2020 Honda HR-V: What to check before buying

Most of these filings are about recall 23V858000 and the parts shortage that held up repairs. Dealers tell owners the part is not available, sometimes long after the recall notice arrived, and many owners have not had a failure yet. Those who have describe hard starts or no-starts, stalling while driving, hesitation on acceleration, a fuel smell in the cabin, and a check engine light. Reported failures range from about 10,847 to about 80,000 miles.

Stalling at low speed and at stop lights, misfires, jerking and lagging on hills are blamed on the fuel pump. Some cars show these symptoms even though their VINs are not covered by the fuel pump recall. Mechanics who cannot reproduce the fault leave owners stuck, and repairs outside the recall are paid out of pocket. Cars that are covered face long waits. Dealers cite a lack of parts, with one reporting a single part a month for 500 vehicles. Loss of acceleration is reported as early as 4700 miles.

The right side of the digital gauge cluster goes blank or flickers with garbled characters. Drivers lose sight of fuel level, mileage, oil life and sometimes the selected gear. It often starts as occasional flickering and gets worse until the screen stays dark. Several reports say it is worse in cold weather. Dealer quotes for a fix run over $2,000, and replacing the whole cluster is mentioned. Other reports describe the alarm going off on its own, the car not recognizing the key, repeated battery replacement, and warning lights that stay on.

The CVT can fail without warning, often at highway speed. Drivers describe a sudden loss of power, most dashboard warning lights coming on, erratic revving and the car limping along well below traffic speed. Dealers have found metal shavings in the transmission fluid and recommended replacement. One failure came at 63,000 miles, and Honda declined to extend warranty coverage. Other reports describe sluggish acceleration that needs the pedal pressed to the floor, plus stalling. One complaint involves a crash after the car would not move in Drive or Reverse.

Two crash reports say the airbags did not deploy in a hard frontal impact. Neither showed a warning light beforehand. Both crashes involved fire, and the drivers report serious injuries. Other complaints describe an "Air Bag Malfunction" message at 55,000 miles that the dealer had not yet diagnosed, and a passenger airbag pushing through the dash panel at 1,300 miles. Repairs under recall 24V064000 are also delayed because parts are unavailable.

Cars stall while driving, sometimes with the oil and battery warning lights on. They usually restart after a few attempts or a wait of several minutes. Mechanics often cannot reproduce the fault. One stall while slowing for a light led to a rear-end crash at about 45,000 miles. Other complaints describe no-starts with a stuttering sound and power dropping off until the car would not go past 20 mph. Owners linking this to the fuel recall report waits of months for parts.

Two crash reports describe sudden acceleration at low speed while parking. In both, the brakes did not stop the car and it hit a truck or a fence. In one case the engine kept revving after the impact. One of these happened at about 3,000 miles with no warning lights. A separate report covers a failed Honda Sensing unit that lit up every warning light, with a 3k repair quote and no recall coverage.

Pressing the pedal fails to stop the car at low speed while parking or reversing, with no warning light beforehand. Both such reports ended in crashes, one with a building wall and one with a parked vehicle at about 11,000 miles. One of those cars was declared a total loss. Another complaint describes the brakes locking up and skidding under moderate pedal pressure near 35 mph. Dealers dismissed that complaint as normal behavior.