Honda Passport Years to Avoid — and the Years to Buy
Every Honda Passport model year from 1994 to 2026, benchmarked against each other with 2,283 federal complaints, 30 recall campaigns, and the odometer readings owners put in their reports.
Avoid: 1998–1999, 2019, 2021. These years top the Passport's complaint rankings by volume and severity.
Safer bets: 1996–1997, 2002 — the quietest years with at least four years on the road.
The method in one line: every NHTSA complaint for this model is counted, weighted for crashes, fires, injuries, and deaths, and each year is measured against the Passport's own worst year — full methodology.
Under investigation. Federal regulators currently have 2 open defect investigations on the Honda Passport.
Component: ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING:ENGINE:CRANK/CAMSHAFT POSITION SENSOR
On June 3, 2022, the Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) opened Preliminary Evaluation PE22005 after the agency received VOQs and several field reports concerning the Auto Idle Stop (AIS) feature on 2016-2019MY Honda Pilot vehicles. The complaints allege that the engine fails to restart on its…
Component: FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
On March 7, 2024, the Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) opened a Preliminary Evaluation (PE24008) to assess reports of inadvertent activation of the Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) system in model year 2019-2022 Honda Insight and 2019-2022 Honda Passport vehicles. The complainants allege…
An investigation is not a recall; it may close with no action. All open investigations →
The trouble strip
One cell per model year. The whole answer in one glance — click any year for the full report.
The defining problem
Driver assistance tops the Honda Passport file with 302 complaints, concentrated in the 2019–2021 model years, most often reported around 20,000 miles. The year pages break down what fails and when.
Every year, ranked
| Year | Verdict | Complaints | Recalls | Top problem | Trouble index |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Too early to call | 74 | 1 | Driver assistance | 15 |
| 2025 | Too early to call | 49 | 0 | Other | 10 |
| 2024 | Few reports | 23 | 1 | — | 12 |
| 2023 | Typical | 69 | 5 | Driver assistance | 22 |
| 2022 | Typical | 94 | 4 | Driver assistance | 21 |
| 2021 | Avoid | 216 | 7 | Driver assistance | 58 |
| 2020 | Typical | 140 | 10 | Driver assistance | 30 |
| 2019 | Avoid | 431 | 10 | Driver assistance | 100 |
| 2002 | Better year | 31 | 2 | — | 11 |
| 2001 | Below average | 160 | 3 | Body & structure | 42 |
| 2000 | Typical | 128 | 1 | Body & structure | 31 |
| 1999 | Avoid | 299 | 3 | Brakes & stability | 90 |
| 1998 | Avoid | 315 | 6 | Brakes & stability | 92 |
| 1997 | Better year | 69 | 0 | Engine | 20 |
| 1996 | Better year | 55 | 0 | Body & structure | 19 |
| 1995 | Typical | 84 | 1 | Engine | 29 |
| 1994 | Typical | 46 | 4 | Brakes & stability | 24 |
Technical service bulletins
Beyond complaints and recalls, 1,044 manufacturer communications — service bulletins, service campaigns, warranty extensions — are on file for the Honda Passport. A TSB is factory repair guidance, not a recall — the repair is not automatically free.
Browse the Honda Passport TSB list by year →
Questions buyers ask
What Honda Passport years should I avoid?
Federal complaint records point to 1998–1999, 2019, 2021 as the Honda Passport years to avoid — they drew the highest volume of serious complaints relative to the model's other years.
What is the most common Honda Passport problem?
Driver assistance tops the Honda Passport file with 302 complaints, concentrated in the 2019–2021 model years, most often reported around 20,000 miles.
What are the best Honda Passport years to buy used?
The quietest Honda Passport years in federal records are 1996–1997, 2002 — each with at least four years on the road and well-below-average complaint volume for this model.
Every number on this page is a count of records in the federal complaint, recall, and investigation files published by NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation. Counts cover the Honda Passport only, scored against this model's own worst year — not against other models. Check any specific vehicle's open recalls by VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls.