NHTSA Complaint #11500220 — 2012 HONDA CR-V

On November 2, 2022 the control arm mount for the rear driver side wheel of our 2012 Honda CR-V failed while the car was in use; as a result, the car was no longer drivable. The car was towed to an authorized Honda service center and the condition was assessed as follows: oThe frame rail had deteriorated/rusted to the point where part of it was completely gone. oA new control arm could not be installed because there was no frame rail to which the control arm could be mounted until/unless the frame rail was replaced. oPreliminary repair estimate was $8,352 although the service center indicated that repair costs could be significantly higher than that. In doing some checking we found that Honda Canada had a recall on older CR-Vs for a rusting problem that could result in a rear suspension control arm separating from the vehicle. This structural failure sounded identical to our issue. The recall applied to geographical areas with heavy winter road salt usage ... which describes many parts of the US ... but Honda USA did not issue such a recall. In the Canadian recall, vehicles were being bought back from the owners since the repair costs exceeded the vehicle value. We opened a case with Honda and, after their review, we were given a $500 loyalty card on future Honda sales or service. They would not do anything else for us even though the blue book value on our car was over $10,000 at the time of the incident. The car was salvaged out and we received $850 for it. Our incident happened while traveling at 30 mph. Had it happened at highway speeds we believe it could have resulted in significant injury or death.