Honda Civic

Which Honda Civic years should you avoid?

Going by 16,037 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, the Honda Civic years to avoid are 2006, 2007, 2016, 2001 and 2005.

• 20061,404 complaints, 4.0× a typical Civic year, most often about the engine.
• 20071,204 complaints, 3.4× a typical Civic year, most often about the engine.
• 20161,082 complaints, 3.1× a typical Civic year, most often about the steering.
• 20011,079 complaints, 3.1× a typical Civic year, most often about the transmission.
• 20053.0× the usual share of fires, crashes and deaths for a car of its age (9 fires, 74 crashes, 3 deaths).

5 more years cleared the same bar; they are marked in the table below.

Better bets: among years old enough for a low count to mean something, the 2021 and 2020 drew the fewest complaints without an unusual share of serious ones.

Too new to judge: 2025 and 2026. Complaints take a few years to arrive, so a new model year looks better than it is.

How this is worked out: each year is compared with a typical year of the same model, which takes most of the difference in sales out of it, and its share of serious failures is compared with every other car of the same model year, because older cars were complained about differently. A year needs 25 complaints to be judged at all. Complaints are unverified owner reports. Full method →