2021 Honda Civic: What to check before buying

The wheel sticks or binds, mostly at highway speeds and in curves, then jerks free when the driver pushes through it. The car wanders and resists small lane corrections. Dealers diagnose a failed steering rack or electric power steering gearbox and quote $4,000 to $5400, often just after the warranty ends. Reports cluster between about 28,500 and 50,981 miles. Owners tie the fault to the recall on 2022-2024 Civics, but 2021 VINs are not covered. Two complaints involve crashes, and many describe near loss of control.

Electrical faults vary widely. Infotainment screens freeze, black out, or reboot while driving, which takes out navigation and the backup camera. False brake warnings sometimes trigger automatic braking on an empty road. Several reports describe rodents chewing the wiring harness insulation, which disables power steering and driver-assist systems at once. Other complaints cover sticky steering from an electric power steering failure, a car that shuts down near stops, auto-lock cycling, and dim headlights on LX, Sport, and EX trims. One complaint involves a crash after the brakes locked up.

Automatic emergency braking engages with nothing ahead, often at highway speeds and frequently with adaptive cruise control on. The car flashes BRAKE and slows sharply, so following drivers have to brake hard to avoid hitting it. Triggers include passing cars, vehicles in turn lanes, and roadside barrels. Some events leave a string of driver-assist warnings lit on the dash. A few reports describe lane keeping steering the car toward a wall. Dealers usually cannot reproduce the problem, so most cars go unrepaired.

Most of these complaints are about recall 24V064000, not an actual failure. Dealers lack parts for the repair. Owners report waiting months with no waitlist, and Honda is prioritizing cars with the airbag light on. A smaller set describes real faults: front airbags deploying with no impact and cracking the windshield, a passenger airbag deploying backward in a side collision, and no deployment in a front-end crash. Two complaints involve crashes, with two people injured.

Unintended braking dominates. The car brakes hard on clear roads at 25 to 35 mph or with cruise control on, sometimes to a full stop. It may not release right away when the driver presses the gas. Near rear-end collisions come up repeatedly, and dealers find no codes. Other complaints describe a frozen caliper with uneven brake wear. One car stalled at about 108,000 miles and was diagnosed with a bad brake master cylinder, along with fuel pump and ignition coil failures.

These complaints are few but serious. Reports describe the engine revving while the car barely moves from a stop, abrupt slowdowns with cruise control on, unexpected deceleration at 50 mph, and sudden acceleration in reverse with the brake pressed. One highway case involved locked brakes, a locked steering wheel, and an unneeded airbag deployment before a collision. Two complaints involve crashes and one involves fire. Dealers could not replicate the problems.

Sudden stalls and loss of power define this small group. One car lost power at 35 mph and needed a new transmission. It later crashed when the steering stuck in a turn, and the crash led to a fire and an injury. Other reports describe a car that keeps trying to die alongside electrical problems, and a shutdown after startup followed by an evaporative leak code that the owner links to the fuel pump recall.

These complaints concern an open seat recall, not a failure in use. Dealers have had no parts for more than a year. Owners say they were notified that parts had arrived, then learned at booking that the part still was not in. One owner could not finish importing the car because the recall remained open. None of the excerpts describe a seat failing while driving.