Complaint volume
115 consumer-submitted complaints are matched to this model year. Treat the count as a research signal, then read the actual summaries for repeated symptoms.
Complaint records
2021 Honda Odyssey Complaints
115 consumer-submitted complaints on record for the 2021 Honda Odyssey, grouped by component category.
115 Total complaints
2 Crash reports
1 Fire reports
4 Injury reports
Complaint data reflects consumer-submitted reports. A complaint is not proof
of a defect, recall, or manufacturer fault. Enriched severity fields come
from official bulk records when the complaint can be matched by ODI number.
Buyer interpretation
How to use these complaints before buying
Complaint records are most useful when they turn into inspection points, seller questions, and comparison checks against nearby model years.
Pattern to inspect
The most common categories are electrical system, air bags, unknown or other. Use those categories as a test-drive checklist instead of judging the vehicle from the total count alone.
Severity flags
Enriched records include 2 crash reports, 1 fire report, 4 injury reports, and 0 fatality reports. These fields come from complaint records and should be read in context.
Mileage clue
Mileage is available on 10 complaints, with an average reported failure mileage of 27,058 miles. Compare that with the mileage on the listing.
Questions to ask the seller
- Have you had any problems related to electrical system, air bags, unknown or other?
- Can I see recent maintenance and repair records?
- Has the vehicle ever been towed, involved in a crash, or repaired for the same issue twice?
- Can we also check the recall record for this 2021 Honda Odyssey?
Used-car checklist
Use these complaints before the test drive.
Build a buyer checklist to turn these issues into questions and inspection points.
2021 Honda Odyssey
Build buyer checklist Compare with other years Sends year, make, and model to pre-fill your checklist.
How severe are the 2021 Honda Odyssey complaints?
2 Crash
1 Fire
4 Injury
0 Fatality
1 Towed
3 Medical attention
What are the most common 2021 Honda Odyssey complaint categories?
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 16
AIR BAGS 15
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 12
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 9
STRUCTURE 4
SUSPENSION 4
ENGINE 3
VISIBILITY 3
VISIBILITY/WIPER 3
BACK OVER PREVENTION 2
115 total complaints on record
Latest complaints
| Date | Component | Summary | Severity | Mileage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Exiting a construction zone (I-70 westbound near Mt. Comfort, Indiana) at approximately 60 to 65 mph, our 2021 Honda Odyssey, without warning, momentarily applied unwarranted automatic emergency braking. The brakes were actuated for (an estimated) one second and resulted in an abrupt (approximately) 10mph reduction in speed. A large SUV traveling directly us was forced to take immediate action by making a sudden lane change in order to avoid a serious collision. The involuntary braking action on the part of the vehicle placed the passengers of both vehicles in grave danger. The only warning indication provided by the vehicle was an orange-box “BRAKE” warning displayed on the dashboard and the accompanying warning beeps, both simultaneous to the actual brake actuation. No indications or warnings appeared prior to or after the actual braking. No obstacle or object on the roadway was visible to either the driver or front seat passenger. All traffic lanes were clear for a minimum of 100 yards ahead of the vehicle. Weather was clear and dry. The pavement was dry and clear of any debris. The construction zone where the incident occurred carries both east and westbound traffic on the normally westbound (north) side of the expressway. The left side of the traffic lanes are lined with continuous, concrete “Jersey” barriers. The incident took place at the western end of the zone, at the point where the westbound lanes expand from two to three lanes. This is approximately where the left-side parallel-to-traffic barriers end and a small, separated section of angled-to-traffic barriers is revealed, along with some other barrier sections in the median area between the roadways. This incident (November 26, 2022) was the second time this malfunction has occurred in same vehicle in approximately the same area on I-70. On August 11, 2022, an essentially identical event took place under similar conditions. The vehicle has not been inspected by Honda or any other authorities. