2016 Honda Pilot
Complaints about this year name keyless start far more often than the other years of this generation — 14% of them, about 35× the usual rate of 0.4%.
First year of a new generation. The Honda Pilot was redesigned for 2016. A first year carries problems nobody has found yet, and they are found by the people who buy it — which is worth knowing before you become one of them.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 1,680 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 178 |
| Involving a crash | 23 |
| Involving a fire | 9 |
| Recalls | 8 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 22 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- rod — 21.9% of this year's complaints, against 8.6% across the other years of this generation (2.5×). Owners wrote it as: rod, bearing, rod bearing, knocking.
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.
Also unusual this year
- start system — 13% of complaints, 33× usual
- rod — 13% of complaints, 6× usual
- rod bearing — 8% of complaints, 5× usual
What owners wrote
KEYLESS START SYSTEM PROBLEM AND AUTOMATIC LOCK DOESN'T WORK WHEN LEAVI THE CAR.
PERSISTENT KEYLESS START SYSTEM PROBLEM AND AUTO LOCK FEATURE HAS STOPPED WORKING.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 17V219000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 16V417000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 15V424000 SEAT BELTS Fixed free of charge.
- 15V668000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 21V932000 STRUCTURE Fixed free of charge.
- 23V751000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Fixed free of charge.
- 23V858000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 26V365000 STRUCTURE Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Honda Pilot 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 Pilot? What happened to yours?
Loading comments…