Consumer Safety Complaints
Search 2,245,377 safety complaints filed by vehicle owners with NHTSA, including 140,173 crashes, 56,794 fires, and 8,580 deaths.
What is a NHTSA consumer complaint?
A consumer complaint is a free-form report filed by a vehicle owner directly to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) describing a safety concern about their vehicle. NHTSA collects these reports through its Vehicle Owner Defect Report (VOQ) system and publishes them publicly. Each complaint includes the affected component, the date and circumstances of the incident, whether the failure caused a crash or fire, and any reported injuries or deaths. The owner's full narrative description is included verbatim, NHTSA does not edit or moderate the descriptions.
The database below contains over 2,245,377 individual complaints. NHTSA's investigators monitor it for clusters of similar reports, when enough owners describe the same failure mode on the same vehicle, NHTSA may open a Preliminary Evaluation that can lead to a recall. Many of the largest recalls in U.S. history, including the Takata airbag recall and the Hyundai/Kia engine fire recalls, started as patterns visible in this complaint database years before they became formal recalls.
How to interpret what you read
A few principles for reading consumer complaints usefully:
- One complaint is anecdote; a hundred similar complaints is data. NHTSA does not investigate the truthfulness of any individual report, that's the job of the Office of Defects Investigation, which looks at the full pattern. When evaluating a vehicle, look for whether multiple owners describe the same chain of events.
- Crash, fire, injury, and death flags are owner-set. They are not verified by NHTSA. They are still useful as a filter, because owners who tick those boxes are typically reporting more serious incidents than those who don't.
- Component categories are NHTSA-assigned, not owner-assigned. NHTSA standardizes the component field so that complaints can be aggregated. The owner narrative often goes into more detail than the component category captures.
- Complaint volume scales with sales volume. A best-selling model will accumulate more raw complaints than a niche model even at the same defect rate. To compare across vehicles, look at complaints per 100,000 units sold, not raw counts.
If you've experienced a defect
File a complaint. NHTSA's investigators rely on this database to detect emerging defects, and useful complaints, specific, concrete, with dates and mileage and clear descriptions of what happened, feed directly into the agency's pattern detection. The form takes about 10 minutes and is at nhtsa.gov/recalls under "Report a Safety Problem." Your complaint becomes part of the same public record that this page is built from. Owners filing detailed VOQs are how recalls get triggered.
Read more from our blog
Showing 129,250 complaints - component: AIR BAGS
Incident date: Mar 31, 2024
WAS NOTIFIED IN MAY OF 2023 OF THE AIRBAG RECALL. STILL NO REMEDY WHAT SO EVER. I DRIVE THIS CAR ON A DAILY AND IS TERRIFIED OF GETTING INTO AN ACCIDENT. I PURCHASED THIS CAR DUE TO THE SAFETY RATINGS AND NOW NOT SO MUCH. HOW ARE MANUFACTURERS MAKING NEW CARS WITH AIRBAGS AND STILL NO REMEDY FOR THIS?
