2021 Honda Accord: What to check before buying

Hard automatic braking with nothing ahead is the dominant complaint. It strikes at 45 to 75 mph, often under adaptive cruise when a lead car exits or turns, or when traffic sits only in adjacent lanes. A brake warning flashes, and pressing the accelerator often fails to override it. Three reports describe rear-end crashes, two with injuries, and some cars were totaled. Dealers often cannot reproduce the fault or call it normal behavior. One software update did not cure it.

Infotainment phantom touches lead this category. The screen changes menus, cancels navigation, raises volume and places calls on its own, mostly in warm weather. Resets, software updates and even a replaced audio unit often fail to stop it. Other reports describe sudden clusters of brake, parking brake and driver-assist warnings, rear wheels locking from the electric parking brake, door lock actuators failing at about 30,000 miles, and no-start messages. One parked car filled with smoke, which the fire department traced to exposed wiring.

False automatic braking also shows up here, including at intersections when a turning car clears the lane. Three of these reports involve rear-end crashes, one with a semi. A separate pattern is grinding or squealing from the rear brakes while backing up. It often starts when the car is new, and dealers say they cannot reproduce it. Some cars show stacked warnings for the brake system, brake hold and electric parking brake. One dealer fixed this with a brake sensor.

Most of these reports concern a recall repair owners cannot get. Owners notified under recall 24V064000, tied to a passenger seat weight sensor, say parts are unavailable. Some dealers quote waits of 4-5 years. Others say they will only repair cars whose airbag light is on. Few owners report an actual failure. One describes a diagnostic scan finding a faulty restraint system at 38,000 miles with no warning light shown.

Head gasket failure is the central problem on the 1.5 turbo, 2.0 turbo and hybrid. Symptoms include coolant loss, white smoke, cylinder misfires, a flashing check engine light and a sudden loss of power at highway speed with many dash warnings. Failures cluster from about 50k to 100,000 miles. Dealers often find no stored codes at first. Other reports cite a stretched timing chain on the 1.5T at 86000 miles and repeat fuel pump replacements. One crash involved sudden acceleration while in Park.

Lane keeping assist jerks the steering wheel hard and can pull the car toward another lane. This happens mostly when driving into direct sunlight. Some owners leave the feature switched off. In cold weather, the whole driver-assist suite can shut down with a string of warnings lasting 5-60 minutes. Other reports describe hard braking triggered by crack sealer mistaken for lane lines, wildly wrong speed limit readings, and blind spot alerts with no vehicle present.

Sudden, violent steering pulls are the serious pattern here. Three crash reports involve the wheel jerking or steering and brakes failing at speed, and one rollover injured two people. Several owners link the jerking to false lane-keeping alerts. Less severe reports include an Electric Power Steering Problem message at low speed that clears after a restart, steering that briefly seizes, loose steering on the highway, and a rubbing noise when turning in parking lots.

Head gasket failure again drives most reports. The car can shut down without warning, every dash light comes on, and power drops at highway speed. One such failure led to a crash with two injuries. Another pattern is power loss with a flashing engine light during heavy rain. Normal operation returns after the car sits off for a while. Isolated reports describe steering shake under braking at 60 to 65 mph and a car that would not move after a loud thud.