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 42,929 complaints - component: EXTERIOR LIGHTING
Incident date: Feb 2, 2021
Hi, my dim lights don't light the road in front of me, I have a 2013 Prius and to drive it at night is taken my life and any on coming motorists at risk...I put expensive bulbs in and that doesn't help the problem, can you help?
Incident date: Jan 2, 2022
Snow Pearl White paint is chipping at various areas of the front portion of the vehicle. I was driving in heavy rain and then noticed a huge chunk just chipped off. Several owners with this paint color have complained of an issue this similar. Headlights are too dim at night. We have family who lives in the country with limited street light and we are forced to use our high beam lights to even s... Read more
TOYOTA
HIGHLANDER
(2016) - EXTERIOR LIGHTING
Feb 20, 2022
Incident date: Feb 20, 2019
Rear passenger tail light lift gate has water inside tail light housing, if this continues it will cause brake light to be burned off or malfunction and cause vehicle behind these cars unable to see the tail light and cause an accident. The problem has been seen all over toyota forum and a quick google search will provide adequate evidence or recurring problem with this vehicle and similar vehicle... Read more
Incident date: Feb 1, 2022
The headlights, one or both, arbitrarily go out while driving at night.
Incident date: Feb 11, 2022
we received notice for safety recall that the tail lights and turn signal lights could fail and they needed to change something to do with computer.we took it in and left with lights working and 3days later they stopped working again.Kia is refusing to fix it on the recall but it is the same issue.
MERCEDES-BENZ
C300
(2011) - EXTERIOR LIGHTING
Feb 18, 2022
Incident date: Jan 27, 2022
Rear taillight ground wire melting. Dealer said that this recall was performed previously, so now I had to pay for the repair parts. NHTSA CAMPAIGN NUMBER: 14V177000
Incident date: Feb 18, 2022
Dealership will only repair stop light, but there are other problems such as no start,mil illumination. Dealer want me to pay for a dia. test in order to fix the issues.
Incident date: Feb 17, 2022
After going through the car wash, I lost my rear brake lights and rear running lights. Still have the third brake light. From reading on many Porsche form sites, this is a common issue. The vehicle does not have adequate drains, in return, water leaks into multiple areas of the vehicle causing electrical shortages. You do not get any warning bells, or signs on the dash that you do not have rear ta... Read more
Incident date: Jul 11, 2018
I have to replace the low beam and high beam bulbs several times a year. The low beams are SO dim, I can’t even tell if they are on- forcing me to drive with my bright lights on all the time. The bulbs blow all the time- I have driven without low beams and not none they were blown. The lights are now constantly flickering while driving. Very dangerous.
Incident date: Feb 17, 2022
Electrical, Brake lights suddenly stopped working on both sides at once. I checked the fuse only to be told a relay may be the issue. The location of said relay is vague and not serviceable by owner. Risk of rear end collision. Of following traffic
Incident date: Jun 1, 2021
Headlights low beams are dim. Causing dangerously restrictive visibility when driving at night. A google search indicates that this problem is widespread and very common. I first noticed this about six months ago.
Incident date: Feb 2, 2022
The rear tail lights stopped working completely due to manufacturing defect of rear tail lights causing electric short circuit by moisture . Defective tail lights Safety recall was performed in August 2021 by Dennisville Acura. The rear tail lights stopped working again due to same issue.Took to the dealer Davis Acura on 17 Feb 2022 to perform the safety recall again and dealer refused to perform... Read more
Incident date: Feb 14, 2022
2014 Dodge Durango R/T- water pooled in the drivers side rear light, causing the LED's to short out. I called the dealership and it is well over a thousand dollars to replace this. Currently only operating with the passenger side light which is a huge problem in the state of MI. No warning lamps appeared... I noticed it after a car wash.
Incident date: Feb 1, 2022
Headlamp assemblies have failed due to apparent manufacturer defect. The defects are so significant that the vehicle becomes unsafe to drive at night, and even brand new bulb replacements have no effect. The entire headlamp assemblies are defective and must be replaced. These are known issues, and the predominent complaints listed not only on replacement part websites on the internet, but in NHT... Read more
Incident date: Aug 21, 2021
Headlights you can't leave them on automatic the lights will stay on and kill your battery. The lights blink off and on sometimes when use turn signal, and sometime goes completely out while driving at night have a fear of running into someone or off hwy. No inspections. No lamp warning messages. I bought the Vehicle used May of 2021 and notice problems about a couple of months later.
Incident date: Feb 3, 2022
The vehicle lights are dangerously dim. Changing the bulbs hasn’t fixed the problem. The headlights as a whole weren’t sealed properly allowing moisture in.