GMC
SIERRA 2500
(2021) - AIR BAGS
Apr 15, 2024
Incident date: Apr 1, 2024
Front Passenger Safety Restraint System Fault requiring replacement of airbag and passenger seat sonsor retrofit. If not replaced a danger of airbag failure to deploy. Problem confirmed with dealer and inspected by manufacturer. Warning light appeared to bring car in for repair
Incident date: Apr 1, 2024
On this vehicle both front eat seatbelt receivers are faulty. This was not caused by an accident or excessive wear of the seatbelts. When you push the seatbelt into the receiver, it will not accept the seatbelt without first pushing down on the seatbelt button. Additionally, the vehicle does not recognize when the seatbelts are in use and the light on the dash stays on regardless. This issue start... Read more
Incident date: Feb 21, 2024
The contact owns a 2021 Honda Ridgeline. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 224V064000 (Air Bags) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The dealer was contacted. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue and confirmed that parts would be av... Read more
Incident date: Mar 15, 2024
The contact owns a 2022 Ford Escape. The contact stated while driving at an undisclosed speed, the air bag warning light illuminated on the instrument panel. The vehicle returned to normal functionality, but the failure became a regular occurrence. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic, who was unable to determine the cause of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer ... Read more
Incident date: Apr 15, 2024
The contact owns a 2020 Honda Accord. The contact stated while driving at 25 MPH, the front driver's side air bag, the front passenger's side air bag, and the knee air bags were deployed unintendedly. Additionally, there was a significant amount of chemical smoke inside the vehicle. There was no warning light illuminated. The contact stated that she depressed the brake pedal to stop and exit the v... Read more
Crash
4 injured
HYUNDAI
SANTA FE HYBRID
(2022) - AIR BAGS
Apr 15, 2024
Incident date: Sep 1, 2022
The contact owns a 2017 Buick Enclave. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V334000 (Air Bags) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The local dealer was contacted. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced ... Read more
Incident date: Feb 15, 2021
The contact owns a 2017 Buick Enclave. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V334000 (Air Bags) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The local dealer was contacted, and it was confirmed that the part was not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was... Read more
Incident date: Apr 14, 2024
The contact owns a 2018 Honda Civic. The contact stated that while driving at 3 MPH, the front driver's side air bag unexpectedly deployed. There was no impact on the vehicle that could have caused the front driver's side air bag to deploy. The air bag warning light was illuminated after the front driver's side air bag was deployed. The contact stated that when the front driver's side air bag depl... Read more
1 injured
Incident date: Apr 15, 2024
I was just in my second front end collision and for the second time, my front airbags did not deploy. The first instance, I hit a deer head on going 75 mph on the interstate. Last week, I T-bone F150 at 35mph - hard enough to make that truck spin around - and had injuries to my head, knee, and hand, and yet the airbag did not deploy once again. In both cases, my car sustained over $10,000 and dama... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Apr 5, 2024
Vehicle has had multiple recalls one recall to do with fuel pump was supposed to be fixed but came back and new recall still no remedy and it can cause death. The vehicle is very unsafe
Incident date: Apr 14, 2024
Airbag on passenger side stopped working last November . Subaru says it’s the switch in the seat and the seat needs replacing at a cost of approximately $1300. This should be part of the recall and be paid for by Subaru.
Incident date: Oct 30, 2023
Rcm2_a636 Front passenger safety restraint system fault
Incident date: Mar 30, 2024
I have a 2022 Subaru Forrester Touring vehicle purchased new. The front passenger seat airbag Supplemental Restraint System (SRS) consisting of the front, knee, curtain and side airbags is not enabled (Indicator light) while my wife is sitting in it. My wife weighs 88 lbs. which should be enough to enable the SRS. I have brought the issue to 2 different Subaru dealerships several times and Subar... Read more
Incident date: Mar 6, 2024
The passenger side seat weight sensor assembly failed. It is available for inspection. The vehicle has been inspected and repaired by a certified Honda dealer. The airbag light stayed on beginning in December 2023. The SRS warning light came on in March 2024. This defect was subject to a recall of CRV’s manufactured from 2020 to 2022. We believe the 2019 vehicles were affected also and shoul... Read more
Incident date: Mar 22, 2024
Manufacturer at two different locations report the are unable to make repairs due to not having parts.
Incident date: Apr 13, 2024
Received notice for safety recall to have PODs system repaired or replaced free of charge by Audi. Took my vehicle in for the recall. Audi wanted to charge me to complete this safety recall and refused to complete the recall if I didn't pay. This was bluegrass motorsports in Louisville ky. They also damaged my vehicles door trim and stole money from my glove box(my fault for leaving money inside).... Read more
Incident date: Apr 1, 2024
Occupant Air bag sensor is on constantly and Air bag light on dashboard. My vehicle has never been in an accident. There was a recall issued for my vehicle in 2016. I purchased my car in 2017 new and it was overstock vehicle. The recall was cleared in August 2016 by dealer and I just found this out when vehicle was taken to Nissan dealership for different recall on 4/6/24. Since the vehicle is out... Read more
Incident date: Mar 30, 2024
My daughter was driving my car and another person coming the other direction turned into ongoing traffic causing the cars to tbone. My car front was crushed in with $9,000 worth of damage head on. My daughter hit her head on the steering wheel and suffered a concussion.
