Complaint volume
127 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
127 consumer-submitted complaints on record for the 2021 Honda Odyssey, grouped by component category.
127 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 11 complaints, with an average reported failure mileage of 27,537 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 17
AIR BAGS 15
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 12
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 9
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE 5
ENGINE 4
STRUCTURE 4
SUSPENSION 4
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,STRUCTURE,UNKNOWN OR OTHER 3
POWER TRAIN 3
127 total complaints on record
Latest complaints
| Date | Component | Summary | Severity | Mileage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 2023 | VISIBILITY | The contact owns a 2021 Honda Odyssey. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V174000 (Visibility), and the vehicle was taken to the dealer, where the recall repair was completed; however, while driving from the dealer, the contact noticed that the replacement side-view mirrors displayed a distorted image. The vehicle was taken back to the dealer, who replaced the side-view mirrors; however, the failure recurred. The vehicle was taken back to the dealer a third time, and the side-view mirrors were replaced; however, the failure persisted. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 23,000. | Crash: No Fire: No | 23,000 |
| Aug 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Once the cruise control is set, it consistently drops below the set speed and surges back up or over the set speed. Set on 62, it drops to 59 or 60, then surges back up to 62 or 63. This happens on perfectly flat roads with no traffic in front or beside the car. The dealership tried to tell me that the camera for the adaptive cruise might be seeing things in its peripheral vision area, but there is nothing there, the shoulder of the road is wide and free of obstacles. I've owned many other brands of vehicle, and never had this trouble with the cruise control on any of them. This is also a safety issue because sometimes it just randomly slows down or speeds up when there are cars behind you or beside you. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | Completed a safety recall on Odyssey for a driver side mirror replacement and the mirror Honda provided and installed creates distorted images. It is nearly impossible to focus on traffic and safely change lanes. While driving in Chicago this weekend the mirror made it nearly impossible to merge with traffic or safely observe traffic entering on left side entrance ramps. Honda replaces the mirror a second time and the second mirror is also defective. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | BACK OVER PREVENTION | HI, A driver of a 2021 Honda odyssey EX-L struck and ran over my 6 yr old child, driver was unable to see the child sitting on the driveway ground from his view, If this Honda odyssey EX-L would have Parking Sensors this accident would be avoided. I urge you to request Honda to install this feature in all Honda Odyssey models as this feature can save lives. Thanks | Crash: No Fire: No Injuries: 1 Medical attention | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | LANE DEPARTURE,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While driving in highway construction zones the car's lane departure system attempted to steer the car along lane markings set before the construction zone was established. In several instances this caused my car to steer, contrary to my steering input, towards Jersey barriers and dangerously close to a collision. The car's collision warning and automatic braking systems then engaged and applied the brakes regardless of following traffic. After the first instance, luckily in light traffic, I became aware of this issue and aware of how to quickly defeat these safety systems. After several additional instances, some in traffic at highway speed, I determined the lane departure system was more dangerous than helpful and I suspended it by a simple dashboard procedure. I am now able to negotiate construction zones without issue. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2023 | VISIBILITY | I received a recall and call from the Honda dealership about a left and right side mirror recall, and they needed to be replaced. They were replaced with distorted blurry concave mirrors. Honda dealership was aware of this issue yet still installed them. After going back and getting them installed again, the mirror is still distorted. There has been no remedy or follow up. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I was driving through an intersection. My automatic brakes activated for no reason, my car rapidly slowed down in the middle of an intersection, a bus hit my car from behind. | Crash: Yes Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | The rear lift gate will be open and then all the sudden decide it needs to be shut. Beeps really load and then come down hard and fast with no real time to recognize what is happening and get out of the way. It hurts and doesn’t stop when it hits a person | Crash: No Fire: No Injuries: 1 | Unknown |
| Jun 2023 | BACK OVER PREVENTION | The rear camera is missing items that aren’t moving behind the car. Like a parked car or person. When backing up. Will recognize to the sides of the object is moving but not directly behind the car or fully stationary items | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While driving on a straight, wide open road at approximately 45mph with no vehicle in any close proximity in front, the forward Collision Mitigation Braking System alarmed and activated and strongly braked, slowing the car quickly down to about 20mph before releasing. Fortunately, there was no one behind me to react to the unexpected slowing down of my car. There was no apparent reason why this should have activated. The CMBS has activated previously in other non-threatening situations but there was usually a condition where you could justify why it made a mistake, such as being in the left lane of a two lane road which curves to the left and a car in the right lane slows to turn right, my car thinks it is in front of me when it is not. Still, these situations result in a danger of getting hit from behind. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE | I was driving on I-270 highway in active HOV lane and had to stop because of traffic. The car stopped the engine as it usually does by "Auto Idle Stop" system but failed to start it back when I needed to continue driving. I noticed that the battery light blinked on the dashboard when it tried to re-start the engine. As a result I was in active HOV lane with quickly approaching traffic from behind. We all (me, my wife and 2 kids) were scared. I called 911 immediately for help. This all could end up with a crash and injuries. While calling 911 I was trying to restart the car by pressing the button to turn the car off and on. About 3 attempts failed when a few minutes later the engine started and we continued the drive. This was the worst nightmare to stuck on a highway. Luckily nothing happened but it definitely could. This is a major concern for me. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Apr 2023 | LANE DEPARTURE,BACK OVER PREVENTION | Back up sensors stopped working 4 months after purchasing a brand new vehicle. Also the side sensor just randomly lights up when there’s nothing around or the Brake light pops up | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| 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 |