With the lack of heat on CR-Vs and Civics with the 1.5L turbo that's INFAMOUS for oil dilution, it makes me wonder about Honda's quality in the future. Some might argue that Honda's quality isn't what it used to be and is slipping whereas some say that it isn't going down.
Compared to the market, Honda still is a relatively reliable brand. Compared to 15 20 years ago, most automatkers are slipping. Toyota did as well, but Honda just slipped a little bit more. It seems Hondas priorities are shifting more towards efficiency and performance rather than reliability or quality. Who is this on? Is this significant? I can't comment on that. But thats where most of the manufacturers are going, with the exception of Mazda and Subaru which are going up in quality and reliability as the years pass by.
Yes, it has been slipping but so has everyone’s. However, the reliability curve for Honda has been diverging even more from Toyota over the years and Mazda and Subaru have been catching up to Honda, but overall I would still take a chance on them over many other brands; of course I would still buy a Toyota first and foremost. What matters is if they acknowledge the issue and try to make it right for the consumer versus denying the issue and let it drag it out for many years like some other automakers.
I am also not a fan of Honda’s using direct injection-only engines, having a predominantly turbocharged lineup (esp. smaller displacement turbo GDI), CVTs, and the use of cylinder deactivation in some of their engines. It all negatively impacts their reliability. Whereas Toyota by comparison has been slower to adopt those features (they don’t even use cylinder deactivation, and still use port injection in addition to direct injection).