all vehicles · every Civic year · method

Honda Civic 2016

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

0.69 per 1,000

2.1 times this nameplate’s own median · from 244 complaints filed in the first three years, of 1081 ever. 95% lower bound 0.61.

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	0.72	246
2009	0.46	139
2010	0.33	86
2011	0.23	56
2012	0.55	148
2013	0.32	103
2014	0.28	92
2015	0.23	77
2016	0.69	244
2017	0.36	136
2018	0.30	107
2019	0.28	91
2020	0.24	70
2021	0.16	41
2022	4.39	874
2023	1.81	303

What owners describe

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

Steering 446 complaints

sticky	123	28%
sticks	112	25%
sticking	82	18%
adjustments	75	17%
stick	56	13%
minor	54	12%

Unknown Or Other 253 complaints

compressor	80	32%
condenser	59	23%
blowing	49	19%
hot air	37	15%
evaporator	33	13%
blowing hot	23	9%

Electrical System 119 complaints

error	15	13%
brake system	12	10%
assist	11	10%
parking brake	10	9%
stationary	10	9%

When it breaks

49% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 30,000 miles, from 495 complaints that recorded one).

No clear early or late pattern.

What NHTSA did

No NHTSA investigation covers this model year.

That is not a clean bill of health, and not a criticism of the agency: investigations open for many reasons and complaint volume is only one of them.

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:

10809523 · 10816192 · 10818856 · 10823637 · 10824361 · 10824873

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 verified against a published figure.