in loop, that might help but the chances are meek. That's why one should always take extended warranty unless one intends to change the car every 3 years, however you've stated that the problem lies within Honda so that's surely a case of incompetency.

Hi. Thanks for your reply.

Getting an aftermarket unit is the easiest option, and due to the incompetency of the company and the nature of the products, is the only option. But then, the Company should have not installed the part and reduced the cost then. Buyers should have been given the option of installing after market product only rather than supplying subs standard equipment.

[samitjain]

My honda city digipad 1.0 also not working, they have also said same thing that the music system for people are not being serviced since July 2020 due to COVID. I have asked them to give me digipad2.0 instead.

Digipad 1.0 is supplied by some company PRS or some other name. Digipad 2.0 is provided by alpine .

[esoticoreventon]

Include me to the list of people facing the bubbling issue with the Digipad 1.0. I had raised a query regarding the warranty replacement, and apparently the delay is because the Chinese parts supplier is not honoring the warranty for their components. There will be a solution for this next month, and one of the solutions being discussed is replacing version 1 with version 2. I believe this is an Alpine unit and should fare better than the first version. All the alpine units I have used till date have served me well.

I think if all the users facing issues with the Digipad 1.0, which honestly is everyone, pressure Honda into replacing the units with version 2, I think it would be work!

[samitjain]

I just received mail from Honda that the AVN will be replaced by Honda in April 2021 almost 5 months after identifying the AVN issue.

It’s a joke and not going to buy Honda again

[bejoy]

Folks, This is my FIL's 2018 (Oct/Nov) Honda City VX CVT. Any idea if this can be replaced under warranty? Is it Digipad 1.0 or 2.0?



The navigation does not work as it gives an error of some missing file. Searched online and found it is a common issue.

Honestly I did not expect such quality issues from Honda. In fact my FIL replaced his flood hit 2015 City with the current one. Was particular about sedan and the contender was Yaris and the dealership was least interested to sell one.

[esoticoreventon]

Originally Posted by bejoy

Any idea if this can be replaced under warranty? Is it Digipad 1.0 or 2.0?

The navigation does not work as it gives an error of some missing file. Searched online and found it is a common issue.

This is the Digipad 1.0 and you can replace this by claiming warranty at the dealership. It may take upto six months for the replacement to arrive. And the warranty claim process will take about 2 hours at the dealership.

This Digipad is no longer being manufactured and so in all probability you will get a Digipad 2.0.

[Tojo_GotBhp]

Originally Posted by bejoy

Folks, This is my FIL's 2018 (Oct/Nov) Honda City VX CVT. Any idea if this can be replaced under warranty? Is it Digipad 1.0 or 2.0?

AFAIK, it is only the BS6 Honda City that came with Digipad 2.0. So, this should be the Digipad 1.0. Correct me if I'm wrong.

In the picture you've shared, the bubble formed on the screen looks very excessive and is also reported by other members in the thread. It should be replaced under warranty and push for it.

If the standard warranty is about to expire, push for replacement soon, few brands like Hyundai don't include AVN system under their extended warranty.

[Cessna182]

The same thing happened with an acquaintence's car. The gentleman used to spend close to 15k every year servicing the car at the authorised shop and yet this happened. Hondas are very expensive to maintain in India and provide substandard quality. A Corolla is cheaper and better.

The person sold off his car and bought something from another brand.

[jatinkhanduja]

Hi all,

I too am facing the same issue with Honda Digipad 1.0. I have a honda wrv 2018 model and is under warranty. The AVN started giving trouble last June. We got it checked from the dealer and a replacement was approved. Since July,2020 we have been for a replacement but with no response from Honda side.

This attitude of honda is not due to covid or any other situation but even before 2020 the internet forums are filled with complaints against delay in warranty settlement of faulty honda digipad1.0.

Is there any action I could take on consumer forum or any other forum because I don't trust honda's word anymore.

I would be thankful for any suggestions.