2020 Honda Pilot
This year drew an ordinary 476 complaints for a Honda Pilot — the model's median is 178. What they were about is the unusual part: 9.9% of them mention speakers, against 0.1% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 3 of the Honda Pilot, which began in 2016 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 | 476 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 178 |
| Involving a crash | 10 |
| Involving a fire | 5 |
| Recalls | 11 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 22 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- speakers — 9.9% of this year's complaints, against 0.1% across the other years of this generation (49.4×).
- crackling — 9% of this year's complaints, against 0.1% across the other years of this generation (45.2×).
- popping — 24.8% of this year's complaints, against 9.2% across the other years of this generation (2.7×). Owners wrote it as: popping, cracking, sounds, noises.
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
AFTER HAVING KNOWN RECALL ISSUE REPAIRED, ELECTRICAL/SOUND SYSTEM STILL CONTINUES WITH AGGRESSIVELY LOUD CRACKING AND POPPING NOISES. THE NOISES AT TIMES ARE OUT OF THE BLUE, CAUSING THE DRIVER AND PASSENGERS TO BE STARTLED. THE INSTRUMENT PANEL WILL FREEZE UP…
WHILE DRIVING WE NOTICED WHAT SOUNDED LIKE SMALL ROCKS HITTING THE WINDSHIELD. AS WE DROVE THE CAR MORE THE CRACKLING/POPPING NOISE GREW WITH FREQUENCY AND INTENSITY. NOW EVERY TIME WE DRIVE WE HEAR INTERMITTENT CRACKLING/POPPING NOISES. AT TIMES IT IS VERY LO…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 20V439000 BACK OVER PREVENTION Fixed free of charge.
- 20V440000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 20V067000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
- 21V165000 TIRES Fixed free of charge.
- 19V784000 STRUCTURE Fixed free of charge.
- 23V174000 VISIBILITY Fixed free of charge.
- 23V431000 BACK OVER PREVENTION Fixed free of charge.
- 23V858000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 11. 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 2020 Honda Pilot? What happened to yours?
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