Complaint volume
388 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 Pilot Complaints
388 consumer-submitted complaints on record for the 2021 Honda Pilot, grouped by component category.
388 Total complaints
12 Crash reports
1 Fire reports
7 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 unknown or other, electrical system, engine. Use those categories as a test-drive checklist instead of judging the vehicle from the total count alone.
Severity flags
Enriched records include 12 crash reports, 1 fire report, 7 injury reports, and 0 fatality reports. These fields come from complaint records and should be read in context.
Mileage clue
Mileage is available on 41 complaints, with an average reported failure mileage of 34,816 miles. Compare that with the mileage on the listing.
Questions to ask the seller
- Have you had any problems related to unknown or other, electrical system, engine?
- 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 Pilot?
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 Pilot
Build buyer checklist Compare with other years Sends year, make, and model to pre-fill your checklist.
How severe are the 2021 Honda Pilot complaints?
12 Crash
1 Fire
7 Injury
0 Fatality
12 Towed
4 Medical attention
What are the most common 2021 Honda Pilot complaint categories?
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 38
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 35
ENGINE 30
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 27
AIR BAGS 22
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE 19
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE,LANE DEPARTURE 16
VISIBILITY/WIPER 16
TIRES 13
SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 11
388 total complaints on record
Latest complaints
| Date | Component | Summary | Severity | Mileage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | My greetings. I want to share with you my experience, which, unfortunately, I encounter every day. The problem is this. The car begins to brake unpredictably while driving, even when there are no cars ahead; on an empty road it suddenly brakes. This happens at speeds between 30 mph and above.In slippery road conditions, this can lead to an accident or death. I spoke to the Honda service center about this problem, but they did not help me. The service center is located at: 9903 Bustleton Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19115. The device responsible for emergency braking is included in the price of the car, and does not work properly. The only way to protect yourself from a technically incorrectly functioning emergency braking system is to turn it off manually, using a button. To clarify, I want to say the following. Everything on my car is factory. The windshield has not been replaced, radar below logo as well. Everything is original. The mileage on the car is 10,500. The car is almost new, and at the same time dangerous. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE,AIR BAGS | On October 18, 2023, at about 11 am, I was approaching to enter our driveway with my foot on the brake system when all of the sudden the car sped up at a very high speed that I was unable to control. The speed was so forceful that the car crashed unto the house resulting in a lot of damage to our house, all this happened in less than one second. I had a next door neighbor in the car with me and thankfully neither of us was hurt, I like to mention at this point that neither air bag deployed to issue protection to us. Of course the safety of both of us was put at risk. We called the insurance with no luck to send an adjuster to inspect the car and/or damage done to the house, so we had to do everything on our own. The car has not been inspected by a representative of the manufacturer nor the police. I did not see any warning nor messages on the screen until the accident happened that said "Crash has been detected" Since we were left to do everything on our own we called Caliber Collision to haul the car to their location to assess the damage done to the car. As of this writing the car is still in their possession and on Friday we received a call from them to inform us what they have found and we were told that as of that day they were sure that the car is 75% totaled. Of course the damage done to the house and car is nothing compared to the damage that it was done to me, because now every time I drive our rental car and approach the driveway I had in my mind if the car is going to do the same thing. | Crash: Yes Fire: No Injuries: 1 Towed Medical attention | Unknown |
| Nov 2023 | AIR BAGS | My SRS System's light came on. When I went to the dealership to have it checked, they stated it was an Airbag Seat Sensor that was bad in the passenger side seat. I talked to the warranty people and they stated it was not covered under the warranty and it would cost me over $2000 to repair. I reached out to Honda and I have received nothing back from them. I don't have that kind of money. I purchased this vehicle one year ago and also added an extended warranty to it so I would have peace of mind that I would not have large out of pocket expenses. Why would Honda not stand behind this serious of a safety issue. I am afraid to take anyone with me in case we are in an accident. I also have small children with me, as I am a foster parent. Is this going to affect all of the airbags in the vehicle? | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2023 | ENGINE,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | 2021 Honda Pilot is subject to "rapid acceleration". We had no notification of this issue until the vehicle drove itself into our home on its own causing damage to the car and our home. Only after we did some research did we know Honda had this issue. | Crash: Yes Fire: No Injuries: 1 Towed Medical attention | Unknown |
