Honda Odyssey Reliability by Year
Best & Worst Years, Problems & Recalls β NHTSA Data
Comparing used Honda Odyssey options? We analyzed 10 model years (2017β2026) using real NHTSA complaint and recall data so you can spot stronger years, avoid riskier ones, and know what to inspect before buying.
Model-year trends show patterns. Run a VIN check for the exact Honda Odyssey you plan to buy.
Based on NHTSA complaint data, the Honda Odyssey has 2,781 owner complaints and 78 safety recalls across model years 2017β2026. The most reported issue area is ELECTRICAL SYSTEM. 2018 drew the most complaints; 2026 drew the fewest.
- Make
- Honda
- Model
- Odyssey
- Model years analyzed
- 2017β2026 (10 years)
- Total NHTSA complaints
- 2,781
- Safety recall campaigns
- 78
- Crash-related complaints
- 44
- Fire-related complaints
- 16
- Worst model year (by complaints)
- 2018 (913 complaints)
- Best model year (fewest complaints)
- 2026 (10 complaints)
- Top reported issue area
- ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
- Reliability signal
- Poor
Honda Odyssey: Which Years to Avoid & Which to Buy
Based on total NHTSA owner complaints per model year. Higher complaint counts indicate a riskier year to buy used β lower counts suggest a cleaner reliability record.
These years have the most owner complaints. Inspect carefully and always run a VIN check.
These years have the fewest owner complaints on record β lower risk starting points.
β NHTSA NCAP Crash Test Ratings
New Car Assessment ProgramNCAP crash tests measure how well a vehicle protects occupants in controlled frontal crash, side crash, and rollover scenarios. Stars are awarded per category (5 = safest). These laboratory results are independent of owner complaints and are performed by NHTSA engineers on new production vehicles.
What the Complaint Data Suggests
PoorThe HONDA ODYSSEY has 2,781 NHTSA complaints and 78 recalls on record. 44 complaints involve crash-related incidents. This data reflects owner-reported issues submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
- 2,781 total complaints filed with NHTSA
- 78 federal recall campaigns
- 44 crash-related complaints on record
- Review NHTSA complaint history for the most-reported components
- Check recall completion status at nhtsa.gov/recalls
- Verify service records for frequently complained components
Consult the by-year breakdown to identify model years with elevated complaint rates.
Consult the by-year breakdown to identify model years with fewer reported issues.
- Run a VIN check on the specific vehicle you are considering
- Verify all open recalls are completed at nhtsa.gov/recalls
- Request service records for the most-reported complaint components
- Have a certified mechanic inspect the vehicle before purchase
π NHTSA Safety Recalls
78 recalls foundSafety recalls are mandatory repair campaigns ordered by NHTSA when a vehicle defect poses an unreasonable risk to safety. Manufacturers are required to fix recalled vehicles free of charge. Always verify open recalls before buying a used car.
Safety Recall
Safety Recall
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Safety Recall
Source: NHTSA Recalls Database. Data covers model years 2017β2026. Always run a VIN-specific check below for the most up-to-date open recall status.
π§ Most-Reported Problem Areas
Based on component keywords extracted from all 2,781 NHTSA complaints.
π NHTSA Complaint Reports
2,781 totalThese are consumer-submitted safety complaints filed directly with NHTSA. Each complaint describes a real owner's experience. Complaints flagged as crash-related or fire-related are highlighted.
My 2026 Honda Odyssey was stopped at a traffic light with Auto Idle Stop engaged. When traffic was ready to move, the engine appeared to restart for about half a second and then shut down. The vehicle then shifted itself into Park and would not resume normal operation. The battery warning light was illuminated. Pressing the engine Start/Stop button caused all of the screens/displays to turn off briefly, but they came back on in the same failed state. The vehicle was disabled in traffic at an intersection. The component or system that failed appears to be the Auto Idle Stop / engine restart system, possibly involving the starter, starter relay, battery/charging system, or engine control software. The vehicle is available for inspection upon request. My safety and the safety of others were put at risk because the vehicle unexpectedly failed to restart and became disabled while stopped at a traffic light, creating a traffic obstruction and risk of being struck from behind or causing other drivers to maneuver around the vehicle. The problem has not yet been reproduced or confirmed by a dealer or independent service center. UNKNOWN whether diagnostic trouble codes were stored. The vehicle/component has not yet been inspected by the manufacturer, police, insurance representatives, or others. There were no warning lamps, messages, or symptoms prior to the failure that I noticed. The battery warning light appeared after the engine shut down and the vehicle would not restart normally.