Incident date: Feb 16, 2022
The electrical system was faulty since day one. When a turn signal is on and you turn the steering wheel that direction the light will turn off. This is SO DANGEROUS. The speed is also very iffy every time you break
Incident date: Feb 10, 2022
Purchased a 2016 Cadillac SRX Luxury Edition used with 60,000 miles. First time driving at night, I noticed headlights on dim were very dim. Barely could see the roadway unless lights were on bright. I done some research on issue and found that it seems to be a common problem with this model from 2010 to 2016 year model. Cadillac has known of the problem, but has not thoroughly done any action to ... Read more
Incident date: Aug 1, 2020
The contact owns a 2016 Tesla Model S. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the center console failed to operate as needed without warning. The contact also stated that the side mirrors would independently fold in without warning. The contact then received a recall notice for NHTSA Campaign Number: 21V035000 (Back Over Prevention, Visibility, Exterior Lighting). The contact cal... Read more
Incident date: Dec 7, 2021
Arrived home, turned off engine while walking away from the car noticed the right front head light was off. after trying a few times to assess the problem, on 1/17/2022 took the car to the service department at South Motor Infiniti dealer (where car is always taken for maintenance). A few hours later, after they did a diagnostic report ($217.00) the Service Rep called us to get authorization to re... Read more
Incident date: Feb 15, 2022
The headlights have went out over 10 times. The wiring keeps burning. This is a known issues. Why is there not a recall? It’s extremely expensive and hard to get the front end of the car off to replace the bulb to find out it’s not the bulb. It goes out every few months. Even the dealership service department has told me it’s a known issue!
Incident date: Feb 2, 2022
The direction signals will only work when taking a right turn. The signal stalk will not return to the neutral position and the signal will not shut off after making a right turn. In order to shut off the right signal, I must pull the signal stalk to the left turn position. However, the left turn signal will not operate. Further when making a right turn the signal will begin operating even tho... Read more
Incident date: Feb 8, 2022
The contact owns a 2016 Hyundai Elantra. The contact stated that while driving, there was an abnormal burning smell detected. The police pulled the contact over, who informed her the headlights were blown. There were no warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer where it was diagnosed the wiring harness was melted. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not c... Read more
Fire
Incident date: Feb 15, 2022
Entire Driver Side Tail Lamp assembly stopped working (includes running light, brake light, reverse light, and blinker). Dash board did display warning (while driving) of lights malfunction, but nevertheless stopped working while driving. Upon further Inspection, found a “short” / melted pig tail (electrical connector) connecting to the rear of the lamp assembly. (Both the connector and pig ta... Read more
Incident date: Nov 1, 2020
The contact owns a 2002 Chevrolet Avalanche. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the ABS and oil warning lights illuminated. Additionally, the speedometer, the 4-wheel drive function, parking brake, and headlights failed to operate as needed. The instrument panel light failed to illuminate, the gear shifter did not display the selected gear, the sub-frame was corroded, a... Read more
Incident date: Jan 7, 2022
Less than a month after I purchased my car, the whole diver's side headlight assembly stopped functioning, no blinker, no headlight, no running light. It's been over a month and Tesla keeps moving my service appointment to a later date. Tesla states it's a part issue, yet you continue to build cars with headlights ignoring current customers. I still have no working Headlight assembly.
Incident date: Jan 10, 2022
Warning light on dashboard indicated right front headlamp out. Repair shop removed and replaced original component with new component. Internal inspection of light assembly revealed missing insulation(photos attached) on wiring harness causing a short circuit which also ruined the headlight igniter and control module. Shop stated that this issue is NOT uncommon with Volvo lighting systems. T... Read more
MERCURY
GRAND MARQUIS
(2005) - EXTERIOR LIGHTING
Feb 14, 2022
Incident date: Feb 14, 2020
The contact owns a 2005 Mercury Grand Marquis. The contact stated that while driving at undisclosed speeds, the headlights would intermittently turn off and back on. The contact stated that while driving over bumps in the roadway or depressing the accelerator pedal, the headlights would become inoperable. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic and diagnosed with an intermittent electrica... Read more
Incident date: Feb 13, 2022
The contact owns a 2012 Ford Taurus. The contact stated that while the vehicle was parked and the vehicle was turned off, the exterior lights remained operational and the battery was drained the following day. The contact stated that the failure happened over several days. The contact stated that the check engine warning light was illuminated. The contact had not taken the vehicle to a local deale... Read more
Incident date: Mar 1, 2021
The contact owns a 2014 Tesla Model S. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 21V035000 (Back Over Prevention, Visibility, Exterior Lighting) however, the part to the recall repair was unavailable. The contact took the vehicle to a local dealer and it was confirmed that the part was not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of... Read more
Incident date: Feb 4, 2022
The headlights have gotten progressively worse over time to the point I cannot see. The light does not extend more than a feet feet and very dimly. Oncoming traffic is flashing brights at me as if i have no lights on. It is extremely dangerous and I have nearly had accidents.
Incident date: Apr 14, 2021
The vehicle continually melts fuses for the interior lighting. Dealer said that they can not find any issues. This can potentially turn into an electrical fire. This has happened multiple times.
