HR-V (2nd)

The second-generation HR-V moved onto the Civic's platform for 2023 and reads, on paper, like the safe Honda pick in the subcompact class. The complaint record complicates that. Across the 2023 through 2025 model years the HR-V has drawn 804 NHTSA complaints and five separate recalls, every one of them rated serious, which is a dense safety file for a crossover this early in its run and unusual for a Honda that shares most of its engineering with the well-sorted Civic.

Steering is the throughline. It is the largest single complaint category at 131, and it has a matching recall: campaign 24V744000 covers a steering gearbox that may have been manufactured incorrectly, building excessive internal friction and making the car difficult to steer. That recall reaches well beyond the HR-V, sweeping in the Civic, CR-V, and several Acura models, which marks it as a supplier-level gearbox defect rather than a one-off. When a hardware recall and the owner complaints point at the same system, that is the finding to take seriously on a used example, because it describes a car that can physically resist the driver rather than a nuisance rattle.

The rest of the list reads like a debut-generation shakedown. Two campaigns (24V859000 and 26V054000) address a driver's seat cushion frame that may not have been tightened, leaving the seat loose, a Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard violation. A seat-belt pretensioner recall (23V782000) covers a missing rivet in the front belts, and the HR-V was swept into Honda's fleet-wide fuel-pump recall (23V858000) that spans a decade of models. Safety-system and electrical complaints, 44 and 41 respectively and both flagged serious, sit behind steering as the next tier.

The powertrain itself is not the worry. The 2.0-liter four is naturally aspirated and modest at 158 horsepower, and while owners find it slow, engine-labeled complaints stay in the low teens. Fuel-system, transmission, and suspension complaints are all in the single digits. For a nameplate that sells in real volume, the absence of engine and driveline trouble matters. This is a chassis-and-assembly story, not a mechanical one.

The file records 17 crashes, 14 injuries, one fire, and one death, so the steering and seat issues are not abstract risks on a spreadsheet. For a used buyer, the HR-V can still be a sensible small Honda, but only with the steering-gearbox and seat recalls confirmed complete. An early 2023 or 2024 car carrying open campaigns is the version to walk away from.