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Apr 1, 2024
The transmission failed at just under 60k miles. Our air bag sensor light is now coming on and not sure why. I don’t have the money to continue to repair this vehicle plus make payments. We also have had issues with the front bolts on the driver side continuing to loosen.
Incident date: May 16, 2022
My passenger seat airbag warning is illuminated, with associated chime. I am also getting a orange warning light indicating the passenger airbag is inop. This is intermittent with a passenger occupying the passenger seat. lights go on and off with movement of the passenger. There is a current recall for the convertible model of the R56 Mini Cooper.
Incident date: Feb 13, 2024
The contact owns a 2013 Ram 1500. The contact stated that the air bag warning light was illuminated. The dealer was notified of the failure and informed the contact that the VIN was not included in a recall. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was unknown.
Incident date: Apr 12, 2024
The contact owned a 2017 Kia Optima. The contact stated that while driving at 35 MPH, another vehicle crashed on the front passenger side tire of the vehicle. Due to the impact, the vehicle was sent over four lanes of traffic and jumped over a curb. The contact stated that the front air bag was deployed only after the vehicle jumped the curb; no other air bags in the vehicle were deployed despite ... Read more
Crash
5 injured
Incident date: May 1, 2020
I was in a collision and the airbags did not deploy. There was a recall on airbags for the Mercedes C300 within the year my vehicle was made, however, the recall did not include my VIN. Also, the sunroof drain is faulty, which was also recalled on other Mercedes C300s within the same production year, again not my VIN, but upon inspection by a certified dealership, it appears to be the same issue a... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Nov 19, 2023
The contact owns a 2013 Ford Focus. The contact stated that when the vehicle was started, the air bag warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic however, the vehicle was not able to be diagnosed when connected to the diagnostic machine. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 214,525.
Incident date: Feb 23, 2024
The contact owns a 2017 GMC Acadia. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V334000 (Air Bags) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The local dealer was notified of the issue and confirmed that parts were not yet available. The manufacturer was ... Read more
FORD
BRONCO SPORT
(2022) - AIR BAGS
Apr 12, 2024
Incident date: Dec 26, 2023
am writing to bring to your attention a serious safety concern regarding my RAM 1500 2017 VIN [XXX] . I am deeply troubled to report that the side airbag in my vehicle has ruptured without any road accident or collision. Oman [XXX] INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
Incident date: Dec 11, 2023
Experienced safety restraint system failure on all four seats. Had them all fixed for ~$2,000. Front passenger restraint failed again next month. Know. Issue among the message boards online. Investigation into number of these repairs is likely merited.
Incident date: Apr 11, 2024
Left side driver air bag. Air bag light on. Repair to replace airbag needed at a cost of approximately $2,000 in order to get Massachusetts state inspection sticker. One week later, light back on, now estimate from dealer for $3,400 to replace the harness that the airbag sits in. We can't afford to get this second repair. Should manufacturers be responsible for a required safety feature such as a... Read more
Incident date: Apr 12, 2024
The contact owns a 2017 Chevrolet Traverse. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V334000 (Air Bags) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The local dealer was contacted. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was not made aware of the issue. The contact had not exp... Read more
Incident date: Apr 8, 2024
The contact owns a 2014 GMC Acadia. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V334000 (Air Bags) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The local dealer was contacted. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was not made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced... Read more
GMC
SIERRA 2500
(2024) - AIR BAGS
Apr 12, 2024
Incident date: Apr 6, 2024
Airbag light comes on and won't go off. There’s not a reason to or it to be on such as impact.
Incident date: Mar 23, 2024
The contact owns a 2014 Buick Enclave. The contact was notified of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V334000 (Air Bags) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The local dealer was made aware of the issue and confirmed that parts were not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was made... Read more
VOLKSWAGEN
ATLAS
(2021) - AIR BAGS
Apr 11, 2024
Incident date: Dec 21, 2023
Message saying driver restraint failure, air bags may not deploy properly. Random event, has been an issue with bmw i3 models.
Incident date: Mar 1, 2024
I was parked with the car running and an alert came on the dashboard that states SRS Airbag System Malfunction Visit your dealer. Toyota stated that my car is not part of their airbag recall. I believe my car should be included in the recall.
