Paint peeling or clear coat failure on the 2001 Honda Accord
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 paint peeling or clear coat failure gets reported
There are 5 reports of paint peeling or clear coat 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 95,000 miles. It is the 36th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 118,000 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
Putting it right typically runs $600–$6,000 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 15 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2000 at 150,000 miles.
By volume the 2018 carries the most reports, with 18; the 2001 has 5. 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.
The paint on my 2001 honda accord is peeling and the clear coat is lifting,front to back, I have noticed this on many honda's of years around the same age, dark colors, the paint and body shops said that there must be a problem with the paint and procedures in painting the car , this is the only honda out of the 9 other honda's, I've owned with a paint problem, this car only has 60000 miles on it, other honda's that I have had as much as 250,000, and the paint looked great (1990 accord) the dealer ship (groppetti honda claims they never heard of this problem, but I continue to see hondas with this same paint problems, this looks like the same type of problem general motors had back years ago and they corrected the paint with a recall, after many complaints, I know there are many complaints out there. *jb
The clear coat is peeling. Started on the roof. Then the trunk now it appears the hood may be starting. I kept this car well maintained and there was no good reason for the clear coat to start to peel. Honda gave me $500 in "loyalty cash". I have seen this problem on numerous other honda accords dating to the early 2000's. When it first started I thought it was due to using car washes. But then I noticed other vehicles having the same problem. Honda didn't even send a representative to look at the car when I requested one. *tr
Paint peeling on top when I purchased in 2012 just a little bit the size of a small piece of fruit. In 2 1/2 yrs the whole top has peeled, the top of driver side front and back door and the trunk is also starting about 40% now. Car is 01 but I see other makes and models that are that age and older that look ten times better. I see honda accords everywhere with the same problem , especially the same color as mine which is dark green. *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 5 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 5 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 paint peeling or clear coat failure happen on the 2001 Honda Accord?
Across 3 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 120,000 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 paint peeling or clear coat failure on the 2001 Honda Accord?
5 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