Total Complaints
1 filings
HONDA CLARITY PLUG-IN HYBRID · model year
1 NHTSA complaints for this specific cohort.
NHTSA overall rating
Not crash-tested
New Car Assessment Program
The 2017HONDACLARITY PLUG-IN HYBRID carries 1 consumer safety complaint in NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation database for this specific model-year cohort. Within that volume, owners reported 0 crashes, 0 fires, 0 injuries, and 0 fatalities. No NCAP 5-star crash-test rating is available for this model year in the federal database.
Component-level analysis is where model-year complaints become actionable: the top complaint category for the 2017 CLARITY PLUG-IN HYBRID is power train with 1 filings. Concentration in one or two component groups is the classic signature of a systemic defect; a flat distribution usually reflects normal aging, warranty complaints, or isolated build-plant variability.
NHTSA currently has 77 investigation files overlapping the 2017 CLARITY PLUG-IN HYBRID, and 9 remain open. Owners comparing this cohort against neighboring years should pair the counters above with the complaint-by-year trend on the parent model page — a spike in a single year often tracks to a platform refresh, a new transmission supplier, or an updated ECU calibration. Use the related-complaint feed below to read raw owner narratives before deciding whether any pattern here affects your specific use case.
Total Complaints
1 filings
Crashes Reported
0 reports
Source
NHTSA ODI
Federal complaints database
At or below the fleet median complaint volume.
| Component | Count |
|---|---|
| POWER TRAIN | 1 |
FIRST TIME CAR FAILED AROUND APRIL 201. IT DISPLAYED ENGINE FAILURE, EMISSIONS SYSTEM PROBLEM, ROAD DEPARTURE MITIGATION PROBLEM, ADAPTIVE CRUSE CONTROL PROBLEM. THE HYBRID SYSTEM WAS DISABLED AND I HAD TO CALL A TOW TRUCK TO HAVE THE CAR TOWED TO THE DEALER. THE DEALER WAS NOT ABLE TO GIVE ME A SATISFACTORY EXPLANATION OF WHAT FAILED AND HOW IT WAS FIXED. SECOND TIME IT FAILED IN LATE JUNE, THE SAME WAY IT FAILED IN APRIL. THIS TIME THE BATTERY HAD ENOUGH CHARGE TO DRIVE TO DEALER BUT THE HYBRID WAS DISABLED AS WELL. THIS TIME I WAS TOLD THE COMPUTER IS READING A FALSE WATER PUMP FAILURE AND THERE IS NO SOFTWARE UPDATE FOR THIS PROBLEM. THEY CLEARED THE FAULT AND RETURNED THE CAR TO ME. SECOND TIME THERE WAS AN ADDITIONAL FAILURE WHERE THE RANGE DISPLAYED 999 MILES RANGE AFTER I REFILLED THE GAS. THERE WAS A SOFTWARE UPDATE FOR THIS PROBLEM. EACH TIME THE FAILURES OCCURRED THE CARE WAS IN MOTION, FIRST TIME WAS LOCAL TRAFFIC SECOND TIME WAS HIGHWAY DRIVING. BOTH TIMES THE CAR WAS RU
Mileage: 5,500
Inaccurate Rear Passenger Seat Belt Warning Status
Loss of Motive Power
Inadvertent Deployment of Side Air Bags
Engine failure
No Restart After Auto Start/Stop Engages
Data as of 2025. Sources: NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) complaints database, NHTSA recall campaign API, NHTSA NCAP crash-test ratings, and NHTSA FARS for fatality cross-reference.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.