Those Honda Automatic transmission failures go back to the mid '80's, when did they begin the 100,000 mile waranties??
(I owned an '86 Accord, dead tranny.. )
And I used to see them everywhere in trading Posts etc, "runs good, bad trans"..

And what I meant was, a company will analyze the problem, identify trends, make an assessment of costs, and public hazzards; then make a plan of action for correction, run it by all the board member etc...this can take more time in LARGER corperations, where a LOT of Money is involved, depends on internal bylaws etc..
And the steering column deal isn't as easy as "extending a waranty"..