| Nov 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | 1. DRIVING ON A 2 LANE HIGHWAY, AT ABOUT 65 MPH, USING CRUISE CONTROL. NO VEHICLES AHEAD ON ME IN MY LANE. TRUCK IN ONCOMING LANE CAUSED DASH TO DISPLAY BRAKE WARNING. BRAKE CAME ON MOMENTARILY, WHEEL WAS IN STAIGHT FORWARD POSITION. 2. HAVE HAD SIMILAR PROBLEMS WITH CRUISE. DRIVING AT 45 MPH IN LEFT LANE, CRUISE ON, CAR AHEAD OF ME MOVES TO LEFT TURN LANE, DASH BRAKE LIGHT COMES ON AND BRAKES MOMENTARILY GO ON. FOR THIS TOOK INTO HONDA DEALER, UNABLE TO REPLICATE BY THEIR SERVICE TECH. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2023 | SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC | The contact owned a 2021 Honda Pilot. The contact stated that while her friend was driving at an undisclosed speed, with the brake pedal depressed all the way to the floorboard, the vehicle failed to stop as intended. As a result, the vehicle left the roadway, hitting a stop sign before coming to a complete stop after colliding with a concrete wall. The driver and passenger side air bags did deploy. A police report was filed, and injuries were reported. The vehicle occupants transported themselves to an area hospital for treatment. The driver was treated for a head contusion and pain in her legs and lower back; the contact was treated for chest pain. No warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was towed to a tow yard, pending inspection. After investigating the failure, the contact related it to NHTSA Campaign Number 23V458000 (Service Brakes, Hydraulics), but the VIN was not included. The manufacturer was notified of the failure, and a case was opened. The failure mileage was 5,500. | Crash: Yes Fire: No Injuries: 2 Towed Medical attention | 5,500 |
| Oct 2023 | ENGINE | This vehicle has some major concerns. I have issues with the starter on this thing not wanting to restart the engine after a traffic stop. Battery is fine and there are no obvious issues with the car other than the fact that the starter appears to barely spin the engine over the compression stroke. I have been a Honda owner for years but unless Honda issues a fix for this issue, i am finished with them. I continually turn off the auto stop/start feature out of fear that i will have issues at a traffic intersection. Please investigate this issue and force them to recall these vehicles. BTW my vehicle only has 28k miles on it so it is unacceptable for them to keep denying the issue exists when i take it to my dealer. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2023 | BACK OVER PREVENTION | See attached document from complainant | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | Failure to repair recall in a timely manner. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2023 | BACK OVER PREVENTION | The contact owns a 2021 Honda Pilot. The contact stated that while reversing, the rearview camera failed to turn on, causing the vehicle to hit another unoccupied parked vehicle. There was no warning light illuminated. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and informed the contact that they could not assist because the VIN was not included in a recall. The contact stated that the failure recurred while reversing on another occasion, and the vehicle hit another unoccupied parked vehicle. The contact stated that both incidents were fender-benders. There was no injury sustained. The contact later received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V-431000 (Back Over Prevention) that she related to the failure. The dealer was contacted and an appointment was scheduled for recall repair. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 25,000. | Crash: Yes Fire: No | 25,000 |
| Oct 2023 | BACK OVER PREVENTION | The contact owns a 2021 Honda Pilot. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V431000 (Back Over Prevention) however, the part to do the recall repair was unavailable. The dealer was made aware of the issue and confirmed that parts were not yet available. The manufacturer had been notified of the recall. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the repair. The contact had not experienced a failure. Parts distribution disconnect. