All generations and engines together · 160,036 MOT tests in the 2025 data · typical mileage at age 7: 57k
Split by first-registration year. Cars registered in a changeover year can belong to either generation.
Computed from DVSA MOT results, all of Great Britain, 2025. Nothing here is opinion.
Share of tests where each item was recorded. The dark tick is the class average across all tracked models; bars are scaled within each group.
The rows that judge the model rather than its keeper. 57,554 tests in this band.
Tyres, pads and stone chips say more about how the car was driven and maintained than about how it was built.
Owner folklore from forums and the motoring press. Most of it never shows up in an MOT, which is why this section exists at all.
Owners report the clutch biting unevenly and shuddering on pull-away, worst in 1st and 2nd gear on cold mornings. It shows up on 1.6 i-DTEC and 1.8 i-VTEC 9th-gen cars and on 1.5 VTEC 10th-gen cars, sometimes from new. Honda has replaced clutches and dual-mass flywheels under warranty in several reported cases, one owner had three clutches in 35,000 miles, so it is acknowledged rather than denied. Expect £600-£1,200 out of warranty for clutch and DMF together.
The small 1.0-litre turbo triple fitted to 10th-gen Civics (2017 on) has a string of reported turbo failures, including cases of two turbos failing on the same car. It tends to show by 30-40k miles and repair or replacement runs well into four figures once labour is added. Oil dilution from short, cold journeys has also been flagged on the same engine, which points to a wider issue with the unit running rich at low temperatures rather than one bad batch.
A persistent low-speed squeal from the front brakes on 1.5 VTEC 10th-gen cars started being reported from January 2018. Honda initially called it normal, then in April 2018 admitted it was a fault and worked on a repair; a pad swap alone often did not fix it. A separate air-con whistle on the same cars was covered by a Honda service bulletin. Neither is expensive to fix but both point to a rushed launch spec on the facelifted 1.5.
Owners across two generations report electric power steering trouble: 7th-gen (2001-05) cars with loose or failed steering racks and worn steering column top bearings (around £650 to fix), and 10th-gen (2017 on) cars with a rack that clonks or grumbles on full lock. This lines up with the measured MOT data for this class, where steering is the standout failure category. It is not the same defect on both generations, but it is the same system letting owners down twice a generation apart.
On the 1.6 i-DTEC and 2.2 i-DTEC diesels, a DPF that will not regenerate on short runs can dump extra fuel into the engine oil, diluting it and leaving the car derated or in limp mode. Replacement DPFs have been reported at 38k-88k miles and cost close to £1,000. This is a generic diesel-DPF problem rather than something unique to Honda, but it is common enough on this car to budget for if you mostly do short trips.
A number of 2017-2018 1.0 VTEC owners report the intruder alarm going off at random with no way to silence it, in one case needing three dealer visits over 12 days without a fix. Separate reports describe the whole electrical system dropping out briefly in traffic, usually traced to a loose earth. Honda has not acknowledged either as a factory-wide fault, so treat it as a known nuisance rather than a confirmed defect.
Built from the two sections above.
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Head to head with the other popular cars in its class on reliability and common faults.