Hyundai Sonata vs Honda Accord

Reliability comparison based on 52,326 federal complaints.

Source: NHTSA Complaint Data

The Verdict

Based on federal complaint data, the Hyundai Sonata has a stronger reliability record than the Honda Accord. This reflects complaint patterns across all model years — individual years may vary.

Head-to-Head

MetricHyundai SonataHonda Accord
Years of Data3436
Total Complaints21,78830,538
Avg Complaints/Year640.8848.3
Recent 5-Year Rate141.2228.8
Crashes Reported1,1402,685
Deaths Reported2371
Total Recalls136389

Lower complaints and crashes = better. Green highlights the better number in each row.

What Breaks Most

Hyundai Sonata

ENGINE 4,492
STEERING 2,203
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 1,763
AIR BAGS 1,738
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 1,223
SERVICE BRAKES 861
POWER TRAIN 799
EXTERIOR LIGHTING 795

Honda Accord

AIR BAGS 2,974
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 2,851
ENGINE 1,856
POWER TRAIN:AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION 1,799
POWER TRAIN 1,576
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 1,545
STEERING 1,255
SERVICE BRAKES 951

Best & Worst Years

Hyundai Sonata Best
1990
25 complaints
Hyundai Sonata Worst
2011
4,582 complaints
Honda Accord Best
2025
79 complaints
Honda Accord Worst
2018
2,638 complaints

Year-by-Year Comparison

Click any year to see full details.

Hyundai Sonata

1990 (25) 1991 (41) 1992 (43) 1993 (46) 1995 (93) 1996 (37) 1997 (74) 1998 (68) 1999 (187) 2000 (378) 2001 (293) 2002 (407) 2003 (247) 2004 (285) 2005 (217) 2006 (1422) 2007 (905) 2008 (554) 2009 (610) 2010 (415) 2011 (4582) 2012 (2254) 2013 (2602) 2014 (1061) 2015 (1611) 2016 (960) 2017 (964) 2018 (519) 2019 (182) 2020 (236) 2021 (156) 2022 (123) 2023 (130) 2024 (61)

Honda Accord

1990 (229) 1991 (242) 1992 (249) 1993 (222) 1994 (476) 1995 (673) 1996 (579) 1997 (546) 1998 (1428) 1999 (1345) 2000 (1505) 2001 (1157) 2002 (1267) 2003 (2378) 2004 (1303) 2005 (880) 2006 (541) 2007 (700) 2008 (1850) 2009 (855) 2010 (700) 2011 (357) 2012 (504) 2013 (1868) 2014 (1415) 2015 (805) 2016 (783) 2017 (734) 2018 (2638) 2019 (936) 2020 (500) 2021 (274) 2022 (248) 2023 (117) 2024 (155) 2025 (79)

Complaint counts reflect consumer-reported issues to NHTSA and do not represent failure rates. Higher sales volume typically means more complaints. This comparison is based on aggregate data across all model years — reliability can vary significantly between individual years. See our disclaimers and methodology.

Page generated: 2026-03-29