2021 Honda CR-V
This year drew an ordinary 318 complaints for a Honda CR-V — the model's median is 479. What they were about is the unusual part: 27% of them mention wheel, against 9.7% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 4 of the Honda CR-V, which began in 2017 and ran to 2022. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 318 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 479 |
| Involving a crash | 14 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 4 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 29.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- wheel — 27% of this year's complaints, against 9.7% across the other years of this generation (2.8×).
- sticky — 9.4% of this year's complaints, against 3.6% across the other years of this generation (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: sticky, sticky steering.
- sticks — 9.4% of this year's complaints, against 3.7% across the other years of this generation (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: sticks, steering sticks, exact same, newer.
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
Steering sticks/EPS failing. While driving, steering wheel randomly has excessive resistance & then frees up. While at hide speeds on the interstate, it causes over correction & near accidents on several occasions. NUMEROUS repost of this on various forums & r…
Sticky steering wheel. Happens when temperatures get above 75 degrees. Feels like the steering wheel might not turn.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 21V900000 SEAT BELTS Fixed free of charge.
- 24V064000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 23V858000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 26V332000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Honda CR-V 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 2021 Honda CR-V? What happened to yours?
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