LexFather

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/04/13/2...airbag-issues/

Since GS69 posts all negative Toyota/Lexus news but never negative anything about his favorite brand.....


They recalled all 14 sold

TRDFantasy

Improperly cut dashboard material? I know this is a minor thing, and everyone has recalls, and very few ZDXs are affected, but seriously there should be no reason for this to happen .

What's next, improperly cut windshields on TL models?

LexFather

And it will get absolutely no real press or internet coverage b/c no one gives 2 craps about ugly Acuras.

mmarshall

More likely, it will get some coverage, but the public, by now, is so innundated with car defect investigations/recalls, not only with Toyota, but with other brands as well, that, at this point, it will probably make little or no difference.

Alligators, for instance, can only eat so much fish before they climb up on the shore, stop eating, and sun themselves.

Hypnotik

They wont be recalling much since they only sold a handful..lol

mmarshall

Yes, even in the extremely auto-rich D.C. area, where almost EVERYTHING sells (even the RL and the ugly TL), ZDXs, as of now, are very few and far between. I also haven't seen much in the way of BMW X6s, despite its having been in the American market for two years now.

IS-SV

In the extremely auto-rich Silicon Valley area, premium imports sell like Camrys and Accords. I have not seen one ZDX on the road, but here people have some taste when selecting cars in this price range.

Maybe during the recall, they can install a restyled entire front clip, in the hope of making the ZitDX slightly more attractive.

btw - nice pic Mike, really captures the essence of whatever.....

Hypnotik

I see a good number of X6's here in LA. I saw 1 ZDX so far. It was very disturbing to look at. An old lady was driving it

mmarshall

Actually, I can believe that some of the ZDX dashboards may not be perfectly cut, despite's Honda/Acura's past record of top-notch assembly precision and high material quality. I noticed, on the 2010 Pilot that I reviewed last week, a rather cheap-looking, hard-plastic one-piece upper-dash panel that did, IMO, look like some cost-cutting on Honda's part. That was a distinct downgrade from past models. How an improperly-cut panel could (?) affect the airbag not deploying properly is unclear, but my strong guess is that it could be rubbing/abrading on the wire(s) that run from the passengers' seat up through the back of the panel to the sensors. Those wires/sensors detect if someone is sitting in the seat, how heavy that person is, and if the bag should fire or not (and with what intensity) according to the speed of the crash. An improperly cut or installed panel, IMO, depending on how the wires are routed, could eventually cut through the wires by abrasion. When the system is working properly, most vehicles have a yellow or orange airbag light up overhead near the mirrors or lower-down on the dash to show that no one is sitting in the passengers' seat and that the sensor is not triggered to fire. That is different from the red airbag lights, which show that the airbag assemblies are not working at all.

Of course, there are other possiblilties, but, right up front, this would seem the most likely one. Some people say let the engineers/technicians determine the reason (which is true), but I don't see anything wrong with discussing the possiblities...I consider that to be part of the thread topic.

IS-SV

^^^ who knows what all that non-tech stuff was about.....j/k....................

But since the guessing game has been started, the improperly cut dash material probably doesn't blow off/displace correctly when the air bag deploys which could lead to inadequate protection for the passenger.

But I agree, blow the dust off the ZDX's sitting in the back of the sales lot and fix them, it won't inconvience the very few customers-to-date.

SNiiP3R

iTrader: (3)

looks weird without a rear door handle.....

Blackraven

Nice quote mmarshall. This should be like the word of wisdom of the day.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

press release i didn't quite finish reading...

...

that's 37 vehicles affected at most.

mmarshall

Have you seen any ZDXs in FL, where you live? I've seen next to none, even here in the D.C area, maybe 1 or 2 at most (and I can't clearly remember even that). IS-SV says he hasn't seen any in Silicon Valley, either....another place where expensive vehicles often sell. Hypnotik reports the same thing from L.A.....one at the most.

IS-SV

For that few vehicles, just do swaps for new or fixed ones, plenty of these things sitting around.