I was driving down a 35mph road, the car in front of me slowed down, I was about 2 car lengths behind it. No notice, no warning, my Odyssey SLAMMED on the brakes and brought me to an abrupt stop with no notice and no need. Everything in the van flew forward and in the floor. Luckily there was no one directly behind me. It gives me serious whiplash when this happens and it is uncalled for, the car in front of me did not stop it only slowed down, there was plenty of room between our vehicles (we were only going about 30 mph) and there was absolutely no warning- just BAM! and my van was stopped in the middle of the road. Something needs to be done about this, someone is going to be killed! I took it to the dealer the last time and they said the van did not record it. So another easy out for Honda! And nothing they can do...
Moonroof exploded while driving 55 mph. I took pictures. It was completely distracting while driving and a very scary incident. Searching online provided a class action lawsuit against Honda for this issue. We have not been able to get it looked at due to it being the weekend and the service department is not open. No police were called. Insurance claim started. No warning before it happened.
The vehicleβs Blind Spot Warning system intermittently fails during normal operation. The warning message βBlind spot information system problem. See your dealer.β appears after driving or after restarting the vehicle. The system may function initially (for example, when leaving a garage), but then disables itself during driving or after the vehicle is parked and restarted. The issue first occurred within the first week of ownership and has persisted and become more frequent over time. The vehicle currently has approximately 4,500 miles. This failure affects a driver assistance safety feature intended to warn of vehicles in adjacent lanes that may not be visible to the driver. The malfunction creates a safety risk because the system becomes unavailable unpredictably during normal driving conditions. The failure is intermittent and cannot be consistently reproduced at a service appointment. The vehicle has been presented for service; however, the condition could not be diagnosed because the warning was not active at the time of inspection. The dealer advised that the issue could not be evaluated without the warning present. Proposed options included leaving the vehicle for an extended period to attempt to reproduce the intermittent condition, or returning when the warning is active. Due to the unpredictable and intermittent nature of the failure, this approach has not resulted in a diagnosis or repair. The failure remains unresolved. The system failure occurs during routine commuting and affects the ability to safely monitor adjacent lanes when changing lanes.
Sunroof spontaneously exploded while driving. No object hit the sunroof.
My husband and I are driving down the road to go to the store and the sunroof exploaded there was no car in front or behind us for something to of had hit it. It just burst into pieces
The contact owns a 2026 Honda Odyssey. The contact stated that while driving on several occasions at various speeds, the blind spot monitor became inoperable with the message "Blind Spot Information Systems Failure - See Dealer" displayed. The contact also stated that while in the driver assist mode, the message "System Could not be Retrieved - Please try Again" was displayed. The vehicle was taken to a dealer where it was determined that a systems update was needed but was not currently available. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and a complaint was filed. The failure mileage was 6.
While changing lanes to an off-ramp the Collision Mitigation Braking system suddenly activated along with a collision warning beep even though there were no automobiles nearby to trigger the warning. No cars in front of me and no cars to the right of me in the exit lane. My car immediately braked and tried to steer back into the main roadway, away from the exit lane. The lane departure light did also come on due to me not using a turn signal prior to the lane change, but there was nothing else around to trigger a proximity alert nor to respond to.
On November 12, I was on the highway in the right lane, there was a car about 4 car lengths ahead of me in my lane and the car in the middle lane was quite a distance ahead. Just as I got in the middle lane, BOOM! the vehicle's CMBS malfunctioned and slammed on the brakes - no warning, visual or audible, just came to an abrupt stop. Thank goodness no one was behind me or I would have been dead. It was an instant whiplash effect as well And then as I was then merging back into the right lane to exit the highway, it did it again! There were NO cars anywhere near me as I had slowed down due to the trauma from the first braking malfunction and all the cars were quite a distance ahead and thank goodness there were no cars behind me. Then on November 25, the same thing happened again. Driving down the highway, no cars near and BOOM! I am brought to an abrupt stop in the middle of the highway! The CMBS malfunctioned again in the middle of the highway. I took it to the dealer and conveniently there were no codes so they said there was nothing they could do. Someone needs to do something about this! To answer your questions 1) CMBS system is malfunctioning and has been for quite some time on Honda vehicles 2) If there would have been a vehicle behind me, I most likely would have been killed. If my dogs would have been in the van, they would have been injured. It gave me whiplash 3) I took it in and they did nothing until I complained, then they kept it a second day and drove it and said it didn't do it. But they weren't even going to do anything until I pushed the issue. This is a known issue with Honda as I found out AFTER it happened to me. 4) the dealer 5) Absolutely NO warnings before it happened
Observed repeatedly while operating at highway/interstate cruising speed, with adaptive cruise engaged: any changes in road texture - concrete to blacktop, between different types of blacktop or concrete, separation joints, etc - such as when crossing a bridge, crossing state lines, entering open-road toll plazas, etc - results in a sharp lifting of the throttle and at times will also automatically engage the brakes. This results in rapidly and unexpectedly cutting speed by 10-15 mph before automatically resuming set speed 1-2 seconds later. This has resulted in trailing vehicles to think I am brake-checking them or otherwise caused them to abruptly brake or swerve out from behind me. It also can cause driver and occupants in the Odyssey to lurch forward and back unexpectedly - which has had a residual affect of unintended input on the steering wheel, cascading into unintended direction change and amplifying vehicle instability issues already introduced by the sudden speed change. There are multiple other owners of 2018+ Odysseys on the forum [XXX] which have reported similar situations. I have tried to encourage them to register their observations here. I believe this issue poses a significant risk to the operator and occupants, as well as surrounding motorists. Rental/fleet vehicles with drivers who are otherwise unfamiliar with the issue would be at exceptional risk. I have experienced this issue numerous times as I live near & frequent highways and interstates with these types of road conditions nearby. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
The contact owns a 2017 Honda Odyssey hauling a trailer equipped with a Rhino USA Trailer Hitch Coupler Lock Kit. The contact stated that while driving at 70 MPH over a bump, the trailer hitch latch lock had failed, causing the trailer to detach and strike the rear of the vehicle, producing sparks. The safety chain remained on the trailer. Upon inspection, the contact discovered that the coupler latch had opened and the lock was no longer securing the trailer. The trailer lock was found, but the pin was missing. The contact used a jack to lift the trailer and put the trailer back on the hitch using another pin and was able to continue driving for the rest of the trip. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was unavailable.
