2020 Honda Civic
This year drew an ordinary 440 complaints for a Honda Civic — the model's median is 396. What they were about is the unusual part: 15.9% of them mention clutch, against 4.6% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 3 of the Honda Civic, which began in 2016 and ran to 2021. 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 | 440 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 396 |
| Involving a crash | 30 |
| Involving a fire | 2 |
| Recalls | 5 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 32 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- clutch — 15.9% of this year's complaints, against 4.6% across the other years of this generation (3.4×). Owners wrote it as: clutch, ended, manual, slipping.
- braking — 10% of this year's complaints, against 3.8% across the other years of this generation (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: braking, braking system, automatic, activated.
- disconnect — 7.3% of this year's complaints, against 2.8% across the other years of this generation (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: disconnect, distribution, parts distribution, distribution disconnect.
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
notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V858000 (Fuel System, Gasoline); however, the part to do the recall repair was unavailable. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was n…
The automated emergency braking system activated bringing me to a sudden and complete stop. I was traveling at a lower speed (<20mph) with sufficient space both in front and behind my vehicle which prevented this incident from becoming an accident. This occurr…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 21V215000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 23V458000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.
- 23V858000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 24V064000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 26V332000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Honda Civic 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 2020 Honda Civic? What happened to yours?
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