Honda transmissions made in India?

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I've been looking at a new Civic SI. Seems like it's got a good balance of performance, features, and price. However, a lot of new stickers always point out where the engine/transmission are made as well as the final assembly point.

This one seems to be recent as every single factory sticker I've seen for this say the transmission is made in India. Final assembly point may be Canada or the US for US versions, but it looks like this 6-speed manual transmission is only made in India. I suppose we've been hesitant around here to trust complex mechanical items made in India, but I would think Honda wouldn't be using them in US spec vehicles unless they were ready for it. I'm guessing it may also be a consolidation since they sell very few manual transmission cars in the US now.

I have seen the Civic Type R, no dealer is willing to give a test drive, and most are asking for $10K over sticker although talking to some sales they'll probably back off but still charge over sticker. But the final assembly is in England with the transmission from Japan or the US.
 
India probably sell the most manual compact, so that make sense to build there. They probably have the most experience because of that too.
 
I would not want a Type R as my only vehicle. Great car, but the Si is better to live with.
I started out my mechanic career at a Honda dealer. Si, not SI btw.

Few people are as cool as my wife and want something new with a stick in the USA.
The Type R is like the old Prelude 4WS. Honda knew few people actually wanted to pony up the money for one so Honda only made X many.
The dealers were only allotted 1 or 2 for the model year and most dealers got more then sticker.
 
Originally Posted by skyactiv
I would not want a Type R as my only vehicle. Great car, but the Si is better to live with.
I started out my mechanic career at a Honda dealer. Si, not SI btw.

Few people are as cool as my wife and want something new with a stick in the USA.
The Type R is like the old Prelude 4WS. Honda knew few people actually wanted to pony up the money for one so Honda only made X many.
The dealers were only allotted 1 or 2 for the model year and most dealers got more then sticker.

Yeah - I know it's Si. It was some sort of autocorrect or maybe my finger didn't get off the shift key.

I've actually seen it at two or three Honda dealers in the showroom. None seem to care about fingerprints, but not a single one had the doors unlocked. All had a supplemental sticker saying $10,000 over MSRP but one sales guy said they would probably charge far less than that. Kind of surprised they weren't sold, but I'm guessing paying $47,000 for a Civic might even be too much. They all said that for whatever premium they were selling them for, there was no ways they would put any more miles on it than they had to.

I walked into a Honda dealer that had several Si models outside with the doors unlocked. I guess they could see them if anyone tried to do anything to them.

The thing about my WRX is that it hasn't necessarily aged all that well, even though it's still plenty fun to drive. The fuel economy has gone down (wasn't great to begin with) and how often am I really going to need AWD? I guess it was pretty nice when I needed to drive in light snow or the hail I saw last week, but my wife met me in her car and managed to get there.

Also - my 8 year old is asking me to get the Si. Wants to learn how to drive a stick on one too. A few months back there was no way.
 
The Honda Civic Is is a really nice looking car and built to last. Buy with confidence and post pictures. Don't believe some of these naysayers. Honda's are still
more dependable than my Corvette and Jeep. The Ford is pretty bulletproof so far. I am not brand loyal at all but have had my best luck with Toyota's and Honda's.
 
Originally Posted by joekingcorvette
The Honda Civic Is is a really nice looking car and built to last. Buy with confidence and post pictures. Don't believe some of these naysayers. Honda's are still
more dependable than my Corvette and Jeep. The Ford is pretty bulletproof so far. I am not brand loyal at all but have had my best luck with Toyota's and Honda's.



Is JD Power the "naysayer"?

AFAIK, JD Power is THE automotive quality authority.
 
Originally Posted by gfh77665
Originally Posted by joekingcorvette
The Honda Civic Is is a really nice looking car and built to last. Buy with confidence and post pictures. Don't believe some of these naysayers. Honda's are still
more dependable than my Corvette and Jeep. The Ford is pretty bulletproof so far. I am not brand loyal at all but have had my best luck with Toyota's and Honda's.



Is JD Power the "naysayer"?

AFAIK, JD Power is THE automotive quality authority.



I don't know. I read in Car and Driver they were pretty good. If everybody believed in JD Power or Consumer reports or any other media there wouldn't
be any thing to discuss! Historically Honda manual transmissions have been extremely dependable.
cheers3.gif
 
Originally Posted by gfh77665
Its amazing how far Honda quality has dropped off during the last 10 years or so. Honda built themselves up a great reputation in the past , now they presume their nameplate alone is enough. Not so. Kia, Hyundai, Ford and Chevy top the last. Honda is near the BOTTOM!

https://www.jdpower.com/business/press-releases/2018-us-initial-quality-study-iqs


Their daily drivers are not very good cars, they were better years ago but those days are long gone. They should stick to doing what they do best build motorcycles.


49.gif
 
Originally Posted by gfh77665
Its amazing how far Honda quality has dropped off during the last 10 years or so. Honda built themselves up a great reputation in the past , now they presume their nameplate alone is enough. Not so. Kia, Hyundai, Ford and Chevy top the last. Honda is near the BOTTOM!

https://www.jdpower.com/business/press-releases/2018-us-initial-quality-study-iqs


JD Power is absolute [censored], though. Besides the fact that they're basically an awards for hire business that will carefully tailor a specific category for their client to then "win", with great fanfare, their "reliability" reports have no weighting and are therefore fundamentally flawed.

JD Power would consider a loose piece of trim, squeaky brakes or infotainment bugs to be exactly the same as a car that literally exploded in your driveway. They do not differentiate between catastrophic, expensive failures and minor issues.
 
