2008 Honda Odyssey
This year drew an ordinary 499 complaints for a Honda Odyssey — the model's median is 242. What they were about is the unusual part: 25.5% of them mention brakes, against 9.1% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 1 of the Honda Odyssey, which began in 2005 and ran to 2010. 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 | 499 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 242 |
| Involving a crash | 37 |
| Involving a fire | 8 |
| Recalls | 5 |
| EPA combined | 19 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- brakes — 25.5% of this year's complaints, against 9.1% across the other years of this generation (2.8×).
- pedal — 16.8% of this year's complaints, against 5.5% across the other years of this generation (3×).
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
BRAKE PEDAL HAS BECOME VERY SOFT AND STOPPING DISTANCE IS INCREASED. THIS HAPPENS IN ALL DRIVING CONDITIONS. LOCAL MECHANIC CANNOT FIND ANYTHING WRONG WITH BRAKES OR BRAKE SYSTEM.
MY 2008 HONDA ODYSSEY WAS INVOLVED IN A CRASH TODAY BECAUSE WHEN I APPLIED THE BRAKES IT DID NOT WANT TO STOP. MY PEDAL WAS TO THE FLOOR BUT MY VAN DID NOT STOP. I WAS ONLY GOING ABOUT 25 MPH BUT HAD NO STOPPING POWER. I HAVE EXPERIENCED THIS ON A FEW OTHER OC…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 14E049000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 14V112000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE
- 12V062000 STRUCTURE Fixed free of charge.
- 13V500000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
- 10V098000 SERVICE BRAKES, AIR Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Honda Odyssey 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 2008 Honda Odyssey? What happened to yours?
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