Incident date: Feb 12, 2022
The center track light (brake light) is defective; it collects water from the rain or melted snow and has shorted out parts of the light. The shorted area does not light up when braking. With parts of the track light blacked out by the short, it is not as effective in letting drivers behind me know when I am braking. Initially, the shorted light was a small corner of the light, which is not sev... Read more
Incident date: Jun 1, 2018
The headlights on my 2014 Cadillac SRX are unusable because they are so dim. I am at the point where I don’t drive at night. Although I did try putting new bulbs in that did not fix the problem. There is some defect in the lens, reflector, or housing. Not being able to see the road at night is a huge safety concern and running with my hi-beams on all the time is a safety concern for other motori... Read more
Incident date: Oct 30, 2021
When the cruise control shuts down, the tachometer cuts out and the vehicle seems to go into limp mode. Brightening or dimming the headlights causes an intermittent bright flash to the interior lights. This could be potentially dangerous seeing as you have no acceleration, which could cause very extensive damage to person and property. The intermittent bright flash could be a result of an unregula... Read more
Incident date: Dec 21, 2021
See attached letter for details. Incident date below reflects the VIN I currently own, when testing identified the safety-related defect. Accident details from previous same model. The same headlamps were the subject of the July 14, 2014 NHTSA Acura ILX Electrical & Lights Recall: 14V323000 on the 2013-2014 Acura ILX model. Yet, Acura continued to use these headlamps and failed to rectify the de... Read more
Crash
2 injured
Incident date: Jan 1, 2021
The forward facing lights on my 2014 Santa Fe are so dim, I have to drive with the bright lights on just to be able to see at night. I’ve replaced the bulbs twice and they are still dim. Fog lights work, brights works, it’s just the regular night vision lights. I have resort to go slower than normal speed when driving at night because I can’t see. Thank God for street lights and road lamps. ... Read more
Incident date: Jan 9, 2022
Headlights, taillights and all dash and interior lights go out when using turn signal at night. My and others safety has been put at risk due to the loss of headlights and taillights when engaging the turn signal. Those in my truck as well as those in surrounding vehicles are at risk because of the lack of exterior illumination while driving. Toyota dealer has not been able to reproduce the proble... Read more
Incident date: Feb 3, 2022
The headlights barely light up enough roadway to be of any use at night. Obviously can't drive with high beams constant. The only help is to use the fog/driving lights. However, that only lights up about 30 feet in front of the vehicle. Driving at night is hazardous to one's health as you cannot see far enough down the road to avoid anything that is imminent on the side of the road, you can not se... Read more
Incident date: Feb 10, 2022
The headlights aren’t sealed correctly so water has leaked in and caused them to malfunction. Porsche is making me get them repaired at a cost of $4100
MERCURY
GRAND MARQUIS
(2004) - EXTERIOR LIGHTING
Feb 10, 2022
Incident date: Feb 1, 2022
Light Control Module replaced by Ford dealer but having issue with lights turning off again
Incident date: Nov 2, 2020
The headlights incur condensation inside the headlight body, which makes the light from the headlights very dim. At night, this creates a very serious safety concern. 1. Other cars are not able to see you at night. 2. The driver is unable to see the road or other objects at night. There apparently was a lawsuit in 2 states on this safety concern, which they won. Please recall this, before... Read more
Incident date: Feb 4, 2022
Me and my son were sitting in the car waiting for my wife and the car started dying lights started were flashing the horn was honking wipers were going interior lighting and gauge cluster was all flashing then smoke started to come through the vents so we jumped out and that’s when I seen flames under the hood the wiring harness from the firewall to the fuse box was completely in flames. I event... Read more
Fire
Incident date: Feb 1, 2016
I have a cracked engine block due to the service bulletin and I need Honda to repair asap among other problems
Incident date: Feb 9, 2022
Low beam headlights are dim cannot see the road at night. When driving at night you have to use high beam to see the road.
Incident date: Mar 4, 2018
Headlights are very dim and make it extremely difficult to drive in the dark. Can barely see a few feet in front. Auto shops have commented how dim the lights are and have changed to the brightest bulbs and still there is no change. This makes driving conditions dangerous
Incident date: Oct 4, 2019
IT'S A ROAD HAZARD YOU CAN NOT SEE AT NIGHT DUE TO THE LOW CAPACITY OF LIGHTING ON THE VEHICLE. THE LOW BEAM IS NOT ACTIVE DRIVING WITH A HIGH BEAM ON THE SHINES AS IF YOU HAD THE LOW BEAM ON. ON A VEHICLE AND HAVING TO CALL FOR A RIDE AT NIGHT. THE LIGHTING SYSTEM CLEARLY HAS SOME MALFUNCTIONING. NISSAN IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS PROBLEM IT NOT THE BULBS IT IS ACTUALLY THE HEAD LAMPS
Incident date: Nov 2, 2021
Unknown. The blind spots warning sometimes works and sometimes it doesn’t. The same goes for the backing warning. The car will not lock itself with the key control or manually. This problem has happened a few times already. One of the lights at the driver side isn’t working. (Inside light)
Incident date: Jan 10, 2022
headlamp replacement... second one i had to do on my SRX. I know it never made it to recall but you were reimbursing owners now your not. i called gm they said they would help me then i get it fixed and he calls back and says no
FOREST RIVER
BERKSHIRE
(2021) - EXTERIOR LIGHTING
Feb 8, 2022
Incident date: Feb 6, 2022
headlights, headlight switch, lights dont work, no night time driving no day time running lights. these lights are from a audi A5 and no longer available, changed bulbs, no help