There seem to be a lot of modern cars of all makes suffering clutch failures, don't know why, whether its poor materials or the clutch not up to the job. I have a Peugeot 406 Hdi still on its original clutch at 246,000 miles.

The oem replacement clutch fitted by the Honda dealer under warranty is the opposite, the bite is aggressive and the pedal is harder, it's more like the feel of a competion clutch, you can dip the pedal and quickly release it when accelerating hard and the clutch bites hard and doesn't slip.

Obviously the original clutch is more user friendly-maybe that's why there are problems with clutches nowadays?

Do modern clutches have to be capable of some slippage to get positive reviews i wonder, some modern engines are so lacking in low rev torque that stalling becomes a real problem.

This is something i noticed more and more during the last years of my car transporting years, we tried to be kind to clutches for obvious reasons but completely gutless strangled modern engines won't allow such niceties, and i wonder if owners get so used to slightly slipping their clutches...at moving junctions for instance...that they are slipping the clutch without realising it just to maintain normal progress.

Couple this with the trend for too high first and reverse gears, why is that on vehicles likely to be dual purpose i wonder?, and you have the perfect recipe for short clutch life.

AS for the OP's question, if Honda are not going to play ball here then i suggest getting some quotes for LUK replacement clutches from good indy garages, we had a recent thread about this and with some shopping about the OP knocked around 50% or maybe more from her frankly absurd clutch quote from Bentley...sorry, my mistake...Honda garage that must have thought they were quoting for a vintage Bentley.