2005 Honda Civic
This year drew an ordinary 314 complaints for a Honda Civic — the model's median is 440. What they were about is the unusual part: 22.9% of them mention bag, against 7.6% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 314 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 440 |
| Involving a crash | 74 |
| Involving a fire | 9 |
| Recalls | 15 |
| EPA combined | 30 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- bag — 22.9% of this year's complaints, against 7.6% across the model's other years (3×). Owners wrote it as: bag, air bag, deployed, bag light.
- deploy — 17.5% of this year's complaints, against 5% across the model's other years (3.5×). Owners wrote it as: deploy, involved, impact, chest.
- airbag — 14% of this year's complaints, against 4.1% across the model's other years (3.4×). Owners wrote it as: airbag, airbag deploy, side airbag, inflator.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
TAKATA RECALL - I WAS IN A CAR ACCIDENT AND MY PASSENGER AIR BAG DEPLOYED ALTHOUGH NO ONE WAS SITTING IN THAT SEAT AND MY DRIVER SIDE AIRBAG DID NOT DEPLOY. I WAS IN HOSPITAL FOR FRACTURED RIBS. CAR IS TOTALED. I WAS DRIVING AND HIT A TURNING CAR ON THE STREET…
WHILE DRIVING 65 MPH, THE FRONT PASSENGER AIR BAG DEPLOYED EVEN THOUGH THE VEHICLE WAS NOT INVOLVED IN A CRASH. THE VEHICLE WAS NOT TAKEN TO THE DEALER. THE [VIN] WAS CONTACTED AND STATED THAT THE VEHICLE WAS NO LONGER UNDER WARRANTY. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 1…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19V182000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 19V501000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 19V499000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 14V700000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 18V268000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 15V320000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 15V370000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 14V353000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 15. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Honda Civic was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2005 Honda Civic? What happened to yours?
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