Buyer Research

2022 Honda Civic — Should You Buy One?

Typical asking price: $18,000–$25,000. There is 1 high-severity known issue you need to know before handing over a check.

Deciding between model years? Compare the 17 Honda Civic years we've written up →

Kestrel Take

The first year of the eleventh-generation Civic, and one cluster is the entire story: 731 of 881 complaints — 83 percent — are the steering, nearly all of them the same 'sticky' or 'notchy' wheel at highway speed that takes a shove to move off center and then jumps. Twenty-seven crashes are filed against it. Honda issued a recall for the steering gearbox in late 2024 (24V744, a worm-gear spring and grease), and some owners say the fix did not take. So this purchase is one test: drive it at 60 mph on a straight road and make small corrections — if the wheel catches at center, walk, whatever the VIN lookup says. If it is smooth, the rest of the record is a very good car with a cruise control that drops out, two seat-sensor airbag recalls to confirm, and not much else. We found no other recurring four-figure fault in these 881 complaints; we also found that one fault is enough to walk over.

What we checked

Reconciled against public records, 2026-09-25

NHTSA holds 881 owner complaints for the 2022 Honda Civic, and 4 recall campaigns.

A big number here usually means a lot of these were sold, not that it is a bad vehicle — popular models collect more complaints for the same rate of trouble. So the total on its own says little. What is worth reading is the shape of it. 83% of them are about one thing — steering. That much concentration is a genuine pattern rather than background noise, and it is the first thing to check on any example you look at.

4 recall campaigns cover this model year. Recalls are repaired free, for any owner, with no time limit on most safety campaigns — but only if someone books it in. Ask the seller to show it was done, or have any dealer check the VIN; it takes them a couple of minutes and costs nothing.

Counts come from the NHTSA complaint and recall database — free, public, and worth checking yourself.

Known Issues for the 2022 Honda Civic

Ranked by wallet impact. These are documented, recurring problems — not freak accidents. How we decide that.

Sticky, notchy steering at highway speed that catches at center and jumps — 83 percent of the record, 27 crashes (recall)High — wallet impact

The eleventh-gen Civic's electric steering gearbox can build friction so the wheel resists small inputs at 40–70 mph, then releases suddenly — owners say 'like driving in a rut' and that they over-correct across the lane. It shows in the STEERING cluster and again in the 66 LANE DEPARTURE filings, where the lane-keep system fights the same sticky rack. Owners cite Honda's service bulletin 23-037; NHTSA's recall 24V744 (late 2024) has dealers replace the worm-gear spring and re-grease the gearbox free. A second recall, 23V704, covers cars that already had a replacement rack fitted wrong so the tire can chafe the suspension. Complaints kept coming in 2025 and 2026 from cars with the recall done and dealers then quoting a full rack. Test it yourself: highway speed, straight road, small corrections, both directions. Any catch or notch is a walk-away, not a negotiating point.

Repair cost: $0 with the recall — verify it was performed; $1,200–$2,200 for a replacement steering rack if the recall fix does not cure it

Source: NHTSA complaints filed under steering (731), lane departure (66); 4 NHTSA recall campaigns on this model year.

Adaptive cruise that shuts itself off and will not re-engage; collision braking for nothingMedium

Seventy-one FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE complaints and 42 more under speed control tell two stories. The first is cruise control — adaptive or plain — dropping out with a 'Cruise Control Off' beep and refusing to set again until the car is restarted; owners have had it since new and dealers cannot reproduce it. The second is the Collision Mitigation Braking System braking hard on an empty highway, with four crashes in the cluster. Both live in the windshield camera and front radar of Honda Sensing. Set adaptive cruise on the test drive for ten minutes of highway and see whether it stays set; a camera recalibration is a small bill and sometimes the answer, and sometimes it is a software update the dealer should apply under warranty.

Repair cost (estimate): $0 for a software update under warranty; $150–$400 for a camera or radar recalibration

Source: NHTSA complaints filed under the driver-assist and automatic braking systems (71), throttle and cruise control (42).

Front passenger seat weight sensors can fail and let the airbag deploy on a child or small adult (two recalls)Medium

Recall 24V064 covers 2020–2022 Civic sedans and 2021–2022 hatchbacks: the seat weight sensors in the front passenger seat can crack, so the occupant classification system may not switch the airbag off for a child seat or small person. A second, broader campaign, 26V332, went out in July 2026 for the same part across most of Honda's lineup. Dealers replace the sensors free. There is no symptom to feel for; the passenger airbag off indicator may or may not misbehave. Run the VIN, and if either shows open, have it done before anyone rides up front.

Repair cost: $0 with the recall — verify it was performed

Source: 4 NHTSA recall campaigns on this model year.

Warning-light cascades, a dead 12-volt battery, and a screen that rebootsLow

Thirty-eight ELECTRICAL SYSTEM complaints, no common part: the cluster lighting up with brake-system, lane-departure and cruise errors all at once, then clearing; batteries that go flat in a week on cars that sit; the infotainment screen freezing or restarting mid-drive. A load test on the battery takes five minutes and the original battery on a 2022 is due anyway. If the dash lights up on the test drive, note which ones — a cascade of driver-assist errors usually means a camera or a battery, not five separate faults.

Repair cost (estimate): $150–$300 for a battery; $0–$250 for software updates

Source: NHTSA complaints filed under electrics and electronics (38).

Walk-Away Red Flags

✗Steering wheel that catches at center at 60 mph and needs a shove to move
✗Recall 24V744 or 23V704 open on the NHTSA VIN lookup
✗Seller says the steering recall was done but 'it still feels a bit sticky'
✗Cruise control that drops out on the test drive
✗Any driver-assist warning cascade on the cluster

Good Signs

✓A ten-mile highway test with smooth, linear steering around center in both directions
✓Recall 24V744 shown complete with a dated dealer invoice
✓Both seat weight sensor recalls closed on the VIN lookup
✓Adaptive cruise that holds for the whole highway stretch
✓Battery replaced with a receipt, or load-tested above 12.4V resting