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 78,884 complaints - component: SERVICE BRAKES
FOREST RIVER
ROCKWOOD
(2022) - SERVICE BRAKES
Jul 19, 2025
Incident date: Jul 17, 2025
Brakes locks and the vehicle do not move. Vehicle was parked. Recently I noticed that the vehicle was breaking by itself instead of keep moving. Until today the vehicle brakes lock and do not move.
Incident date: Jun 23, 2025
Have no ABS. The light for the ABS stays on. Unable to get a part because it is under an "engineer review". The failed part is the hydraulic control unit. My safety and the safety of others are at risk due to no having anti lock brakes in south Florida where the roads on constantly wet. This is clearly a known problem.
Incident date: Jul 2, 2025
ABS brakes engage at slow speeds and make it impossible to stop fro 3-5 Seconds. It's happened 2 times and we just leased the car, it's been less than 1 month in our possession and has already experienced this.
Incident date: Jul 1, 2025
When using adaptive cruise control, during SOME cornering, SOMETIMES the car brakes unexpectedly, very aggressively, without warning. Very dangerous, especially when another car is behind you.
Incident date: Apr 13, 2025
The Palisade has been intermittently acting up approaching a stop and the pedal pulsates and pedal travel is much longer, stopping distance is lengthened but when all of this is going on, not one light or warning is shown. No ABS light, TRAC light or Skid light is illuminated.
Incident date: Jul 19, 2025
My vacuum pump failed on this vehicle. Causing my brakes to lock and a crash to almost happen
HONDA
CR-V HYBRID
(2025) - SERVICE BRAKES
Jul 19, 2025
Incident date: Jul 19, 2025
On June 23, 2025, while departing my residence, I disengaged the emergency brake on my vehicle, subsequently hearing an unusual sound. Upon attempting to drive, I experienced diminished braking performance, and the brake warning indicator illuminated. The following day, I sought a professional assessment at Big O Tires. Their diagnosis identified a failure in the left brake hose, recommending the ... Read more
Incident date: May 8, 2025
Brakes failed while coming to a red light. Turned to the right and into rock landscaping and pushed the ebrake to stop. Antilock brake failure came up and pre collision assist said was no longer available. Had to have it taken to Ford dealership. They replaced brake booster and brake lines and tried to reprogram computer but brakes keep locking up . So there are keeping for now to figure out the p... Read more
POLESTAR
POLESTAR 2
(2024) - SERVICE BRAKES
Jul 18, 2025
Incident date: Jul 15, 2025
The brake pedal stopper pad broke and fell off which resulted in the brake lights remaining illuminated the entire time the car was driving, which is very hazardous. I am not sure how long it had been broken for before I realized that this dangerous condition was occurring. The brake lights remained on even after the car was turned off. I had to tape a piece of cardboard to the brake arm where it ... Read more
Incident date: Apr 21, 2025
On 4 different occasions car brake assist activated causing car to come to an immediate stop and jerk. At stop light as I started to accelerate a left turn car came to an immediate stop almost causing the car behind hit rear end. Brake assist light activated. This happened twice. And twice when in reverse backing out of a parking space and backing into driveway. Dealership notified look at my car ... Read more
Incident date: Jul 3, 2025
Brakes are EXTREMELY loud when going in reverse. Carried to the dealership, they said that they are “aware” of the issue but until a recall is done then their hands are tied. This could lead to improper braking.