Incident date: Mar 17, 2024
Front passenger safety restraint system fault alarms comes intermittently
FORD
EXPEDITION
(2020) - AIR BAGS
Apr 11, 2024
Incident date: Aug 23, 2023
The contact owns a 2016 Chevrolet Traverse. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V334000 (Air Bags) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failure. VIN tool confirm... Read more
Incident date: Feb 10, 2024
The contact owns a 2010 Ford Focus. The contact stated that while driving at slow speeds, the air bag warning light illuminated. The contact stated that the air bag was flopping around. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic, but no assistance was provided. The contact called the local dealer, where it was determined that the air bag needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. T... Read more
HONDA
ACCORD HYBRID
(2023) - AIR BAGS
Apr 11, 2024
Incident date: Apr 7, 2024
The contact owns a 2013 BMW Z4. The contact stated that upon the start of the vehicle, the vehicle failed to reverse without warning upon depression of the accelerator pedal while in the reverse(R) position. The contact stated that the vehicle resumed normal operation upon restart of the engine. A few days later while the contact's husband was driving at 30 MPH, the vehicle continued to accelerate... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Apr 4, 2024
THE VEHICLE WAS INVOLVED IN A VEHICLE ACCIDENT BACK IN OCT 2023. THE AIR BAGS DID NOT DEPLOY.
Crash
Incident date: Apr 30, 2023
Porsche dashboard leather shrunk and staples pulled out. I was told that if the vehicle was in an accident the airbag might not deploy correctly. The Porsche dealer looked at it and recommended replacing it. This is a very common issue
LINCOLN
AVIATOR PHEV
(2022) - AIR BAGS
Apr 11, 2024
Incident date: Feb 16, 2024
The contact owns a 2017 GMC Acadia. The contact was notified of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V334000 (Air Bags) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The local dealer was made aware of the issue and confirmed that parts were not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was made aw... Read more
Incident date: Mar 11, 2024
The contact owns a 2006 Dodge Durango. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, another vehicle abruptly merged into his lane in front of him, prompting him to rapidly decrease speeds. However, the vehicle ahead was too close; as a result, the contact collided with the rear of the other vehicle, forcing his vehicle to careen to the shoulder of the roadway before coming to a c... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Apr 10, 2024
The recalls on my car has not yet been resolved. I took the car to CarTown Kia Florence South Carolina and the one in Columbia. First time was at CarTown Kia Florence, they had every excuse that they were short of staff and my car sit there for over a month and claim that I needed to fix the head gasket was the issue in order to do the engine inspection and fix the recall. I took it to the Columbi... Read more
Incident date: Apr 2, 2024
I was in a car accident where someone hit us at a high speed from behind. Unfortunately the air bags malfunctioned resulting in my face being busted on the front dash. The car gave me a malfunction warning when they didn’t deploy
Crash
1 injured
NISSAN
PATHFINDER
(2012) - AIR BAGS
Apr 10, 2024
Incident date: Apr 6, 2024
The contact owned a 2001 Acura CL. The contact stated that while driving at approximately 45 MPH, there was a vehicle driving toward the contact's driver's side that ran the red light and crashed into the front of the vehicle. The entire front of the vehicle was damaged. The air bags did not deploy and the seat belt restraint system did not operate. The contact was treated for a back muscle injury... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Apr 1, 2024
The contact owns a 2020 GMC Sierra. The contact proceeded through the intersection when a vehicle crashed into the contact's driver's side door and wheel at unknown speeds. The contact stated that the other vehicle crashed into two vehicles, then crashed into the contact's vehicle and stopped. The contact stated that the police report stated that the vehicle that crashed into the contact was const... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Mar 21, 2024
Engine seized at 82000 miles stranding me in the passing lane of Interstate 10. Was nearly hit by a truck.
Fire
Incident date: Jun 10, 2023
The contact owns a 2021 Toyota Avalon Hybrid. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V865000 (Air Bags) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The dealer was made aware of the issue and confirmed that parts were not yet available. The vehicle was... Read more
Incident date: Mar 10, 2024
The contact owns a 2014 GMC Acadia. The contact was notified of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V334000 (Air Bags) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The local dealer was made aware of the issue and confirmed that parts were not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was made aw... Read more