2017 Honda Ridgeline
Complaints about this year name tailgate far more often than the other years of this generation — 20% of them, about 10× the usual rate of 2%.
First year of a new generation. The Honda Ridgeline was redesigned for 2017. 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 | 335 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 78 |
| Involving a crash | 3 |
| Involving a fire | 6 |
| Recalls | 9 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 21.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- water — 6.6% of this year's complaints, against 2.3% across the other years of this generation (2.9×). Owners wrote it as: water, ice, filler, freezes.
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
- backup camera — 13% of complaints, 15× usual
- camera — 23% of complaints, 4× usual
- harness — 17% of complaints, 6× usual
What owners wrote
The harness to the backup camera has split due to the tailgate and the backup camera is no longer working.
Backup camera wiring harness has been pinched and broken by opening the tailgate resulting in the backup camera malfunction.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19V053000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 16V888000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 20E068000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
- 21V932000 STRUCTURE Fixed free of charge.
- 22V867000 BACK OVER PREVENTION Fixed free of charge.
- 23V751000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Fixed free of charge.
- 23V858000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 26V332000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 9. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Honda Ridgeline 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 2017 Honda Ridgeline? What happened to yours?
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