Incident date: Jun 4, 2025
While driving on Highway 316E on March 31, 2022, at approximately 10am, at some point, as traffic started to slow down and I applied my brakes I was dumbfounded when my car would not stop! It was frightening, as I watched my car get closer and closer to the large truck in front of it. I kept applying the brake and then pumping the brake. The brakes kept failing and had no pressure or tension in t... Read more
VOLKSWAGEN
TIGUAN
(2019) - SERVICE BRAKES
Jul 18, 2025
Incident date: Jul 16, 2025
Braking locked looses power then accelerates smell like gas is leaking
Incident date: Jun 20, 2025
On [XXX] while driving my 2018 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Sport (VIN: [XXX] ), the braking system failed without warning while I was approaching a stop sign on a residential road. I pressed the brake pedal and felt extreme resistance and grinding, followed by a near-total lack of braking power. I was forced to abruptly swerve into an open driveway to avoid a collision. This sudden malfunction put my ... Read more
Incident date: Apr 20, 2025
On several occasions the automatic brights have turned on when there were cars at crossroads, and when cars were within sight. The regular lights of the car are repeatedly interfering with visibility of other drivers, as the lights are much too bright and angled right in other driver's eyes. We avoid driving at night due to blinding other vehicles and preventing crashes. We are flashed constantly... Read more
Incident date: Mar 23, 2023
This has been an ongoing problem since I last reported this on February 16, 2025. There’s a clicking noise under my tires and then I can’t stop, my brakes grind and my pedal grinds… all my ABS lights then come on… this has been going on too long!! Since April 20, 2025…. My brakes are GRINDING SERIOUSLY and PROHIBITING me to fully stop at times. I’ve had several near misses… I ... Read more
Incident date: Jul 16, 2025
The contact stated that while pulling into a parking spot with the brake pedal pressed, the vehicle displayed unintended acceleration, crashing into the wall of the building in front of the parking space. The air bags did not deploy. The contact immediately placed the vehicle in reverse, with the brake pedal still pressed, and the vehicle accelerated at approximately 20 mph in reverse on its own.... Read more
Crash
MICHELIN
AGILIS CROSSCLIMATE C-METRIC
(9999) - SERVICE BRAKES
Jul 18, 2025
Incident date: Mar 31, 2025
My brakes went out while I was driving my family on a road trip. After getting towed I inspected the brake lines and they are absolutely destroyed. This is clearly a design flaw by Mercedes. This needs to be recalled. You have to drop the rear subframe to repair this. Absolutely ridiculous.
JEEP
GRAND CHEROKEE L
(2023) - SERVICE BRAKES
Jul 18, 2025
Incident date: Jul 11, 2025
In April of 2025 the brakes failed at a slow speed of less than five miles per hour, after bumping into a curb in a parking lot. I put the car in reverse and pressed on the brake pedal and again the car did not stop quickly. The brake pedal felt mooshy and went to the floor and it felt like the car coasted to a stop rather than stopping quicker like normal. I put the car in drive and the same thin... Read more
Incident date: Jun 30, 2025
While pulling into a parking spot, i was applying my breaks and the abs kicked in when we did a bump nearly causing us to run into the concrete pylon. This is not the first time it has happened but the worst its done this
BRIDGESTONE
ECOPIA EP422 PLUS
(9999) - SERVICE BRAKES
Jul 18, 2025
Incident date: Jul 1, 2025
The contact owns a 2022 Ford Escape. The contact stated that while reversing, there was an abnormal grinding sound coming from the brakes. The vehicle was taken to the dealer; however, no cause for the failure was found. The contact stated that the failure persisted. The vehicle was taken back to the dealer and the brake pads and rotors were replaced; however, the failure persisted. The contact st... Read more
Incident date: Jul 1, 2025
Since new, the brakes squeak loudly when backing up.
Incident date: Jun 1, 2025
Started vehicle in the morning and had driven about 5 miles. LKAS, Adaptive Cruise Control and all other collision avoidance systems turned on. ACC Speed set, but disengaged due to prior braking for the curve. Weather overcast but dry. While turning left around a sweeping curve at about 40mph the vehicle suddenly started emergency braking and trying to turn right into the guardrail on the side... Read more
HONDA
CLARITY PLUG-IN HYBRID
(2019) - SERVICE BRAKES
Jul 18, 2025
Incident date: Jul 10, 2025
There were moments at certain speed like when I try to park at low speed or when I go down the hill at higher speed, the brake just doesn’t work. More specifically, as I try to engage the brake, the brake pedal just loose all the way and the brake just not engage when the brake pedal at maximum. This happens 2-3 times already, and my car is new.
