Cruise control failure on the 2001 Honda Accord
4 crashes 4 of the 4 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
Only 3 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When cruise control failure gets reported
There are 4 reports of cruise control failure on the 2001 Honda Accord, 3 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 72,000 miles. It is the 42nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 52,268 miles | — | — |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 4 a crash is mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $200–$1,400 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 22 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2022, at a median of 2,000 miles, and latest on the 1997 at 180,000 miles.
By volume the 2018 carries the most reports, with 197; the 2001 has 4. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
Customer lost control of vehicle, resulting in a crash while attempting to disengage cruise control with foot brake w on wet surface. Rear tires completely locked when customer tapped the foot brake to disengage speed control,causing vehicle to skid. Customer attempted to "stomp-and-steer" vehicle, (as is implied with ABS), brakes became unresponsive and pedal travelled to the floor. Customer then applied full throttle to try to pull the vehicle out of the skid, which was unsuccessful due to the traction control overpowering customer's attempt to steer and accelerate out of the skid (the tcs automatically applies front brakes to limit wheel spin at speeds below 20 MPH. Even though vehicle was travelling at 70, computer must have registered under 20 at that point). Vehicle violently spinned out of control off the highway down a 40 foot embankment. *ak
I started my vehicle and put it in reverse. The pedal resisted and would not depress. I tapped it lightly and without warning the vehicle shot backwards at high speed, accelerating uncontrollably. As it accelerated backwards, I side swiped the neighbor's vehicle. The vehicle proceeded backwards striking the front of another neighbors condo. After striking the condo, the engine continued to race at high rpms and continued to try and surge backwards. Smoke began to come from the front of vehicle, apparently from tires that were still rotating. Without warning, the vehicle accelerated forward at high speed. The vehicle hit and jumped over a curbed island in the lot. The vehicle stopped its sudden acceleration and came to a stop across the parking lot. The police arrived at the scene and took a report and pictures. Officer comstock conducted a query on "uncontrolled acceleration" and found numerous reports of vehicles accelerating uncontrollably. He found several references to it possibly being tied to the "cruise control". He advised me to have the vehicle towed to a honda dealership for inspection. He advised not to operate the…
Sudden acceleration: while backing up in an enclosed parking garage, I started the car, put my foot on the brake and placed the gear in reverse. I began applying pressure to the gas pedal, and the car began moving back slowly. All of a sudden the car took off like a shot. I hit the brake, but nothing happened. Fortunately, I was able to guide the car into a column in the garage rather than other cars or a person. I have driven the car for 7 years, so I certainly know where the break and the accelerator are. My car is a v6 with cruise control and remote start. There was no obstruction to either pedal in the interior of the car. $4,000 damages to fender, bumper, rear light, and trunk. If anyone had been behind my car, they would have been seriously injured or killed. *tr
Also reported on the 2001 Honda Accord
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other powertrain problem
Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure
Complete transmission failure
Other speed control problem
Airbag failed to deploy in a crash
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 4 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 4 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does cruise control failure happen on the 2001 Honda Accord?
Across 3 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 50,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is cruise control failure on the 2001 Honda Accord?
4 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.0 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed