Consumer Safety Complaints

You can file a complaint directly on the NHTSA website at nhtsa.gov/report-a-safety-problem or call the Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236 (TTY: 1-800-424-9153). You'll need your vehicle's VIN, make, model, and year, plus a detailed description of the problem. Include dates, mileage, and whether the issue caused a crash, fire, injury, or death. The more detail you provide, the more useful your complaint will be for identifying defect patterns.

NHTSA analysts review all incoming complaints and look for patterns. If multiple complaints describe the same problem in the same vehicle, NHTSA may open a Preliminary Evaluation (PE) — the first step in a formal investigation. If the PE finds evidence of a safety defect, it escalates to an Engineering Analysis (EA). The manufacturer may voluntarily issue a recall at any point during this process. If they don't, NHTSA can order a mandatory recall.

Not necessarily. Popular vehicles with high sales volumes naturally receive more complaints simply because more people own them. A Ford F-150 will have far more complaints than a Maserati GranTurismo just due to sales volume. What matters more is the complaint rate (complaints per 1,000 vehicles sold) and the severity of the issues reported — crashes, fires, injuries, and deaths are more significant than cosmetic or convenience complaints.

A complaint is a report from an individual vehicle owner about a safety problem they experienced. A recall is an official action by a manufacturer or NHTSA to fix a confirmed safety defect. Complaints are the starting point — when enough people report the same problem, it can lead to an investigation and eventually a recall. Recalls require free repairs for all affected vehicles; complaints do not trigger any automatic repair obligation.