all vehicles · every Accord year · method

Honda Accord 2018

Safety complaints filed by owners in the first three years, per 1,000 sold.

1.49 per 1,000

2.6 times this nameplate’s own median · from 456 complaints filed in the first three years, of 2007 ever. 95% lower bound 1.35.

Against its own model years

The model year carries far more information than the badge, so this is the comparison that matters.

Model year	Per 1,000	Complaints
2008	1.87	698
2009	0.82	272
2010	0.56	169
2011	0.28	76
2012	0.50	141
2013	1.04	363
2014	0.54	203
2015	0.44	164
2016	0.57	199
2017	0.55	184
2018	1.49	456
2019	0.63	175
2020	0.55	129
2021	0.42	85
2022	0.55	98
2023	1.05	186

What owners describe

Phrases over-represented in these complaints compared with the same component on every other vehicle. Counts are complaints containing the phrase.

Engine 582 complaints

head	338	58%
gasket	323	55%
head gasket	316	54%
blown	125	22%
blown head	92	16%
injectors	84	14%

Forward Collision Avoidance 353 complaints

mitigation	104	22%
collision mitigation	84	18%
mitigation braking	51	11%
cmbs	45	10%
brake system	45	10%
fuel	43	9%

Fuel/Propulsion System 322 complaints

injectors	89	28%
head	86	27%
gasket	81	25%
head gasket	79	25%
fuel injectors	77	24%
misfire	41	13%

When it breaks

60% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 20,250 miles, from 663 complaints that recorded one).

Failures cluster early, which is the signature of how the car was built rather than of wear. A low-mileage example has not yet passed the risk window.

What NHTSA did

3 investigations covering this model year, 1 of which list a recall campaign. Owners had filed 77 complaints about this component over roughly 15 months before an investigation opened.

Inadvertent Automatic Emergency Braking

What owners and forums say

Not built yet. This panel is meant to carry community sentiment beside the filed-complaint data, so the two can be compared. Showing something weaker here would defeat its purpose.

Check this yourself

Example records behind this page:

11041159 · 11055606 · 11057488 · 11060664 · 11061137 · 11062708

Limits of this figure. It counts safety complaints filed with the federal government, which is a floor on failures and not a census: problems that only cost money are under-reported. Complaint rates also reflect how likely a brand’s owners are to file, which cannot be separated from how often the car fails. Sales are calendar-year and the denominator for this nameplate is automated checks only, not verified against an external source.