What ownership is like, what breaks at what mileage, what the repairs cost, and what to check before you buy one.
← All Honda Odyssey generations
NHTSA complaints per catalog listing run from 1.08 for 2023 (105 complaints across 97 listings) to 9.44 for 2020 (491 across 52), against a generation median of 4.90. The highest year, 2020, is 1.9 times that median. No year reaches the 2.0x our rule needs together with an above-median ad share and 30 or more listings, so nothing is flagged. For 2018, NHTSA's three most frequent components are Engine (92), Electrical System (90), Power Train (85). 2018 and 2019 together hold 2,008 complaints; Later years mostly hold fewer, which we infer reflects less time on the road, so the rates are not directly comparable across years. Of the 491 cleared sales we track for this generation, 65 are wheelchair-accessible conversions by title keyword, 39 of them in 2023 alone.
| Miles | Item | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| No mileage given in the sources | Transmission shift quality on the 2018-2019 9-speed (ZF 9HP) | Not priced: we found no repair cost for this problem | A class action over the ZF 9HP transmission in the 2018-2019 Odyssey was partly allowed to proceed by a federal court in October 2022 (US Auto Law, search snippet); the complaint alleges software updates masked a defect (ClassAction.org, search snippet). These are allegations, not findings. One owner on CarComplaints describes hard, jerking shifts that two dealer visits did not fix. That is a single report, not a count. |
| No mileage given | Engine will not restart after Auto Idle Stop (NHTSA investigation) | Not priced: an NHTSA preliminary investigation, not a recall | NHTSA opened a preliminary investigation on March 26, 2025 into engines failing to restart after the Auto Idle Stop function, covering 2018-2025 Odysseys among other Hondas (LiveNOW from FOX). It is an investigation, not a finding, and no recall for it appears in our records. |
| any | Engine, transmission-control and timing belt recalls (2018-2019) | Free at a Honda dealer when open | Our records include 19V299000 (a Transmission Control Unit reboot that can shift to Park, 2018-2019), 19V298000 (timing belt teeth may separate, 2019 Odyssey among other models), 23V751000 (connecting rod bearing wear on certain 2018-2019 Odysseys, among other models) and 26V227000 (software error that can deploy side and curtain air bags, 2018-2022, April 2026). Confirm by VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls. |
| any | Recalls on file (27 campaigns in our records): 17V397000 (2018), 18V664000 (2019), 18V777000 (2018-2019), 18V795000 (2018-2019), 19V213000 (2018-2019), 19V298000 (2019), 19V299000 (2018-2019), 20V066000 (2018-2020), 20V437000 (2018-2020), 20V438000 (2019-2020), 20V439000 (2018-2020), 20V440000 (2019-2020), 21V010000 (2018-2021), 21V215000 (2019), 21V432000 (2022), 21V768000 (2022), 23V158000 (2018-2020), 23V174000 (2020-2022), 23V431000 (2018-2023), 23V751000 (2018-2019), 23V858000 (2018-2023), 24V064000 (2020-2022), 24V114000 (2023-2024), 25V877000 (2021-2026), 26V227000 (2018-2022), 26V332000 (2018-2026), 26V423000 (2018-2020) | Free at a Honda dealer when open | Also on file: sliding door latch campaigns 18V795000 (2018-2019) and 20V437000 (2018-2020), rear camera water-intrusion campaigns, and wheelchair-restraint campaigns by upfitters (Braun, Vantage Mobility) for converted vans. |
No year in this generation was flagged. A year is flagged by our rule only when all three hold: (1) its NHTSA complaints per catalog listing is at least 2.0x the median for its generation, (2) the share of ads that mention a problem is above the generation median, and (3) we track at least 30 listings for that year. The cutoff was fixed before we looked. Ad mentions are not failures, and a flag is a reason to inspect harder, not a verdict on any one car. We also re-ran the ad test with the 'rust' flaw left out, because the ad reader counts phrases like 'no rust' as mentions, and publish a flag only if it passes both ways.
| Year | Complaints | Top components | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 1,011 | Engine, Electrical System, Power Train | |
| 2019 | 997 | Forward Collision Avoidance,lane Departure, Electrical... | |
| 2020 | 491 | Forward Collision Avoidance,lane Departure, Electrical... | |
| 2021 | 147 | Electrical System, Unknown Or Other, Air Bags | |
| 2022 | 142 | Unknown Or Other, Electrical System, Forward Collision Avoidance | |
| 2023 | 105 | Forward Collision Avoidance, Electrical System, Unknown Or Other | |
| 2024 | 124 | Electrical System, Unknown Or Other, Engine | |
| 2025 | 446 | Electrical System,engine, Engine, Unknown Or Other | |
| 2026 | 61 | Unknown Or Other, Engine, Electrical System,engine |
source: NHTSA complaints database (api.nhtsa.gov). Complaints are owner reports, not confirmed failures.
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We don't tell you to skip a year; we flag by a fixed rule, and it flags 2005 (829 complaints across 61 listings, 13.59 per listing against a 2005-2010 median of 4.59). Third-party lists name the second generation (1999-2004) for its transmissions, and some posters name 2018 onward. In our data the second generation flags nothing, but its years rest on small listing counts, and 2018 and 2019 run 7.02 and 7.12 per listing, under our cutoff.
For the 1999-2004 automatics, one fetched repair guide says owners outside the extended coverage paid $2,000-$4,000; CarComplaints' own summary lists a $3,470 average repair at 98,450 miles, and one forum owner was quoted $3,000 for a refurbished unit. These are blog, owner and press figures for the early years, not a price list. We found no repair cost for the 2018-2019 9-speed.
For 1999-2001 Odysseys, yes. A fetched repair guide says a 2006 class action extended transmission coverage to 93 months/109,000 miles, and search snippets say it had earlier been extended to 7 years/100,000 miles. Those limits have long passed for every car on the road. Honda also recalled 2002-2004 Odysseys under 04V176000 for second-gear heat build-up. We did not find a Honda document for the extension itself.
Honda specifies the timing belt and water pump at 105,000 miles or 7 years, whichever comes first, per a fetched shop page and a Go-Parts snippet; Samarins says about every 100,000 miles. A shop job is listed at $600-$900 on the fetched page, $1,076-$1,522 in a RepairPal estimate, and owners report about $800 to $1,700. The V6 is an interference engine, so a broken belt can cost $2,500-$5,000+ or an engine.
Cylinder deactivation (VCM) arrived on the Odyssey V6 in 2005. One fetched blog links it to oil consumption of about a quart per 1,000-1,200 miles, misfires and failing active engine mounts, with mount repairs listed from about $564 to $1,735 and 'often over $2,000' with labor. That mileage and oil figure rest on one blog and owner posts, and we have no failure rate for them.
A class action over the ZF 9-speed in the 2018-2019 Odyssey and other Hondas was allowed in part to proceed by a California federal court in October 2022, and a later filing in 2024 alleges software updates masked the defect. These are allegations, not findings, and an earlier Odyssey transmission suit was dismissed in 2021.
We don't rank generations. Our own numbers: the median NHTSA complaints per catalog listing is 1.17 for 2011-2017, 4.59 for 2005-2010, 4.90 for 2018-present, 29.29 for 1999-2004 and 23.58 for 1995-1998. Those rates are not directly comparable across generations, because older cars have had more years to collect complaints and our listing counts for the oldest years are small.