2005 Honda Pilot
Complaints about this year name transmission far more often than the other years of this generation — 21% of them, about 7× the usual rate of 2.8%.
Generation 1 of the Honda Pilot, which began in 2003 and ran to 2008. 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 | 679 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 178 |
| Involving a crash | 42 |
| Involving a fire | 8 |
| Recalls | 15 |
| EPA combined | 17 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- transmission — 20.8% of this year's complaints, against 2.8% across the other years of this generation (7.3×).
- sensor — 12.7% of this year's complaints, against 2.3% across the other years of this generation (5.6×). Owners wrote it as: sensor, impact.
- radiator — 11.2% of this year's complaints, against 3.4% across the other years of this generation (3.3×). Owners wrote it as: radiator, fluid, transmission fluid, coolant.
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.
Also unusual this year
- vsa — 18% of complaints, 3× usual
- sensor — 11% of complaints, 7× usual
- radiator — 9% of complaints, 7× usual
What owners wrote
WHILE DRIVING AT ANY SPEED SOMETIMES MY VEH BRAKE ON FOR ABOUT SECOND, AND THE WARNING LIGHT OF VSA APPEARS, I TOOK MY VEH 3 TIMES TO BRAMAN HONDA AT CORAL WAYI WAS TOLD NOTHING THEY CAN DO, THE PROBLEM THAT I HAVE IS WITH THE YAW RATE SENSOR AND THAT IS NOT C…
LOSS OF POWER ON HIGHWAY EVEN WHEN ACCELERATOR ENGAGED. HAD TO PULL OVER THE SHOULDER. VEHICLE COULD NOT BE DRIVEN. SMOKE WAS COMING FROM THE REAR OF VEHICLE BUT SENT AWAY AFTER ENGINE WAS SHUT OFF. VEHICLE HAD TO BE TOWED. SERVICE DEPARTMENT AT NEAREST HONDA…
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.
- 19V501000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 19V499000 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.
- 14V700000 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 Pilot 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 Pilot? What happened to yours?
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