LIVE Global accident monitoring — updating every 15 minutes
Owner-Reported Problems · NHTSA

2020 Honda Civic — Problems & Complaints

NHTSA has 226 owner complaints on file for this vehicle. Every report below was filed by a real owner with the US government's road-safety agency.

226
Complaints
filed with NHTSA
15
Involved a Crash
owner-reported
1
Involved Fire
owner-reported
12
Injuries
across all reports
Years to Avoid

Honda Civic — Complaints by Model Year

Years flagged AVOID have at least twice this model's average complaint count — the strongest public-data signal of a bad year.

319 complaints

292 complaints

380 complaints

1,081 complaints

599 complaints

596 complaints

346 complaints

226 complaints

145 complaints

883 complaints

0 complaints

0 complaints

0 complaints

0 complaints

Problem Areas

What Owners Complain About Most

Electrical System 36 reports
Unknown Or Other 36 reports
Power Train 31 reports
Steering 30 reports
Air Bags 29 reports
Forward Collision Avoidance 24 reports
Fuel/propulsion System 24 reports
Service Brakes 14 reports
In Their Own Words

Recent Owner Reports

Steering ODI 11633120 12/30/2024

The steering wheel will often stick while turning at high speeds on the high way, causing forceful correction of the steering wheel for it to un stick. This also happens at moderate speeds on city roads. The force required to unstick the steering wheel can cause sharp swerving motions with the car. This can be unsafe.

Power Train ODI 11562457 12/28/2023

TSB 22-017 failing clutch on all M/T civic 2020&2021. Failed on highway almost caused severe accident. Honda is refusing to repair/replace under warranty.

Power Train ODI 11561613 12/23/2023

Over the last few months, I noticed that the vehicle had poor acceleration when merging onto the highway. When I tried to accelerate, the RPMs shot up as the turbo kicked in, but the car did not move any faster. Previous to this, I had trouble getting the car into 1st while sitting still (50+ times). The final incident occurred during a short trip to a local store. The engine …

Air Bags ODI 11444790 12/23/2021

Stopped at a red light, I was rear ended by a car going 30-35 mph and pushed into the car in front of me. The driver seat was in a reclining position after impact, I was sitting up when hit and wound up laying almost to the back seat after impact but the airbag never deployed causing my stomach to hit the steering wheel.

Service Brakes ODI 11561439 12/22/2023

A lot of times the warning collision on dash will flash to “BRAKE” when going through caution lights usually around fire stations and also approaching steel bridges… I don’t know if it sees the steel deck and thinks it’s a car, but whenever I get in my car, I deactivate the automatic emergency braking system because I don’t want it to automatically brake for me like it’s done …

Same Vehicle

Recalls & Crash Tests

Complaints are one half of the picture — see the official recalls and NHTSA crash-test stars for the 2020 Honda Civic, or check your exact car by VIN with the free VIN lookup.

Check Another Car

Problems Checker

Any year, make and model: open the Car Problems Checker. Data: NHTSA (US DOT, public domain), cached up to 7 days.

Questions

FAQ

Is the 2020 Honda Civic reliable?
Owners have filed 226 safety complaints with NHTSA for the 2020 Honda Civic, most often about electrical system. Compare the complaint counts across model years above — a year with far more complaints than the model's average is the strongest 'avoid' signal in public data.
Which Honda Civic years should I avoid?
The rule of thumb used by analysts: a model year whose complaint count is well above the model's own average (we flag 2× or more) usually had a real manufacturing or design problem — not just noisy reporting. Use the year-by-year strip on this page.
Where do these complaints come from?
Directly from NHTSA, the US government road-safety agency. Any owner can file a Vehicle Owner Questionnaire; NHTSA publishes them as public domain data. We cache each lookup for up to 7 days.
Do complaints mean a recall is coming?
Sometimes. NHTSA opens defect investigations when complaint patterns emerge, and investigations can end in recalls. Check the recalls page for this vehicle to see what has already been recalled.