THOR MOTOR COACH
FREEDOM TRAVELER
(2024) - SERVICE BRAKES
Jul 18, 2025
Incident date: Jul 7, 2025
I was entering the highway on ramp with a car in front of me going slow, when saw it was clear switched lanes and attempted to speed up to highway speed and the car's automatic braking system activated, flashed "BRAKE" on the dash with nothing in front of me, lane was clear, and then it applied the brakes hard. Came to an almost complete stop with my foot on the gas, had to remove foot to be able ... Read more
Incident date: Jul 1, 2025
I brought my vehicle in to a Porsche dealer on May 24th 2025 for a noise coming from the front right wheel area. There were some other issues but those were not safety related. They stated the vehicle has an open recall campaign for a brake hose. That there is a risk it could break. It is now July 18th 2025 and the dealer has had the car the entire time since May 24th 2025. They are saying they ... Read more
MAZDA
CX-50 HYBRID
(2025) - SERVICE BRAKES
Jul 18, 2025
Incident date: Jul 15, 2025
Auto Emergency Braking {AEB} applies itself without any operator input and without cause for the brakes to engage, it can happen at any time at any speed without warning and throws everyone and everything in the vehicle abruptly forward as if you were in a crash, this is a very problematic issue that can make the vehicle at slow speeds to be rear ended because of the abrupt stop and also to be out... Read more
Incident date: May 1, 2025
At approximately 6,000 miles we drove this vehicle from Chattanooga to Nashville and back. The interstate has one steep grade. On the decent home the vehicle was violently shaking. It felt as if the car might not be able to stop or something had been broken. We had 30-45 minutes of driving to get home and considering having the vehicle towed. It continued to shake, less violently as we braked on t... Read more
Incident date: Jul 6, 2025
On [XXX] at [XXX} I was exiting [XXX] using the [XXX] exit. As I approached the end of the ramp at approximately 15 miles per hour, the Automatic Braking System engaged unexpectedly. There were no warning lights on the dashboard. The road conditions were dry. The vehicle was not stopping, and I came within inches of rear ending the vehicle in front of me at the red light. I contacted McGovern Hy... Read more
CHEVROLET
SILVERADO 2500
(2015) - SERVICE BRAKES
Jul 18, 2025
Incident date: Aug 12, 2024
2015 Ram 1500 Laramie, 2x4, 5.7L, 60693K miles. The ABS, Traction Control, Trailer Breaking lights are on and off since roughly 51K miles also impacting Adaptive Cruise Control making them all inoperable, even though the truck is still able to be drive, albeit unsafely. I took it to my local repair shop and O'Reilly parts and was told the ABS Controle Module, part number 68228991AD was identified ... Read more
Incident date: Apr 27, 2025
Driving down the road, no cars or obstacles in front of me. Out of nowhere the automatic emergency breaking came on. The car slammed on the breaks and very quickly came to a complete stop in the middle of the road. If there happened to be another car behind me they would have rear-ended me. There were no warnings prior to this happening.
Incident date: Apr 18, 2022
My booster is leaking into the floor. I took it to the dealer and they said it was the booster and it needs to be replaced. This could make the truck lose its brakes and run into something or someone.
Incident date: Jul 16, 2025
I am writing to formally request assistance regarding a persistent and unresolved issue with my vehicle’s Uconnect system, which has now escalated into a serious safety concern. I purchased my vehicle in April 2022. Within two weeks, I began receiving an error message stating: “Uconnect Box requires service. Please visit an authorized dealer.” Since then, I have brought the vehicle to Cutter... Read more
Incident date: May 19, 2025
Formally reporting a serious and recurring safety issue with my 2021 BMW X5. Over the past five months, I experienced three separate incidents where the vehicle abruptly stopped while driving, each time displaying a red car warning light on the dashboard. The red malfunction symbol was similar to the below image (found online) Description of the Issue: Each of these terrifying safety experiences ... Read more
Incident date: Jul 30, 2024
The ABS pump/motor, ABS modulator needs to be replaced. This is a pretty common issue with the Honda Accord from 2008-2017. Fixing this problem is expensive at the dealer. I believe Honda motors should have a recall about this situation because how pricy this is. Looking online for information and videos on youtube many people have been quoted 2,800 dollars and up to replace it. I just replace the... Read more
Incident date: Jul 17, 2025
In December 2024, I received recall notice C4B for my 2018 RAM 2500 truck. The notice concerned the brake hydraulic unit, which is susceptible to failure. At almost exactly the same time, I started to receive dashboard indicators to check the ABS, but it worked fine, I just assumed that the alert was related to the recall. The recall stated that parts were not available and that I would be contact... Read more
Incident date: Jun 18, 2025
I have had the break pads and rotors replaced and in the shot over 6 times with them still not fully functioning correctly. I finally gave up on them and still expected to pay again. I don’t feel like this car is safe and have had nothing but issues
VOLKSWAGEN
ID.4
(2023) - SERVICE BRAKES
Jul 17, 2025
Incident date: May 24, 2025
ABS UNIT COMPLETE was malfunctioning per volkswagen's inspection. When this malfunctions it can lead to a loss of its anti-lock braking function, potentially causing wheel lock-up during braking, longer stopping distances, and reduced vehicle control, especially on slippery surfaces. Additionally, other driver assistance features relying on the ABS module, like traction control and automatic braki... Read more
Incident date: Jul 16, 2025
Good Afternoon, The brake actuator and booster pump failed on my 2008 Toyota Highlander Hybrid. ABS, Brake, and VSC warning lights came on, and the brakes became weak and unsafe. A repair shop confirmed the issue with codes C1252, C1256, and C1391. I tried to fix it at a local shop last year, but the problem came back. It seems this repair can only be fully done at a Toyota dealer due to so... Read more
Incident date: Jun 18, 2025
Automatic brakes are deploying with no apparent hazard.
