Owners filed 4,916 complaints about the 2015–2025 Honda Civic with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the 13th-most of any vehicle in our Car Problem Index. The 2016 model year drew the most (1,080), and the single most-reported problem area is steering, named in 44% of complaints.
Key findings
- Worst model year: 2016, with 1,080 complaints, led by steering (444).
- Spike years: 2016 (2.8× the typical year), 2017 (1.6× the typical year), 2018 (1.9× the typical year), 2022 (2.3× the typical year).
- Earliest-failing area: fuel system complaints came at a median of 14k mi on the odometer.
- Fire and crash reports: 25 complaints mention a fire and 243 mention a crash; owners reported 161 injuries and 1 deaths.
Honda Civic complaints by model year
| Model year | Complaints | Top problem areas | Median mileage | Crashes | Fires |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 380 | Transmission / powertrain (176), Air bags (58), Engine (31) | 50k mi | 37 | 2 |
| 2016 | 1,080 | Steering (444), Electrical system (119), Engine (95) | 30k mi | 36 | 4 |
| 2017 | 592 | Steering (170), Electrical system (101), Engine (66) | 23k mi | 23 | 6 |
| 2018 | 739 | Steering (311), Fuel System, Gasoline (94), Fuel system (80) | 33k mi | 26 | 4 |
| 2019 | 429 | Steering (109), Fuel system (70), Fuel System, Gasoline (62) | 16k mi | 26 | 1 |
| 2020 | 224 | Electrical system (36), Transmission / powertrain (31), Air bags (29) | 15k mi | 15 | 1 |
| 2021 | 144 | Steering (64), Automatic emergency braking / collision warning (33), Electrical system (18) | 30k mi | 5 | 2 |
| 2022 | 881 | Steering (731), Automatic emergency braking / collision warning (71), Lane departure assist (66) | 27k mi | 34 | 3 |
| 2023 | 254 | Steering (191), Lane departure assist (19), Electrical system (16) | 10k mi | 19 | 0 |
| 2024 | 123 | Steering (60), Automatic emergency braking / collision warning (17), Lane departure assist (10) | 11k mi | 12 | 1 |
| 2025 | 70 | Steering (27), Automatic emergency braking / collision warning (9), Lane departure assist (8) | 7k mi | 10 | 1 |
Newer model years have had less time on the road, so their counts are lower partly because owners have had fewer years to report problems.
Most-reported Honda Civic problems, and what they cost to fix
| Problem area | Complaints | Share | Median mileage | Repair estimate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steering | 2,156 | 44% | 36k mi | Power steering repair cost |
| Electrical system | 464 | 9% | 19k mi | Alternator / electrical repair cost |
| Transmission / powertrain | 328 | 7% | 61k mi | Transmission repair cost |
| Engine | 323 | 7% | 19k mi | Engine repair cost |
| Brakes | 269 | 6% | 15k mi | Brake repair cost |
| Fuel system | 266 | 5% | 14k mi | Fuel pump repair cost |
| Automatic emergency braking / collision warning | 234 | 5% | 14k mi | — |
| Air bags | 203 | 4% | 28k mi | — |
One complaint can name several problem areas, so shares add up to more than 100%.
What this data can and can't tell you
These are unverified reports that owners submitted to NHTSA, counted by model year. They are not defect findings, and they aren't adjusted for sales: a best-selling vehicle collects more complaints simply because more of them are on the road. Use the counts to compare model years of the same vehicle and to see which systems owners complain about most, not to compare how reliable two different models are. See the full methodology.
Other Honda models in the index
- Honda Cr-V (8,154)
- Honda Pilot (5,597)
- Honda Accord (5,446)
- Honda Odyssey (3,774)
- Honda Hr-V (1,821)
Source: NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation, consumer complaint files (nhtsa.gov), model years 2015–2025, retrieved 2026-09-23. Free to cite with a link to this page.