I just had my '03 Odyssey in for the latest safety system recall. Sorta getting tired of driving my car in to town for recalls. This the 3rd trip on my car in the last 12 months, plus 2 trips for my wife's CR-V. I thought this recall was only for the inflator, but they must have replaced the whole deal because the dash panel is clearly not the original. It doesn't match, as you can see.

I realize my dash may no longer be the exact same color as original, but the windows have UV coatings, and in any case, there's no way the difference I'm seeing can be attributed to age or sun exposure. Although my car is 13 years old, it only has 48k miles and has been garaged its entire life. It's in immaculate condition overall so this has a material impact on the value of my car. Even though I don't plan to sell or trade any time soon, it really bugs me to look at it. It's the first thing you notice when you sit down in my car!

Does anybody think I'm being unreasonable to complain? I guess the question is what if anything can be done about it? It seems like those parts would be made so they could be used with the original trim panel in situations like this (e.g., a non-crash replacement), or at least make the trim cover a separate piece.

 

Although I haven't had a chance to take my car back to the dealer yet, I took my wife's CR-V in today for the same recall. I showed the above photo to the service rep who handled my recall repair and he said the dash trim wasn't replaced. They drop the unit down to replace the inflator assembly, but the trim piece is reused. He said the difference in shade is probably because the tech cleaned it. I find that hard to believe.

If any Honda techs reading this, I'm sure you're familiar with the inflator recalls. What's the story?

 

If that's the case, the tech needs to clean the rest of the dash to match. That just doesn't look right to me either.

 

That cover is not a readily removable piece. I'm sure if you had a couple of air bags you could probably swap the covers but Honda is not doing this, they are given replacements and removing/replacing the bags as assemblies.
In the Accord forums there have been complaints that the new airbags do not fit as well or match the interior.

 

Thanks for posting that diagram, Mike. As I previously posted, the service rep I worked with for the recall claimed the replacement part did not include the dash panel. I plan to speak with the service manager the next time I drive to town.