2012 Honda Civic
This year drew an ordinary 454 complaints for a Honda Civic — the model's median is 396. What they were about is the unusual part: 14.1% of them mention bag, against 5.5% across the other years of this generation.
First year of a new generation. The Honda Civic was redesigned for 2012. A first year carries problems nobody has found yet, and they are found by the people who buy it — which is worth knowing before you become one of them.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 454 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 396 |
| Involving a crash | 55 |
| Involving a fire | 5 |
| Recalls | 3 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 31 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- bag — 14.1% of this year's complaints, against 5.5% across the other years of this generation (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: bag, air bag, bag system, bag light.
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
VEHICLE CHECK AIR BAG SYSTEM LIGHT KEEPS COMING ON AND I AM AFRAID IT WOULD NOT DEPLOY IN THE EVENT OF AN ACCIDENT.
CHECK AIR BAG SYSTEM WARNING MESSAGE POPS UP WHILE CAR IS TRAVELING DOWN THE ROAD A SHORT SHORT DISTANCE. THE CAR HAS NEVER BEEN IN AN ACCIDENT.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 12V548000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
- 11V288000 FUEL SYSTEM, OTHER Fixed free of charge.
- 12V256000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
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 2012 Honda Civic? What happened to yours?
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