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2022 | STRUCTURE | The back-right passenger side door was opened by pulling on the outside handle after a hobbled passenger was cautioned that the door was going to slide open and moved a few inches away from the vehicle to allow for that. The door required more clearance than either of us anticipated. The passenger fell backwards either trying to avoid being hit by the door or by actually being hit by it, leading to a broken bone, hospitalization, cancellation of the pending surgery to address a pre-existing orthopedic issue, and many continuing expenses. I have not attempted to reproduce this accident (duh), and this is my first report of it. There were no warnings of which I am aware. The speed of door sliding open likely contributed to the accident, as did the required clearance from the vehicle. | Crash: No Fire: No Injuries: 1 Medical attention | Unknown |
| Aug 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The VSA modulator has repeatedly failed. When it fails, all of the safety systems report errors - air bags, ABS brakes, high beams, traction control, blind spot detection, parking sensors, etc. Additionally, the power sliding passenger doors and tailgate will not open, even manually. I have taken it into Honda dealerships on 3 separate occasions. On 6/14/21 (vehicle mileage 7,453) they cleared the error codes and reset the system and reported it was fixed. On 2/26/2022 (vehicle mileage 21,077) it happened again and they reported the VSA modulator as defective and replaced it under warranty. On 7/29/2022 (vehicle mileage 26,916) it happened again. This time the dealership disconnected and reconnected the VSA modulator and it decided it was fixed. At the time of the issue I was driving the van at approximately 30 mph on flat streets through my town. I've expressed my concerns that this defect renders the vehicle extremely unsafe. Over the past two weeks I've contacted Honda Corporate repeatedly requesting further repairs or assurances that this error would not occur again and have been passed around to case managers' voice mailboxes and have been unable to speak to anyone about my concerns. While no injury or crash has occurred yet, I am concerned that this if this occurs again, myself or my family could be hurt. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2022 | POWER TRAIN,VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL | I have a 2021 modely Honda Odyssey Elite (purchased in November 2020). This car has 14,000 miles on it as of July 29, 2022. When accelerating from a complete stop or accelerating after slowing down, upon depressing the accelerator pedal the car simply refuses to accelerate for a second or two and simply coasts due to momentum and then after a while accelerates hard causing a sudden jerky take off. This might not seem like a big issue on its face, but that delay has almost caused me to get hit by the oncoming traffic especially when making a right turn or when changing lanes. I have 3 small kids (one of them a baby, and a five year old) and this is a precarious situation to be in. Also, this happens intermittent in all weather conditions (be it cold or warm or hot doesn't matter) and we don't know when this will happen and cannot replicate consistently on demand. Just happens maybe every few days but is more consistently happening. There are several similar complaints from Odyssey owners, NHTSA, you are our only recourse to this as I feel this is a model wide problem which needs to be addressed by Honda from the factory with a recall. Thank You! | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2022 | AIR BAGS | All passenger side curtain and front passenger seat airbag deployed for no reason while driving down an interstate. No collision. No impact of any kind. Honda denied any warranty d/t impact on tires on passenger side (there was no impact to tires, I have included pictures of the tires). | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | On numerous occasions the forward collision warning has caused hard braking when there is nothing close in front of me. I fear that a close following vehicle will hit me when this occurs. This has not caused an accident yet, but the following vehicle driver must think that I'm a terrible driver for unnecessarily hitting my brakes. