2007 Honda Element
This year drew an ordinary 112 complaints for a Honda Element — the model's median is 111. What they were about is the unusual part: 21.4% of them mention fell, against 5.7% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 112 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 111 |
| Involving a crash | 6 |
| Recalls | 12 |
| EPA combined | 20.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- fell — 21.4% of this year's complaints, against 5.7% across the model's other years (3.7×). Owners wrote it as: fell, indicator, temperature, pothole.
- feel — 22.3% of this year's complaints, against 8.2% across the model's other years (2.7×). Owners wrote it as: feel, soft, drive vehicle, stability.
- instrument — 13.4% of this year's complaints, against 5.1% across the model's other years (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: instrument, panel, instrument panel, fall.
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
PREMATURE FAILURE OF REAR PASSENGER DISC BRAKE AT 22000 MILES. LOUD GRINDING NOISE NOTICED COMING FROM REAR PASSENGER WHEEL. BROUGHT TO DEALER IMMEDIATELY. REAR PASSENGER ROTOR AND BOTH REAR PADS NEEDED TO BE REPLACED, FRONT BRAKES FINE UPON INSPECTION. AFTER…
THE VEHICLE WAS REPAIRED UNDER THE RECALL ASSOCIATED WITH NHTSA CAMPAIGN ID NUMBER 10V098000 (SERVICES BRAKES, AIR). AFTER THE REPAIRS, THE MALFUNCTION INDICATOR LIGHT AND THE CHECK ENGINE LIGHT BEGAN TO ILLUMINATE ON THE INSTRUMENT PANEL. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKE…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19V182000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 19E068000 VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL Fixed free of charge.
- 19V499000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 19V501000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 18V268000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 17V029000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 16V344000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 15V320000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 12. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Honda Element 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 2007 Honda Element? What happened to yours?
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