I was driving on the highway at approximately 65 mph and the passenger side SRS (seatbelt and airbag) deployed. There was no collision, pothole or any other change in momentum to the vehicle immediately prior to deployment. No other airbags deployed.
Vehicle jerks and stalls while accelerating and has died and coasted at times. Was told it has a recall but was not issued one since I have owned it since early this year. Called a Honda dealership and was told that it did not qualify for the recall. Seems to do this after Iβve drove it for a while and it is warmed up.
-Torque convertor/transmission. We do currently have it and it could be inspected. -A sudden transmission failure could pose a safety risk to us and others. -Yes, see story below. Technician drove and did report feeling the shuddering. -Yes, by honda and now a third party mechanic. -No lights. We received a recall/extension warranty for the torque converter/transmission. My van is currently having shuddering issues. When we took it to Milton Martin Honda in Gainesville, GA, they reported the issue is present, but not at a certain "threshold" for them to be required to fix it. They then proceeded to charge me $175 for diagnostics because the issue did not reach said "threshold." They then proceeded to tell me that a torque convertor will cost me $5200 and that the reason it is so expensive is because they just raised their prices on torque convertors. Definitely appears that they are weaseling out of fixing these recall/warranty extensions and then up-charging when people do have to pay cash for the vehicle to get fixed. Also I have researched and torque convertors with labor are not that expensive and thus things seems a bit nefarious. Currently we are getting a third party mechanic involved to assess the vehicle further.
At 60 mph the vehicle began shaking , I pulled over , put it in park while still running, and got out to inspect. I noticed some smoke from under the hood and by the time I got inside to release the hood latch , the smoke stopped. With multiple lights on the dash I shut it off . It would not restart . It was towed to my home. We pulled off the belt and attempted to turn the engine crank with a breaker bar, and it is seized. We also hooked up a scanner in which it showed many faults.The battery tested good , and the starter was trying to engage .
The contact owns a 2017 Honda Odyssey. The contact stated that after exiting the vehicle and pressing the buttons to lock the doors, the front driverβs side door locked and immediately unlocked, failing to remain secured. The cause of the failure was not yet determined. The local dealer and the manufacturer were notified of the failure, but no assistance was offered. The failure mileage was 80,000.
I own a 2017 Honda Odyssey that is currently covered under an extended warranty related to the torque converter, specifically addressing Diagnostic Trouble Code (DTC) P0741. I experienced symptoms twiceβonce in January 2025 and again in May 2025βusing an OBD-II scanner. I documented these occurrences with independent scan results in May and confirmed communication via text message at the time of the first incident. Following the second occurrence, I had the transmission fluid changed, which cleared the error code. I later received an official notification letter in June 2025 regarding the extended warranty coverage for the torque converter issue. At that point, both incidents had already occurred. I scheduled an appointment with my local Honda dealership (Serra Champaign) to have the issue addressed under the warranty. However, the dealership stated they were unable to retrieve the P0741 code from the vehicle and would not proceed with the required teardown or submit a warranty claim unless the code was actively present in their system. Despite providing the dealership with third-party documentation clearly showing that the P0741 code had occurred, they advised that American Honda policy requires a current fault code before any repair or investigation can begin. I then contacted American Honda Customer Support and opened a case, but was told that the dealership has full discretion on whether or not to proceed with a warranty repair. The dealership, meanwhile, maintained that they cannot move forward without current code data due to Hondaβs policy, leaving me in a circular situation with no resolution. This issue was clearly experienced during the warranty period, but due to the delayed arrival of the warranty notification and the policy requiring a current DTC, I am now at risk of missing the opportunity to have the problem properly repairedβeven with documented proof. My Odyssey is currently within 9,000 miles of the extended warranty mileage limit.