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,EXTERIOR LIGHTING,ENGINE | Honda Odyssey 2021 has major safety issues – the van starts engine on itself, shuts the engine on itself, tail lights are on when the engine is running, the knob for the lights on the turn signal handle was in OFF position when the van was observed starting, running and shutting engine on itself – for no reason. In all occasions key fobs were untouched. Once Honda Odyssey was observed with the engine starting and shutting on itself when both of the key fobs were in 10 miles distance from the vehicle. Brought twice to the dealer, cannot fix it. Contacted Honda on 2/17/22 informed about the problem. Called Honda on 2/21/22 to check on the case, was told that will assign a manager to review this safety concern, but it may take two weeks, possibly two month or maybe more, depending how busy they are. 8 days have passed, no response yet from Honda. I am concerned that it may shut the engine on its own while driving. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While driving with no vehicles or obstacles stopped in front of me, my car automatically braked hard. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2021 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | UNKNOWN There is a cracking noise in engine at low speed (slow acceleration after stop). Much like this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl9D0PzOxHU&t=1s The dealer would not acknowledge it as a problem and call it by design. They say a lot of cars with this engine develop this sound. This started happening after 6000 miles. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2021 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | The 'infotainment" system turned off stating "network connection lost." The speakers then started making a VERY loud crackling sound that could not be controlled with the volume button. It was very distracting to the driver--sounded like rocks hitting the windshield. When the infotainment system was off, the blindspot monitor and back-up camera stopped functioning. This has happened several times. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2021 | AIR BAGS | The contact owns a 2021 Honda Odyssey. The contact stated that while driving at 35 MPH, the passenger’s side curtain air bags deployed without incident and without warning. An automated security feature in the vehicle called him immediately upon deployment of the air bags. The contact was asked if he needed assistance from authorities and he informed them that he was ok. The contact was not injured during the failure. The contact was able to drive the vehicle home where it remained in his possession. The dealer nor the manufacturer had yet to be notified of the failure. The vehicle had yet to be repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 8,000. | Crash: No Fire: No | 8,000 |
| Jul 2021 | VISIBILITY | The drivers side side-view mirror was vibrating for serval days making it impossible to see correctly and was very distracting. While waiting for a new one to come in, I was driving on the highway it came off and smashed into the door. It was still hanging by the wire and smashing into the door over and over till I could get it to the dealer. The dealer said they've have multiple customers with this same problem. When it happened I was very lucky no one was near me on the highway because I was so startled by the crash that I was swerving. Then I had to drive to the dealer without a working sideview mirror. Additionally, the entire door had to be repainted and the window replaced because they were damaged by the mirror. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Apr 2021 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE | 2021 HONDA ODESSEY LOST POWER WHILE DRIVING 6 TIMES. I ENDED UP TAKING IT TO GET SERVICE AND THE DEALER COULDN'T REPLICATE THE ISSUE IN 3 DIFFERENT OCCASIONS. ENDED UP TRADING THE ODESSEY ON THURSDAY FOR A NEW ONE. HOWEVER THE THE NEW 2021 HONDA ODESSEY THAT I BOUGHT THURSDAY 4/8/21 LOST POWER ON ME TODAY AS I WAS DRIVING. | Crash: No Fire: No | 200 |
| Mar 2021 | POWER TRAIN | ON REACHING THE EXIT OF A TUNNEL CAR WASH, THE VAN WOULD NOT SHIFT FROM NEUTRAL TO DRIVE. THE INSTRUMENT CLUSTER DISPLAYED A MESSAGE THAT, IN ORDER TO SHIFT INTO DRIVE, I HAD TO DEPRESS THE BRAKE PEDAL. THIS HAS HAPPENED TWICE, AND THAT'S CLEARLY A DANGEROUS THING TO DO IN A TUNNEL CAR WASH. I CAN'T REPLICATE THE ISSUE IF I PUT THE VAN INTO NEUTRAL AND COAST DOWN OUR STREET (ABOUT 1200 FEET). | Crash: No Fire: No | 3,500 |
| Feb 2021 | ENGINE,LANE DEPARTURE,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | HI THE VEHICLE SHOWS SPEED LIMIT OF 70 IN 25 OR 40MPH ZONES. THE VEHICLES SYSTEM KEEPS GOING OFFLINE EMERGENCY BRAKING AND COLLISION. EVERY TIME I TAKE TO HONDA DEALER I AM BEING TOLD TO GO SEE WHERE THE CAR WAS PURCHASED AND THEY CAN'T FIND A ISSUE. | Crash: No Fire: No | 380 |