Honda has built its reputation on reliability, but not every recent model year has lived up to it. Looking at complaints filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), along with recall records and lemon-law case data, a clear pattern emerges: certain 2021–2026 Honda vehicles have racked up disproportionately high complaint volumes, repeat defects, and multiple recall campaigns. (2027 model-year Hondas are only just reaching dealers as of this writing, so there isn’t yet enough real-world ownership or complaint data to include them in a “most lemons” ranking — more on that in the FAQ below.)
Here’s a rundown of the 2021–2026 Honda vehicles most frequently flagged by owners and lemon-law attorneys, and why.
2022 Honda Civic
The redesigned 11th-generation Civic launched for 2022, and it brought steering problems along with it. NHTSA data shows roughly 950 complaints for the 2022 model year — several times the average for other recent Civic years — with steering issues (including a sticky or heavy steering wheel) accounting for the largest single category. Forward-collision-avoidance false alarms, lane-departure glitches, and electrical gremlins round out the list. Honda has issued multiple steering-rack recalls tied to this generation, some stemming from botched dealer repairs of earlier recalls.
2023 Honda Civic
The problems didn’t disappear with the second model year of the redesign. The 2023 Civic continued to generate steering and lane-departure complaints, plus a higher share of “severe” complaints (crash, injury, or safety-critical) relative to total complaint volume than most other Civic years. Owners frequently describe the same chafing/steering-rack issue that prompted Honda’s late-2023 recalls covering both the 2022 and 2023 model years.
2021 Honda Pilot
The outgoing third-generation Pilot’s final year attracted a heavy volume of electrical-system and engine complaints — electrical issues alone accounted for well over 100 NHTSA filings. Forward-collision-avoidance false braking, powertrain hesitation (“gear buttons” lag), and a rearview-camera display defect (tied to a separate recall) also show up repeatedly in owner reports.
2021 Honda CR-V
Brake-related complaints dominate the 2021 CR-V’s record, with roughly two-thirds of NHTSA filings tied to brake failure or false activation of the collision-mitigation braking system. This is a continuation of an issue Honda has wrestled with on the CR-V since 2017. Owners also report phantom acceleration, cracking windshields, and sunroofs that shatter without impact.
2023 Honda CR-V
The redesigned sixth-generation CR-V’s first model year saw a jump in complaint volume compared with the 2022 model, with steering, fuel-system, and forward-collision-avoidance problems leading the list. It’s flagged as one of the CR-V’s worse recent years for severity-weighted complaints — meaning a higher-than-usual share of reports involve crashes, injuries, or safety-critical failures rather than minor annoyances.
2022 Honda Accord / HR-V (seatbelt pretensioners)
Accord complaint volume for 2021–2023 is relatively low compared with the Civic, CR-V, and Pilot, but the 2023–2024 Accord and HR-V were both subject to a recall for defective front seatbelt pretensioners, and earlier Accord/Pilot/CR-V model years (2020–2022) were swept up in a large airbag-sensor recall for unintended deployment. Owners with persistent, unresolved defects on these campaigns are among the more common lemon-law claimants in this range.
2022 Honda Odyssey
Complaint patterns for the Odyssey in this window center on forward-collision-avoidance (“phantom braking”), electrical-system faults, and side-view mirror defects that reportedly recur even after the recall repair. The Odyssey also carries one of the longer active recall windows among Honda models (2018–2026 vehicles are covered under some campaigns), which keeps it on lemon-law attorneys’ radar for this era.
Common threads across these model years
A few defect categories show up again and again across the vehicles above:
• Steering system defects — especially on 2022–2023 Civics, tied to incorrectly assembled steering racks.
• Forward collision avoidance / automatic emergency braking — unexpected or “phantom” braking events across CR-V, Odyssey, and Pilot.
• Electrical system faults — recurring on Pilot and Odyssey.
• Auto Idle Stop (start-stop) failures — an open NHTSA investigation covers more than 2 million Honda vehicles, including 2016–2025 Pilots, for engines that won’t restart after idle-stop shutoff.
• Airbag and seatbelt pretensioner recalls — affecting Accord, Civic, CR-V, HR-V, and Pilot across various 2020–2024 model years.
What this means if you own one of these vehicles
A high complaint count doesn’t automatically mean your specific car is a lemon — it means the model year has a documented pattern that regulators and attorneys are tracking. If your vehicle has been in for the same repair multiple times, or spent an extended period in the shop without a fix, most states’ lemon laws may entitle you to a refund, replacement, or cash compensation, typically after two to four unsuccessful repair attempts (fewer for safety-related defects) or around 30 cumulative days out of service, depending on your state.
FAQ
Q1. Which Honda model year has the most NHTSA complaints between 2021 and 2026? Among recent years, the 2022 Honda Civic and 2018 Honda CR-V-era carryover issues stand out, but within the 2021–2026 range specifically, the 2022 Civic (steering-dominated) and the 2023 CR-V (its redesign year) show some of the highest severity-weighted complaint rates for their respective models.
Q2. What are the most common problems in 2021–2026 Hondas? The most frequently reported issues are steering defects (especially Civic), forward-collision-avoidance/automatic-braking false activations (CR-V, Odyssey, Pilot), electrical system faults (Pilot, Odyssey), and Auto Idle Stop failures affecting a wide range of models.
Q3. Does a high complaint count mean my Honda is legally a “lemon”? Not automatically. A high complaint count shows a pattern across a model year, but a legal lemon-law claim depends on your individual vehicle’s repair history — generally multiple unsuccessful attempts to fix the same defect, or an extended cumulative time out of service, while still under warranty.
Q4. Are 2027 Honda models included in lemon complaint data? Not yet. NHTSA complaint data lags real-world ownership by months, and 2027 model-year Hondas are only newly arriving at dealers, so there isn’t enough owner-reported data to meaningfully rank them yet. Any “2027 lemon” claims you see online are premature — check back as complaint and recall data accumulates over the vehicle’s first year on the road.
Q5. What do I need to get started with a Honda lemon claim? Document every repair visit (dates, mileage, description of the problem, and what the dealer did), keep all invoices, and check your state’s specific lemon-law thresholds.
Complaint and recall figures referenced above are drawn from NHTSA’s public complaint database and third-party analyses of that data as of mid-2026; individual counts can shift as new complaints are filed.
What you should do if you think your Honda is a lemon
If you’re experiencing issues with a 2020 – 2026 Honda vehicle which haven’t been fixed in a reasonable number of attempts while under warranty, Joseph Kaufman and Associates can help you file a lemon claim seeking a repurchase or cash settlement.
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