2023 Honda Civic: What to check before buying

The wheel turns stiff, sticky, or notchy, most often at highway speeds during small lane corrections. It resists, then breaks free and overshoots, and several drivers say it gets worse after 10 to 30 minutes of driving. These reports usually begin between roughly 4,000 and 11,000 miles. Of 252 complaints, 8 involve crashes, including cars that would not turn and left the road. Many reports mention the steering recall, with dealers citing part shortages and long waits for the repair. Some owners say their sticky steering continues apart from the recall.

Several warning lights come on at once, often for the brakes, parking brake, power steering, collision mitigation, and adaptive cruise control, sometimes at highway speed. Some cars stall or shut down in traffic at very low mileage, and dealers often cannot find a cause after repeated visits. Other reports describe blown fuses, a dead power outlet and AC, rodent-chewed wiring, and an erratic driver display. One of 12 complaints involves a crash after the car moved on its own at a stop with auto Stop-Start engaged.

Automatic emergency braking slams on the brakes with nothing ahead. A brake system fault can also knock out the driver-assist features and electric parking brake together. Some drivers report a soft or lost brake pedal during these events, and one found smoking front brakes afterward. Brake Hold can let the car roll before it stops abruptly. Fixes often take several dealer visits or long waits. One of 7 complaints is a rear-end crash in which the brakes and emergency system did not respond.

The car drifts or pulls to one side and feels unstable. A fresh alignment fixes it for only a day or so before the problem returns, and repeat visits to tire shops and the dealer do not solve it. One of 3 complaints is crash-related. One driver suspects that regular driving over 50 mph knocks the car out of alignment. Another report ties steering that gets hard after 20 to 30 minutes to the sticky steering issue and says the Si trim was left out of the recall.

Original tires wear quickly, lose grip, and get noisier. One set reached replacement range at 17,000 miles and was replaced under the tire maker's warranty. Other reports describe an original tire blowing out before 10,000 miles and a single tire that keeps losing pressure even though no leak can be found. None of the 3 complaints is crash-related, and an alignment check did not point to the car itself.

Airbags fail to deploy, or deploy only partly, in serious front and side collisions. All 4 crash-related complaints describe this, and together they account for 4 injuries. One report adds a passenger seat belt that stayed loose on impact. Another describes cruise control that would not disengage before the car went into a ditch. The opposite failure also appears: airbags firing during hard braking with no collision and cracking the windshield.

Adaptive cruise control brakes hard with no traffic ahead, which can catch following drivers off guard. It also closes on slower cars at the set speed and then brakes sharply instead of easing off. This phantom braking shows up on both interstates and two-lane roads. A separate report describes jerky shifting. None of the 3 complaints involves a crash, though drivers describe near misses that they avoided by canceling the system.

LED headlights draw complaints for glare that blinds oncoming drivers at night. The front and rear defrost buttons stay unlit when the headlights are on, so they are hard to find in the dark, and Honda considers this normal. A crack in the temperature display that spreads and starts to peel is also reported on a car only 5 months old. None of the 3 complaints involves a crash.

A driver airbag deploys at 75 mph with no impact, blocking the driver's view and causing a crash with oncoming traffic and an injury. The other complaint describes no actual failure. It raises concern that the CVT is sealed, cannot be repaired in parts, and would need full replacement if it fails outside warranty. With only 2 complaints on file, no repeating pattern appears in this category.