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Honda problems by generation and mileage

28 generations across 6 models, built from 41,578 complaints that record mileage at failure.

Honda models and generations

Pick your car. Each generation has its own page: what owners reported breaking, at what mileage, year by year, and its recalls.

How long do Hondas last?

Complaint records can’t measure how long a car lasts; they show when reported failures happened. Across the 28 Honda generations here — 17 of the 28 generations here left production more than ten years ago, and older ones have had longer to reach high mileage, so read the figure against that mix — half of the 41,578 complaints that record an odometer reading were filed by 59,000 miles and 90% by 145,000 miles. 3,844 came in past 150,000 miles and 1,039 past 200,000 — each one a car that got there, not one that failed there.

At what mileage do Hondas start having problems? A quarter of those reports came by 20,000 miles, and 18% within the first 12,000 — the window this site treats as manufacturing defects rather than wear. That is the start of the reports, not the onset of problems on any one car.

For one car, open its generation in the list above: each page gives its own figures, year by year.

Mileage at failure, generation by generation

Each strip places that generation’s mileage-tagged reports on a linear 0–200,000-mile scale: whisker = middle 80%, box = middle half, line = median. † marks recent generations — their fleets are young, so their reports can only have come at low mileages. Compare generations of similar age.

Accord

• 1994–1997333109,000
• 1998–20023,20194,000
• 2003–20073,57885,000
• 2008–20122,46130,000
• 2013–20172,43140,000
• 2018–2022†1,05220,000

CR-V

• 1997–2001245104,000
• 2002–20061,60375,000
• 2007–20111,64370,000
• 2012–20161,65819,000
• 2017–2022†2,36316,000
• 2023–2025†1309,500too few reports to chart

Civic

• 1996–200050497,000
• 2001–20052,10987,000
• 2006–20113,50550,000
• 2012–201592435,000
• 2016–20211,11828,000
• 2022–2025†11916,000too few reports to chart

Fit

• 2007–200843163,000
• 2009–201347048,000
• 2015–202029337,000

Odyssey

• 1999–20042,94198,000
• 2005–20102,67761,000
• 2011–20171,00230,000
• 2018–2025†60220,000

Pilot

• 2003–20081,881104,000
• 2009–201581243,000
• 2016–2022†1,49240,000

What the strips show across Honda

Of the 28 Honda generations here, 19 with failures spread across the mileage range; 9 with failures concentrated early. The shape matters more than the median: a generation whose reports cluster tightly at one mileage is describing a part that fails, while one spread across the whole range is describing ordinary wear, and the two need different decisions from a buyer. The most common shape across this make is failures spread across the mileage range, on 19 of 28.

Comparing generations of the same age

Medians fall as generations get newer, and that is age, not decline: a car built three years ago has not had time to reach a high odometer reading, so its reports cannot come from one. The only honest comparison is inside an age band, and here is this make split into three. The spread inside a band is a comparison worth making; the same numbers set against a generation from another band are not.

Honda built in the last decade

11 generations, median of medians 20,000 miles. Among those built in the last decade, the earliest reports belong to the CR-V 2023–2025 at 9,500, the latest to the Pilot 2016–2022 at 40,000: a spread of 30,000 miles.

Honda built between ten and twenty years ago

11 generations, median of medians 61,000 miles. Among those built between ten and twenty years ago, the earliest reports belong to the Accord 2008–2012 at 30,000, the latest to the Pilot 2003–2008 at 104,000: a spread of 74,000 miles.

Honda older than twenty years

6 generations, median of medians 98,000 miles. Among those older than twenty years, the earliest reports belong to the Civic 2001–2005 at 87,000, the latest to the Accord 1994–1997 at 109,000: a spread of 22,000 miles.

Where the reports concentrate

The middle half of the reports — between the 25th and 75th percentile — is the part of the curve that says most. On the CR-V 2012–2016 it spans 44,000 miles, the tightest of any Honda generation here: half the reports arrive inside that window, which is what a single failing part looks like in this data. On the CR-V 1997–2001 the same half spans 87,000 miles — a curve that wide is describing a fleet ageing, not a part failing.

The largest body of evidence for this make is the Accord 2003–2007, with 3,578 reports that record an odometer reading. Generations with a few hundred reports describe their own owners more loosely, and every number on this page carries that weight with it.

Model by model

Within one model the generations are the fairest comparison this data allows: same maker, same intent, often the same platform carried forward. Where a median moves sharply between two generations of the same model, it is worth asking whether the newer one is simply younger. Where the generation reporting later is also the older one, part of the gap is age rather than build; where it is the newer one, age alone does not explain it. The latest-reporting cell says which case each model is.

Swipe the table sideways for every column.

What fails across Honda, and when

Summed across every Honda generation on this site, the most-reported system is Electrical System: 12,402 reports, 16% of the 79,404 that name a system, and it appears among the leading systems on 27 of the 28 generations here, reporting at a median of 50,000 miles.

The right-hand column is a median of medians, not an average: a generation with three thousand reports and one with two hundred would otherwise carry the same weight in a mean, and they do not describe the same amount of evidence. Read it as the middle of the range this make reports at, not as a prediction for one car.

Recalls across Honda

NHTSA has issued 230 recall campaigns against the Honda generations on this site, spread over 28 of 28. A recall is not a reliability score: it means a defect was found and a free repair is owed, and a make watched closely can collect more campaigns than one nobody examined. What it does mean for a buyer is concrete — the work is free at an authorized dealer, for any owner, and whether a given car is included depends on its VIN rather than on its model year.

• Odyssey 1999–2004 — 28 campaigns
• Odyssey 2018–2025 — 27 campaigns
• Pilot 2016–2022 — 23 campaigns
• Accord 2003–2007 — 22 campaigns
• CR-V 2002–2006 — 22 campaigns
• Civic 2006–2011 — 19 campaigns

What this page cannot tell you

These are complaints, not failures. A complaint exists because an owner chose to file one with NHTSA, and nothing here counts the owners who did not. That makes the counts a measure of reporting as much as of breaking, and it is why this site never ranks one car against another: it describes what happens to a given car, and when.

Nor is any of this a rate. A rate needs a denominator — how many of these cars were sold — and no free model-level production figure exists. The obvious substitute, the affected-vehicle count on recall campaigns, was tested here and rejected: it overstates by a median factor of 7.6, because most campaigns span several model years. So a generation with more reports than another may simply be a generation with more cars on the road. The method page sets out every step.

Every page here is generated from the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation dataset. How this is built · All makes