On two separate occasions, while unattended and sitting in my garage, the vehicle seemed to be attempting to start by itself. Instrument panel warning lights were all flashing on and off with ignition clicking. The key fob was nowhere near the vehicle. I started the vehicle but then WAS UNABE TO SHUT THE ENGINE OFF by pressing the ignition button. ALSO FEARED THE POSSIBILITY OF AN ELECTRICAL FIRE. Had to pull the fuel pump fuse to do so. A local Honda dealership diagnosed (by reviewing Honda's service library) as a faulty ignition control unit and replaced at a cost of $1,100.00.
While driving, the battery indicator light illuminated. Suddenly, the power turned off. The vehicle could be steered and brakes used, only. Then, as quickly as the power turned off, it restored and momentarily powered the accelerator. Then the power stopped again. The lights within the cabin and on the dash flickered and chimed like they were possessed. Then nothing. When the power would flicker on, the engine/transmission would "catch" and jerk the vehicle. Fortunately, I coasted to my residence without an auto accident. I reported this issue to Williamsburg Honda who will address the issue tomorrow when the vehicle is towed there. I was at risk along with my two school-aged children for a deadly auto accident since the power to the vehicle was lost. I have to use another vehicle and am uncertain of my trust for the van with myself and my family after this terrifying incident.
Driver side rear sliding door fell off after cables snapped when opening. This puts my kids at risk of falling out of the car. This happened spontaneously without any accidents or force.
Showing 20 of 2,781 total NHTSA complaints. Source: NHTSA Complaints Database
Before You Buy, Check the Exact Honda Odyssey
These pages show model-year patterns across 10years. Enter a VIN to verify the exact vehicle's accident history, title brands, odometer records, and open recall status before purchase.
π Understanding This Data
What is an NHTSA Complaint?
An NHTSA safety complaint is a report filed directly by a vehicle owner or driver describing a safety-related issue. Anyone can submit a complaint at NHTSA.gov. The number of complaints is a signal of how common a problem is β but complaints per model-year matter more than raw totals, since popular vehicles naturally receive more reports. The Honda Odyssey has 2,781 complaints on record across 10 model years.
What is a Safety Recall?
A safety recall is a mandatory campaign issued by NHTSA when a vehicle component poses an unreasonable risk to safety or does not comply with federal motor vehicle safety standards. Unlike complaints (which are owner-reported), recalls are formally investigated and confirmed by regulators. Manufacturers must fix recalled vehicles free of charge. The Honda Odyssey has 78 recall campaigns in the NHTSA database.
What Are Crash Complaints?
Crash complaints are NHTSA filings where the owner indicates a crash occurred as part of the incident. 44 of the Honda Odyssey's 2,781 complaints involved a crash. This metric is particularly important because it indicates how often defects resulted in actual collisions β a key safety signal beyond general reliability.
How Is the Reliability Verdict Calculated?
The reliability verdict (Poor) is generated by analyzing the vehicle's total complaints, recall history, crash complaint ratio, fire complaint ratio, and top component failures relative to class averages. This verdict gives buyers a quick interpretation before they review year-level details and VIN-level history. It should be treated as one decision input, not a substitute for a VIN-specific report.
Why Do Newer Years Have Fewer Complaints?
Newer model years appear to have fewer complaints because there has been less time for owners to file them. Complaints accumulate over years of ownership. A 2020 model year vehicle will typically show fewer complaints than a 2015 model year even if it is less reliable β simply because fewer owners have had time to report issues. Focus on complaints per year of market presence when comparing across model years.
Fleet Data vs. Individual VIN
Everything on this page reflects aggregated data across all Honda Odyssey vehicles on the road β not any specific car. Two Honda Odyssey vehicles of the same year can have very different histories: one may have been in three accidents and have an open recall; another may be clean. A VIN check gives you the individual car's history: accidents, title brands, odometer records, service history, and real-time recall status.
What Are NHTSA Investigations?
When NHTSA receives a pattern of related safety complaints, it opens a formal investigation. A Preliminary Evaluation (PE) is the first stage β NHTSA determines if a safety defect may exist. If evidence is strong, it escalates to an Engineering Analysis (EA), which can result in a mandatory recall. The Honda Odyssey has 0 investigations on record (0 active). Investigations listed above may have already led to the recalls shown on this page.
Buyers Also Compare
How does the Honda Odyssey stack up? Compare complaint history with similar vehicles.
π Check a Honda Odyssey by State
Title-branding rules, flood-damage exposure, and salvage laws vary by state. Run a free VIN check or explore state-specific vehicle history guidance before buying a used Honda Odyssey.