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | I was driving my Pilot and came to a stop during stop and go traffic on a highway. Normally the auto stop/start feature would stop the engine and start it again when I released the brake, but at this stop the vehicle stopped the engine and lost all power. The car went completely dead. As traffic started moving again I had no idea what was going on and my vehicle was in the path of moving traffic causing a hazard and safety risk to myself and others. I was able to restart the vehicle with the normal procedure, but it was in park and had to be shifted back into drive to get moving again. This became a normal occurrence so I took the vehicle to Honda for evaluation. They contend that the battery, while still "good", was not providing adequate voltage for the stop/start system. Proposed solutions were continue use but manually deselect auto start/stop function each time I started the car or replace the battery (at my expense - not covered by warranty). I am reporting this due to how the vehicle handles this lower voltage state of the battery. I think it if the vehicle senses this situation it should 1) notify the driver of the low voltage state of the battery and 2) automatically turn of the auto start/stop function of the vehicle thereby preventing an unsafe and startling vehicle shutdown while on the road and in traffic. This is an unsafe vehicle reaction that should not occur with proper system programming. I confirmed with the dealership this is a normal occurrence when the battery falls below certain voltage requirements, but the operator of the vehicle has no prior knowledge when this situation might occur (ie no warning light). This creates a potential for vehicle accidents and personal injury. Some type of warning and automatic suspension of the auto stop/start feature should occur. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,VISIBILITY/WIPER | There was a recall for driver side mirrors. The original mirror was fine but they replaced it with a mirror that is distorted/warped. They replaced it again with another distorted mirror. All the replacement mirrors are faulty. You can not safely drive with them ! | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | The car shuts down when coming to an idle such while stopping at a light. All systems are powered down including the hazard lights, front and tail lights and windows. The car has so far restarted after multiple attempts at the start button. This may range from 30 seconds to 5 minutes before the car will restart. This is a safety concern as when this occurs in traffic especially at night with limited visibility, this can lead to being rear ended waiting for the vehicle to start. When this occurs is unpredictable. The Honda dealer was unable to replicate the issue and as such carried out a software reset to address the issue. This has happened 8 times already. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | With engine idle off… at a stop (intersection, light, etc.) engine suddenly turns off. Dashboard message reads- “put in park to start engine”. At that moment, the transmission shows that it is in neutral. I have to frantically put it in Park and try several times to restart the car. Cars are honking, yelling and pulling up/at me! I have called (when it happens) and taken my car to dealer 4 times. Each time they say they can not replicate and not able to do anything to fix unless they can replicate. Yet, I see there are blog posts about this exact issue for past few years! This happened 3 times last week. As I need to be able to safely transport/care for my 102 year old father, I am concerned and cannot be without transportation. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE | The IDLE STOP feature sometimes fails to restart the vehicle after stopping at a stoplight or stop sign. The vehicle transmission will go into PARK, with the engine no longer running. This requires the vehicle to be restarted manually in traffic, and shifted to DRIVE. This puts the vehicle and passengers at risk for an accident, as it blocks the normal flow of traffic until manually restarted and shifted. This car is available for inspection upon request. This problem has been inspected by a local Honda dealer. There were no warning lamps prior to the incidents. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2023 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I have had the AEB system engage incorrectly. 1.) Driving on a two lane road at about 40 MPH when I started to enter a curve in the road to the left with no oncoming traffic and no cars in front of or behind my car the AEB engaged and started braking the car. 2.) Driving on a two lane road at about 4 MPH when I started to enter a curve in the road to the left with a car oncoming with no cars in front of or behind my car the AEB engaged and started braking the car. In both of these cases the system stopped alerting as soon as I tapped the brakes. The latest instance occurred on a straight two lane road on a sunny day. I was traveling at about 30 MPH with no cars in front of my care and no oncoming traffic when the AEB engaged unexpectedly and braked my car hard. I was actually thrown forward in my seat. Thankfully no one was following my as this would have resulted in a rear end collision. After the car hard braked the AEB disengaged as quickly as it engaged, and I was able to drive the car normally. I had my car in to have it inspected and recalls fixed a week ago. I asked the service manager about this problem and was told there was nothing they could do and that I could turn off the AEB system. My concern is the AEB system randomly engages and brakes and in one instance it hard braked. This could cause a serious rear end collision. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2023 | ENGINE | The Auto Idle system that enables the cut off the engine is now working intermittently some or not at all, regardless of temperature outside or inside the cabin. Note: Took to Honda Mall of GA dealership to look at this very issue, and according to the technician, it is 'heat' related. I feel this is 100% incorrect, as the temperature in the evening has dropped into the 70s and the issue continues. