CROSSTOUR

Honda Crosstour Reliability

Owners filed 124 complaints — 1.65 per production run against 3.73 for the market. The typical failure comes at 6 years, and the basic warranty runs out at 3.

NHTSA owner complaints · 124 complaints · 2012–2015 · Updated Sep 19, 2026
Quick answer

The Honda Crosstour draws 1.65 complaints per production run against 3.73 for the average car — better than typical. The worst model year is 2014 at 1.81 complaints per run; the best is 2015 at 1.44 — a 1.3-fold gap between two cars wearing the same badge. Failures cluster at 6 years, so only 20.2% of them fall inside the 3-year basic warranty.

Honda Crosstour years to avoid — and the best ones

The Honda Crosstour year to avoid is 2014, at 1.81 complaints per production run. The best is 2015 at 1.44 — 1.3 times cleaner for a car wearing the same badge. Both figures are rates, not totals: a raw count only tells you which year sold well, so the best-selling year always looks like the worst car. Dividing by the number of production runs strips sales volume out and leaves the fault rate.

FIG.01·Honda Crosstour — complaint rate by model year
Model yearPer runComplaintsRunsEnough history?
20151.442316yes
20141.812916yes
20131.734526yes
20121.592717yes
ROWS 4·SOURCE NHTSA complaints, grouped by VIN production run

Among the 4 Honda Crosstour years with enough history, the three to walk away from are 2014, 2013, 2012; the three worth hunting are 2015, 2012, 2013. Anything marked «too new» sits outside the ranking on purpose — complaints keep arriving for a decade after a car is sold, so a 2026 build would look flawless next to a ten-year-old one and comparing them would be dishonest.

When it starts to break

Not the calendar year the complaint was filed — the age of the car when it failed. That age decides who pays: inside the warranty the manufacturer does, outside it you do.

FIG.02·Honda Crosstour — age at failure
Age at failureComplaintsRunning totalWarranty
0 years118.9%covered
1 year412.1%covered
2 years1020.2%covered
3 years927.4%you pay
4 years1741.1%you pay
5 years1049.2%you pay
6 years1460.5%you pay
7 years1371%you pay
8 years575%you pay
9 years1183.9%you pay
10 years688.7%you pay
11 years1096.8%you pay
12 years298.4%you pay
13 years2100%you pay
ROWS 14·SOURCE NHTSA complaints with incident dates

Basic warranty on this car is 3 years / 36,000 miles. Only 20.2% of reported failures happen inside it — the remaining 79.8% come out of the owner's pocket. Powertrain cover (5 years / 60,000 miles) reaches further, but it only covers engine and transmission, and most complaints here are not either.

What actually fails — and at what age

Ordered by how often owners reported each system, with the age at which it typically goes. On a Honda Crosstour the early trouble is Vehicle Speed Control — reported at around 1.7 years, so a car still under warranty is the one to check for it. What waits further out is Electrical System at 6.3 years — past every basic warranty, and the bill lands on whoever owns the car then.

FIG.03·Honda Crosstour — what fails and when
SystemComplaintsTypical ageCrashFire
Electrical System306.3 yrs1
Steering266.6 yrs1
Power Train225.3 yrs1
Engine144.8 yrs
Unknown Or Other126.5 yrs
Service Brakes99 yrs
Vehicle Speed Control71.7 yrs1
Air Bags65.3 yrs3
ROWS 8·SOURCE NHTSA complaints

What else in this class

Same vehicle class as the Honda Crosstour, so the comparison is fair — an estate against an estate, not against a coupé. These 6 share its class; open any of them to see its own build years and failure ages side by side with the Crosstour.

FIG.05·Honda Crosstour — rivals in the same class
Same class as the CrosstourComplaints on recordRecall campaignsYears built
Honda Pilot9,2161972003–2026
Ford Escape28,3662272001–2026
GMC Terrain3,145452009–2026
Volkswagen Tiguan2,219672009–2026
Volkswagen Atlas1,941752018–2026
Jeep Compass3,959472006–2026
ROWS 6·SOURCE NHTSA complaints and recall campaigns

These are totals, not rates: a model that sold in millions collects more of both. Open one to see its complaints per production run — the figure this site is built on.

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How we measure it

Reliability scores usually arrive as a number out of five with no working shown. The Honda Crosstour figure here comes out of 124 individual reports, and here is exactly how they were turned into a rate — two steps in it are arguable and you should be able to argue with them.

Rate, not total. Volume alone would decide the ranking, so we divide by the number of production runs — the distinct first-eleven-character VIN prefixes on record. The Honda Crosstour alone splits into 75 runs carrying 124 complaints — 1.65 per run against 3.73 for the market.

Age, not year. Incident date minus model year gives the age at failure, which is what the warranty question turns on. It is why our «worst year» rankings exclude anything built in the last 6 years — those cars simply have not had time to break yet.

What this is not. Filing with a federal regulator takes effort, so what you see are faults someone judged serious — not scratched paint, not running costs, not how nice the car is to live with. For the Honda Crosstour the file runs from 2012 to 2015, so the older years carry a full life of reports and the newest carry almost none.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Honda Crosstour reliable?

It draws 1.65 complaints per production run against 3.73 for the average car, so better than typical. Failures cluster around 6 years of age.

What are the best and worst years for the Crosstour?

Worst is 2014 at 1.81 complaints per run; best is 2015 at 1.44. Years newer than 6 are excluded — they have not had time to accumulate complaints.

How long does a Crosstour last?

Complaints reach their halfway point at 6 years. That is when faults start being reported in volume, not when the car stops — but it is the point at which ownership starts costing money.

Will the warranty cover it?

Basic cover is 3 years / 36,000 miles, and 20.2% of reported failures fall inside it. The rest are yours.

What fails most often?

Electrical System with 30 complaints, typically at 6.3 years of age.

Complaint records from NHTSA, grouped by VIN production run (characters 1–11). Rates, age-at-failure and warranty coverage computed by ForCar. Model years newer than 6 years are excluded from rankings — complaints accumulate for a decade. Last updated Sep 2026. — ForCar Reviewed by , founder of ForCar.
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