1996 Honda Civic problems
Owners have filed 383 complaints with NHTSA about the 1996 Honda Civic. Air bags is the most reported problem area, at 20% of complaints. Next are brakes (17%) and wipers, windshield & visibility (9%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 383 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Air bags 20% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 96 and 5
- Injuries and deaths
- 57 and 1
- Typical mileage
- 98,000 miles 47 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 1 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 4 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 0 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 8 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 11 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 2 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 6 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 4 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 3 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 1 |
| 200k+ miles | 7 |
What the data shows
Of the 47 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 98,000 miles. For air bags specifically, the median reported mileage is about 92,000 miles (13 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 96 complaints mention a crash; 5 complaints mention a fire; 57 injuries reported; 1 death reported. Its complaints are more severe on average than those of 92% of model years in our database.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 1996 ranks 22nd most-complained-about out of 37 model years of the Honda Civic with enough data (216 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 2 safety recall campaigns.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
While driving about 20 MPH in rainy weather consumer put on brakes and the vehicle swerved and turned on the other side of the road, spinned around and hit the back of a another vehicle, consumer stated that the air bags did not deploy. Has contacted the dealer. Also passengers seat collasped.
Consumer was driving approximately 20MPH, and was involved in a side collision with a 93- ford truck, explorer. Upon impact, air bags did not deploy. Both passenger and driver hit dash, passenger's head hit the windshield. Vehicle was totalled.
Tl* the contact owns a 1996 honda civic. While driving over a bump at an unknown speed, the air bags deployed erroneously and shattered the front passenger side window. The passenger sustained injuries to the face. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified. The failure mileage was 147,000. Updated 8/28/14 the consumer stated the manufacturer did not offer any assistance. Updated 11/12/2014
While driving the car engine will suddenly die. Does not matter if you are going 20 miles or 60 miles an hour. I can crank it after a few moments and it starts backup. Sometimes it takes several tries. When driving, it will sometimes jerk slightly like it is not getting fuel. Recently, it would not start I had it towed to the dealer where it subsequently started right up. The honda dealer thought it could be my old alarm system so they removed it. However, the problem persisted intermittently. I took the car back.