Incident date: Jul 7, 2025
The brake sensor position pad sensor deteriorated. Causing the system to read that the brakes were being applied. This makes the Brake lights staying on even when the key is turned off. This is safety since with the lights always being it there is no way for others to know when you are actually stopping. And it also makes the car be able to be started by accident. Even with no key fob. It also cau... Read more
Incident date: May 29, 2025
Brake Transition Issues: I have noted frequent jolts of power when braking, which creates at least the sensation of, if not actual acceleration while breaking. Web research suggests this may be linked to the vehicle switching between regenerative and mechanical braking systems, and that the problem is acute with 2021 and 2022 Toyota Siennas, which, if accurate, means Toyota has applied a fix to su... Read more
Incident date: May 1, 2025
Brake Stop Lamps Remain On When I was driving, my car was having throttle/acceleration issues. When I had my foot on the gas, my car would accelerate and the RPMs would rise, but then all of a sudden the acceleration stopped as if I was not applying throttle. I had to constantly take my foot off the gas and reengage for the car to drive home. When I parked my car, I noticed that my brake lights ... Read more
Incident date: Jul 17, 2025
I was near a red light and applied the brakes, but the car accelerated and ran into the truck stopped in front of me. This happened around May of 2024. I took the car to the Elk Grove Mazda dealer. They ran diagnostic and road tests but found nothing wrong. The car had the same problem again sometime later inside my garage. The car rammed into the drywall while I tried to stop by pressing the brak... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Jul 15, 2025
Brake pedal pivot nut came loose and fell off while driving.
MERCURY
GRAND MARQUIS
(2002) - SERVICE BRAKES
Jul 17, 2025
Incident date: Jul 4, 2025
The brake line broke on my Dodge truck and all the brake fluid leaked out. Fortunately this didn't happen while driving on the highway. I discovered no brakes when I got in the vehicle to leave. I have a long driveway. As I was driving the slight grade down to the main road, I hit the brakes and they went to the floor. I was able to turn around in my yard before all the brake fluid was gone a... Read more
Incident date: Apr 17, 2025
The contact owns a 2002 Mercury Grand Marquis. The contact stated while driving 50 MPH at night, the cruise control mode malfunctioned, and the speed of the vehicle increased independently. The contact stated that the brake pedal was depressed several times to the floor, but the vehicle failed to stop. The contact turned off the vehicle, and the vehicle came to a stop. The vehicle was towed to the... Read more
Incident date: Jul 17, 2025
On Wednesday, July 16, 2025 I was sitting at a stop light, using the Auto Hold system. A few minutes later, my car took off and accelerated on its own and hit the rear of a truck. I hit the truck so hard as he was sitting at the light as well, it pushed his vehicle into the vehicle in front of him. I was unable to stop my Volvo, it was like it took full control over.
Crash
1 injured
GMC
SIERRA 1500
(2023) - SERVICE BRAKES
Jul 17, 2025
Incident date: Jun 12, 2025
While slowing down the vehicle on a downward slop, vehicle applied Parking Break by itself and stopped the vehicle suddenly with Parking Break sign on the odometer. There was no object or anything in the front of the vehicle and it was being driven on forward direction. So, this abruptly applying of Parking Break by itself created a confusion and unsafe situation.
Incident date: Jul 17, 2025
Over the last week my Palisade has kicked on the ABS brake feature which has resulted in the vehicle to not stop timely. This was on a flat, paved road and was no reason for this feature to kick on. It has nearly resulted in an accident. We have brought to dealer and reported the issue but seems to be a more wide spread issue than we thought after doing some research online.