2021 Honda Pilot
This year drew an ordinary 417 complaints for a Honda Pilot — the model's median is 178. What they were about is the unusual part: 9.4% of them mention mirror, against 2.1% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 3 of the Honda Pilot, which began in 2016 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 | 417 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 178 |
| Involving a crash | 12 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 10 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 22.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- mirror — 9.4% of this year's complaints, against 2.1% across the other years of this generation (4.4×). Owners wrote it as: mirror, mirrors, distorted, side mirror.
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
After having recall work done on the vehicle, the recalled driver side mirror is now not able to be to view roadway safely. The mirror is projecting duplicate images in a single lane and is impossible to view out of. In the photo you can see how the newly inst…
while driving at high speeds, the driver's and passenger's side mirrors were shaking and vibrating which obscured the view of the driver. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer and glue was added to secure the mirrors in place. The vehicle was repaired howe…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 20V440000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 20V439000 BACK OVER PREVENTION Fixed free of charge.
- 20V725000 TIRES Fixed free of charge.
- 23V174000 VISIBILITY Fixed free of charge.
- 23V431000 BACK OVER PREVENTION Fixed free of charge.
- 23V458000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.
- 24V064000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 23V858000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 10. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
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 2021 Honda Pilot? What happened to yours?
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