2021 Honda Accord
This year drew an ordinary 217 complaints for a Honda Accord — the model's median is 579. What they were about is the unusual part: 8.3% of them mention want, against 3.1% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 4 of the Honda Accord, which began in 2018 and ran to 2022. 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 | 217 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 579 |
| Involving a crash | 14 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 4 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 32 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- want — 8.3% of this year's complaints, against 3.1% across the other years of this generation (2.7×). Owners wrote it as: want, nothing about, options.
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
Driving on the highway, my dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree. Car started having white smoke at tail pipe. Check engine lit blink 5 times. Had 4 kids under 14 years old in car. Almost got hit trying to merge over. Turns out misfire cylinder 4. Head gasket…
Infotainment screen is glitching. Randomly selecting options, turning on GPS, turning off GPS, changing the stations, and just selecting the different options on screen without actually having touched it with a finger.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 21V900000 SEAT BELTS Fixed free of charge.
- 24V064000 AIR BAGS 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 2021 Honda Accord? What happened to yours?
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