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | The contact owns a 2021 Honda Pilot. The contact stated that the information center was not connecting. There were no warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer for NHTSA Campaign Number: 20V439000 (Back Over Prevention, Electrical System) and the vehicle was repaired but the failure occurred. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was unknown. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE | The Auto Idle Restart Feature has malfunctioned a number times and cars behind us have almost rear-ended us. With Eco mode on or off, a/c on or off, it doesn't seem to make a difference. When the vehicle has Auto Idle Restart enabled, the vehicle is stopped at a stop light, the engine turns off, and when the user presses the gas and releases the brake, the engine does not turn on. When the brake pedal is released, the brake lights turn off - the vehicles behind us drive forward as they think we are accelerating but our vehicle does not move as the engine does not turn back on properly. We are lucky we have not been rear ended yet. This is very unsafe, especially in very busy intersections. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE | When the idle stop system is enabled in my vehicle, on 5 separate occasions, my car has stalled. Each situation happened when I was stopped at either a stop sign or traffic light. When I took my foot of the brake to go, the car shut off and took ~30 seconds before I was able to turn the engine back on and go. I took my car to the Honda dealer and they were unable to determine the cause of the problem, and it has happened since that time. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | LANE DEPARTURE,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | On Friday, August 18th, 2023, I started up my 2021 Honda Pilot EX and all safety system warning lights (ACC, LKAS, CBWS, etc) came on. I called Metro Honda Montclair and a service advisor asked me to bring the car in to them as soon as possible. I asked if it was safe to drive, and he said I honestly do not know, but if you can drive it, I advise you to take the slow lane and avoid the freeway. They kept my car over the weekend, and on Monday August 21st, 2023, Dealer diagnosed the problem as a defective multi-purpose camera. These cameras are on back order until October. They said multiple codes came in in the diagnostic but they will have to start with this. I asked if I can safely drive the vehicle since the Brake System light is on, and they said "honestly we cannot tell you that it is safe, it could be something minor, or something indicating a bigger problem. The first time this happened, it turned on, and off, and the dealer couldn't duplicate it, they told me to bring it back when it happened again, and now the "problem with ACC, LKAS, CMS, Brake system, etc., these are the messages currently in the screen: "Road Departure Mitigation Problem", "Auto-High Beam problem", Collision Mitigation System Problem", "Lane keeping Assist Problem" "Adaptive Cruise Control Problem", etc., all these warning messages keep popping up and does not turn off. Honda should fix this at no charge since it impacts safety related functionality. Also, there is a water leak from under the steering wheel, water lands on my foot and in the front seats floor mats when I wash my car. [XXX] with Metro Honda Montclair said they couldn't duplicate this issue. I have pictures of all the dashboard warning messages. I showed them to the service technician. They suggested I look for alternate transportation until my car is fixed, but I do not have other vehicle and I have to transport my kids to 3 different schools, and drive to/from work daily. My car only has 20,028 miles. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6) | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | ENGINE,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Vehicle shut off while at a busy intersection light. Unable to restart the vehicle for several minutes. All safety systems (crash mitigation.....) were disabled. Unable to find a current recall through Honda and the dealership is closed since it is sunday. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | Two weeks ago, the audio in my 2021 Pilot became very distorted also as if the car was losing power. On my way to work this morning, I reached a red light, came to a complete stop, and the vehicle went into idle mode as normal. However, while in idle mode the vehicle turned completely off just as I was about to release the brakes to start driving again. The battery indicator on the gauge clustor flashed a few times and the car automatically went into neutral. I was not able to put the vehicle back into park as instructed by the message prompt. After waiting a couple of minutes, I pressed AND held the start button and the vehicle finally turned back on. I do not know what the issue is, but due to this incident I felt that it was completely unsafe. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | VISIBILITY | The sunroof of my 2021 Honda Pilot spontaneously shattered while driving down the highway with my family inside the car. There is a class action lawsuit against Honda for this issue at the moment as well. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |