2023 Honda Pilot
This year drew an ordinary 131 complaints for a Honda Pilot — the model's median is 211. What they were about is the unusual part: 25.2% of them mention seat, against 4.9% across the model's other years.
First year of a new generation. The Honda Pilot was redesigned for 2023. A first year carries problems nobody has found yet, and they are found by the people who buy it — which is worth knowing before you become one of them.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 131 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 211 |
| Involving a crash | 3 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 5 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 21 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- seat — 25.2% of this year's complaints, against 4.9% across the model's other years (5.1×).
- seatbelt — 16% of this year's complaints, against 2.5% across the model's other years (6.4×). Owners wrote it as: seatbelt, second row, replicate, signal.
- dashboard — 16% of this year's complaints, against 5.9% across the model's other years (2.7×). Owners wrote it as: dashboard, pilot elite, lit, triggering.
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
On May 4, 2024, normal driving conditions, experienced what felt like a loss of power. Warning on dashboard says All Wheel Drive System Problem, Only Front Wheels May Be Powered. See Dealer. Pulled car over to side of road and turned engine off. Turned back on…
Right passenger seat in second row alarms that seatbelt is not buckled when it is buckled with a passenger.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 23V735000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
- 24V859000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
- 24V900000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 25V031000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 25V391000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.
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 2023 Honda Pilot? What happened to yours?
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