Honda and ESC – Safety for Everyone?

Honda has been using a slogan of "Safety for Everyone" for several years now. While this strategy has driven some major improvements, recently in some ways it seems to ring hollow.

First the good news: all current Acura and Honda vehicles have standard ABS and side-curtain air bags (except the S2000 roadster). The company's vehicles do very well in crash tests, and they've been a leader in designing for pedestrian safety in this market. (See how more than 250 cars perform in crash test videos.)

The subject of electronic stability control (ESC) gets a bit stickier. By 2007, all of Honda's SUVs had standard stability control. Some carmakers had ESC earlier, particularly European manufacturers and Toyota, which added ESC on all of their SUVs for 2004.

Honda's passenger car implementation of ESC has been slower. The company didn't get a sedan with ESC until the V6 Accord and S2000 in 2006 (the company added ESC on Acuras earlier). On the plus side, Honda gave all Accords standard ESC for 2008, one factor that led to the Accord being our "Top Pick" sedan for that year.

The 2009 model year sees ESC spread to more models of the Civic, and it shows up on the Fit for the first time. But contrary to the "Safety for Everyone" mantra, the approach seems to be "Safety for everyone—if you buy leather, a navigation system, or the sports model." While higher-end Civics, including the sporty Si, the hybrid, and the EX with leather, have ESC, the mass-market models don't get it.

Availability is even more limited on the redesigned Fit; as noted in our previous blog ("Preview: 2009 Honda Fit"), you can only get ESC on the top-line Sport, and then only with the optional navigation system. As configured, a $20,000  Fit seems like a whole lot of money for a small car, no matter how clever the packaging.

Honda's done this before. All of Honda's luxury Acura line (except the defunct NSX sports car and RSX coupe) since 2004 had ESC. The first version of the Pilot with ESC was the most expensive leather-equipped 2005 EX-L. Only six-cylinder Accords had ESC for 2006-2007. And Honda certainly isn't alone in bundling safety equipment with luxury trim levels. (I've complained about Subaru doing this in a previous blog ("Stability control - Doing the right thing"), but now for 2009, almost every Subaru model has standard ESC.)

But it seems to me that a company which advocates and markets "Safety for Everyone" should have standard ESC on all of its cars. The market is heading that way, and ESC is mandated for 2012 on all cars – whether or not they have sports packages, leather seats, or navigation.

—Tom Mutchler

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