2012 Honda Insight
This year drew an ordinary 59 complaints for a Honda Insight — the model's median is 31. What they were about is the unusual part: 39% of them mention consumption, against 0% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 59 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 31 |
| Involving a crash | 1 |
| Recalls | 8 |
| EPA combined | 41 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- consumption — 39% of this year's complaints, against 0% across the model's other years (194.9×).
- oil — 62.7% of this year's complaints, against 4% across the model's other years (15.5×).
- burning — 35.6% of this year's complaints, against 7.9% across the model's other years (4.5×). Owners wrote it as: burning, burning oil, little, engine block.
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
I HAVE A 2012 HONDA INSIGHT. ON 12/23/18 I WAS DRIVING ON THE HIGHWAY AND THE POWER CUT OUT. THIS IS THE 3RD INCIDENT IN A ONE YEAR AND HALF WHERE THE SPARK PLUGS HAVE BLOWN CUTTING THE POWER TO THE CAR. MECHANIC TOLD ME IT WOULD BE $1700. I COULDN'T GET IT FI…
MY HONDA INSIGHT 2012 IS BURNING OIL. AFTER AN OIL CHANGE I DRIVE AROUND 800 MILES I'M 1/2 QUART LOW ON OIL. THIS IS NOT NORMAL AT ALL.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 18V661000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 18V268000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 19V502000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 19V378000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 17V545000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 17V030000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 18V042000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 16V061000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Honda Insight 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 Insight? What happened to yours?
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