Originally Posted by littlehulkster

JD Power is absolute [censored], though. Besides the fact that they're basically an awards for hire business that will carefully tailor a specific category for their client to then "win", with great fanfare, their "reliability" reports have no weighting and are therefore fundamentally flawed.

JD Power would consider a loose piece of trim, squeaky brakes or infotainment bugs to be exactly the same as a car that literally exploded in your driveway. They do not differentiate between catastrophic, expensive failures and minor issues.



Got a reference for any of that?

JD Power is very well respected. Of course it cannot even begin to compare with Honda fan boys posting on the internet.
 
Originally Posted by Trav
Originally Posted by gfh77665
Its amazing how far Honda quality has dropped off during the last 10 years or so. Honda built themselves up a great reputation in the past , now they presume their nameplate alone is enough. Not so. Kia, Hyundai, Ford and Chevy top the last. Honda is near the BOTTOM!

https://www.jdpower.com/business/press-releases/2018-us-initial-quality-study-iqs


Their daily drivers are not very good cars, they were better years ago but those days are long gone. They should stick to doing what they do best build motorcycles.


49.gif


OPE engines.
 
it is an amazing car for the money. If you keep it stock - will last you and serve well. I own Civic hatch 6MT myself and 30k miles and 2yrs after 0 issues.

I've test driven Si a week ago and it feels great, car was new so hard to tell if there's really a 30hp difference. Plus keep in mind that Si is all about handling (which is not quite applicable in my case with primarily straight texas highway driving). Anyway, get the Si, I promise you won't regret. Just change the motor oil at reasonable OCI, swap tranny fluid to Amsoil and you'll be blown away how good the car is.
 
all vehicles made today are from "globally" sourced parts that are assembled wherever. many parts are likely bid on according to specs + quality of said part or assembly. overseas labor is CHEAPER so if they have the proper training + machines quality can be good or NOT. i read on the malibu forums as my girlfriend has a 13 LS + note hundreds of early wheel bearing failures, some before 50 thou + again because under warranty GM uses the same cheap "globally" sourced bearings for replacements, same cheap parts are used in upper models like the caddys, sad but i feel although technology evolves quality is worse as well as issues from newer technologies like stop-start
 
Originally Posted by gfh77665
Originally Posted by littlehulkster

JD Power is absolute [censored], though. Besides the fact that they're basically an awards for hire business that will carefully tailor a specific category for their client to then "win", with great fanfare, their "reliability" reports have no weighting and are therefore fundamentally flawed.

JD Power would consider a loose piece of trim, squeaky brakes or infotainment bugs to be exactly the same as a car that literally exploded in your driveway. They do not differentiate between catastrophic, expensive failures and minor issues.



Got a reference for any of that?

JD Power is very well respected. Of course it cannot even begin to compare with Honda fan boys posting on the internet.


There are lots of articles about this sort of thing.

That was just from a cursory Google search, too.

Any company that is paid by the automakers and treats confusing infotainment UI as exactly the same as catastrophic failure is one that cannot be trusted. JD Power is an advertising company, and the product they sell is JD Power.

Originally Posted by benjy
all vehicles made today are from "globally" sourced parts that are assembled wherever. many parts are likely bid on according to specs + quality of said part or assembly. overseas labor is CHEAPER so if they have the proper training + machines quality can be good or NOT. i read on the malibu forums as my girlfriend has a 13 LS + note hundreds of early wheel bearing failures, some before 50 thou + again because under warranty GM uses the same cheap "globally" sourced bearings for replacements, same cheap parts are used in upper models like the caddys, sad but i feel although technology evolves quality is worse as well as issues from newer technologies like stop-start


Either you don't remember how awful old cars were, or you do, but only through rose tinted glasses. There are issues with modern cars, of course, but I'd take all of them any day over having to deal with utter garbage like carburetors, point ignition, awful, unsafe brakes, junk suspensions that wear out in 10k and wander all over the road and "crumple zones" comprised entirely of your face. That's not even to mention the modern comforts and conveniences on modern cars that either didn't exist or didn't work on old cars. There were some truly awful old cars, but even the best of them is worse than anything from the era of electronic fuel injection.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted by benjy
all vehicles made today are from "globally" sourced parts that are assembled wherever. many parts are likely bid on according to specs + quality of said part or assembly. overseas labor is CHEAPER so if they have the proper training + machines quality can be good or NOT. i read on the malibu forums as my girlfriend has a 13 LS + note hundreds of early wheel bearing failures, some before 50 thou + again because under warranty GM uses the same cheap "globally" sourced bearings for replacements, same cheap parts are used in upper models like the caddys, sad but i feel although technology evolves quality is worse as well as issues from newer technologies like stop-start

I have no issue with quality manufacturing irrespective of where it occurs. I certainly understand that a lot of misgivings about stuff made in Asia (outside of Japan/Korea/Taiwan) being of perceived low quality. I've seen the quality of goods made in China or India to a high standard when the key was quality control and high standards rather than the lowest possible cost or delivering quickly without making quality a high priority.

It's not that I really thought that Honda would be importing transmissions from their Indian operations that were substandard. However, it seemed to be somewhat of a fight against perception. There used to be a perception that Honda's cars/engines/transmissions made/assembled in the US or Canada couldn't be as high quality as the ones made in Japan.
 
If you want to know of a poorly made transmission it's the GM A8 that is in many vehicles. The worst are 2015 and newer. There are tons of problems with these. Why all the Honda hate?
 
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