Honda may be having more publicized car issues. The United States National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is looking into possible break problems with the company’s Honda Odyssey minivans, according to Reuters. The braking issue could force cars to come to a stop regardless of whether or not the driver has their foot on the brake.
The investigation could involve in excess of 344,000 Odysseys from the model years 2007 and 2008.
A report issued by the NHTSA—the U.S. Department of Transportation branch that deals with vehicle safety—said the administration has been given 22 complaints about spontaneous braking. In some cases the brakes were applied when the driver was trying to press harder on the gas pedal. This caused the car to slow down by as much as 30 miles per hour.
The good news is there have been no crashes connected to the issue. Apparently, the problem lies within the minivan’s stability assist system. This system was designed to initiate the brakes automatically once the driver is making a sharp turn or driving on unstable ground (like a road that has recently been a landing spot for snow).
According to Reuters a spokeswoman from Honda “was not immediately available for comment.”
This is the second public brake problem Honda has had within the past few months. In March, brake issues caused the Japanese-based car company to recall almost 250,000 vehicles. In the U.S. the recalled vehicles included the Acura MDX crossover SUV—Acura is the luxury arm of Honda—, Honda Pilot SUV and the Acura RL sedan. In Japan the Legend Sedan, Odyssey and three other types of minivans were affected. Most of these vehicles were made in 2004 and 2005.
The issues in March were similar to the current issues–non-working vehicle stability systems which caused unwanted automatic breaking.
Honda also said recently it would be recalling more than 143,000 Honda Fit cars to prevent possible fires.
In a bit of good news, Acura recently announced its largest ad campaign in history for the new 2014 Acura MDX crossover.
