Heavily-Damaged City Sedan Owner: Honda Not Providing Bodyshell, Asking Me To Go For Unsafe Repair

Honda does not have a wide range of cars and SUVs on sale in the Indian market. It just sells a bunch of popular nameplates and holds high reputation of being reliable with parts and after-sales care. A recent experience reported by a City owner shows a serious mistake from the manufacturer. This incident was reported by a user named Harish K, via a LinkedIn post. In the post, he mentioned the crash and how it damaged his sedan. He further says that Honda refused to provide him with a new Body-In-White (BIW) or bodyshell and asked him to go for sectional repairs- which are highly unsafe considering the damage that this car has had. The specifics of this incident has left many Honda owners in shock.

The Post

Image: Screenshot from the LinkedIn post

It starts by saying that the car, a Honda City that was less than 2 years old, was involved in an accident in May 2025, when an 8000 kg load from a truck fell on it. The car was nearly crushed and almost all of its structural components were severely damaged. The A pillar, B pillar, rocker sill, roof, apron frame, rear quarter panel and part of the floor pan were damaged.

Honda, the owner says, did not acknowledge the severity of the situation, nor did it push for a constructive total loss (CTL) settlement. He further says that the company refused to replace the Body-in-White (BIW) shell, and asked Harish to go for cut-and-weld sectional repairs- absolutely unfair and unsafe! Frustrated by the approach, this owner asked Honda for a written endorsement of the post-repair structural integrity. The company refused to do this.

The post also claims that the company’s authorized dealer explicitly admitted that Honda follows a ‘no shell replacement’ policy. This means that even if a car suffers major structural damage, the owner will not get the bodyshell replaced completely. They will have to be content with cut-and-weld repairs.

Harish further says that his car was insured with Tata AIG. Honda’s approach made things easy for the insurer, who could likely save a lot by paying for repairs instead of CTL. The post concludes by saying that this isn’t how a responsible OEM should behave.

If a BIW shell was unavailable, the company should have pushed to declare CTL instead of risking consumer lives with cut-and-weld repairs. The move has questioned the safety, reliability, and ethics of Honda in India.

The Larger Picture

The real risk here, lies in the structural integrity of the body shell after repairs. The quality of welding differs sharply between those done at the plant and at the dealer level. In their plants, manufacturers use high quality and high precision, robotized techniques to build the BIW. These are very significant in ensuring its structural integrity and crashworthiness. In the case of dealer-level repairs, both these properties will be lost.

The Honda City isn’t one of those poorly built cars. After all, it saved the occupants even when an 8000 kg load fell on it. The manufacturer is known (and loved) for building strong cars. It is indeed sad to see such moves from a car brand like Honda.

Representational image

Constructive Total Loss (CTL)is declared when the cost of repairing a damaged vehicle exceeds 75% of its Insured Declared Value (IDV). The owner here has made it clear that his car was just under 2 years old and had an IDV of Rs 14.5 lakh. The repair cost would amount to over 5 lakh rupees (roughly 35% of the IDV). The ideal way then would be BIW replacement, which the carmaker should have done without hesitation.

Bottomline

In this case, almost everyone benefits except the customer ! Honda benefits as the sales of spare parts bring revenue to it. The dealer benefits from the work that it carries out on the car, and finally, the deal is good for the insurance company as it has to pay less for repairs than what it would have done for CTL.The customer, on the other hand, is left with a structurally unsafe car. It remains to be seen how Honda would address this issue. It surely has earned it some bad reputation.