2016 Honda Accord
This year drew an ordinary 594 complaints for a Honda Accord — the model's median is 530. What they were about is the unusual part: 24.9% of them mention running, against 6.2% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 3 of the Honda Accord, which began in 2013 and ran to 2017. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 594 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 530 |
| Involving a crash | 32 |
| Involving a fire | 5 |
| Recalls | 4 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 26 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- running — 24.9% of this year's complaints, against 6.2% across the other years of this generation (4×). Owners wrote it as: running, led, daytime, daytime running.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
TOURING MODEL DAYTIME RUNNING LIGHT (DRL) LED STRIP IS 70% UN-LIT ON ONE HEADLIGHT. THIS APPEARS TO BE AN EXTREMELY COMMON PROBLEM AND REQUIRES [VIN] OF THE ENTIRE HEADLIGHT ASSEMBLY, DEALER PART COST $945, INSTALL NOT INCLUDED. FROM MY RESEARCH IT APPEARS THE…
DAYTIME RUNNING LIGHTS (LED STRIP) ARE BURNED-OUT IN SEGMENTS. DRL'S ARE LISTED BY THE [VIN] AS A SAFETY ITEM AND HONDA WILL NOT REPLACE UNLESS VEHICLE IS UNDER WARRANTY. TYPICAL OUT OF POCKET EXPENSE RUNS FROM $400-$700 PER UNIT AS THEY ARE INCORPORATED IN EA…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19V060000 FUEL SYSTEM, OTHER Fixed free of charge.
- 17V418000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 23V858000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 26V332000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Honda Accord was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2016 Honda Accord? What happened to yours?
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