Consumer Safety Complaints
Search 2,215,138 safety complaints filed by vehicle owners with NHTSA — including 138,663 crashes, 56,255 fires, and 8,561 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 2,215,138 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 116,327 complaints — component: STEERING
Incident date: Apr 16, 2026
Vehicle steering locked up while driving causing driver to end up in oncoming traffic. Also, vehicles remote start turns on, but after a few seconds car shuts off.
Incident date: Apr 13, 2026
The contact owns a 2019 Honda CR-V. The contact stated that while driving approximately 60-65 MPH, the steering wheel was sticking. No warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, who determined that the steering rack needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 31,000.
Incident date: Apr 10, 2026
Title - Sudden Loss of Steering Control While Driving – 2018 Audi Q5 (Aug 2024) While driving my 2018 Audi Q5 at normal road speeds, the vehicle experienced a sudden and complete loss of power steering assist. A dashboard alert stating “Power Steering Malfunction” appeared simultaneously with an immediate and severe increase in steering effort, making the steering wheel extremely difficult ... Read more
Incident date: Apr 16, 2023
The contact owns a 2023 Honda Civic. The contact stated that there was a lot of play in the steering wheel while driving. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, and the VIN was included in NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V704000 (Steering). During the visit, it was determined that the steering rack did not need to be replaced. The recall was marked closed and the contact noticed that there was still a lot ... Read more
Incident date: Apr 16, 2026
The steering wheel drifts and the power steering light comes on
Incident date: Mar 3, 2026
The contact owns a 2021 Honda CR-V. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the steering wheel failed to return to center after making a left turn. No warning light was illuminated. The local dealer was contacted, and the contact advised that the failure could be related to a rack-and-pinion failure. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the... Read more
Incident date: Apr 10, 2026
The contact owns a 2025 Honda Pilot. While driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle suddenly decelerated, and the steering wheel started jerking. The messages EPS Failure, Lane Keep Assist, and Adaptive Cruise Control Failure were displayed. The contact safely pulled over to the side of the road. The vehicle was towed to a dealer, but was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not not... Read more
Incident date: Apr 11, 2026
While driving on April 11, 2026 at approximately 1:30 PM on [XXX] , the vehicle experienced a loss of steering response while the roadway curved to the right. The driver turned the steering wheel normally in order to follow the curve. The steering wheel moved freely and felt normal. However, the vehicle did not respond to the steering input and instead continued traveling straight. As a result, th... Read more
Incident date: Mar 19, 2026
STEERING WHEEL SEEMS LIKE IT STICKS WHEN CORNERING OR TURNING WE ALMOST HAD AN ACCIDENT GOING AROUND A CORNER
MERCEDES-BENZ
METRIS
(2023) — STEERING
Apr 15, 2026
Incident date: Apr 2, 2026
The power steering randomly fails in the vehicle and works again when the vehicle is restarted. Here is the link to Mercedes's inspection: [XXX] INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
Incident date: Apr 14, 2026
The power steering has a notch or almost a stickiness when turning. In turns around interstate ramps the steering almost locks in place requiring physical effort to get the steering to straighten back out. Even driving in a straight line one can feel this notch like feeling where the steering wheel is not operating in a smooth manner. This gives me a serious concern over the safety of driving this... Read more
Incident date: Feb 20, 2026
The contact owns a 2017 Kia Niro. The contact stated that while driving approximately 60 MPH, there was smoke coming from the rear of the vehicle. The message, "Turn Off the Vehicle and Stop" was displayed, and the transmission failure warning light was illuminated. The contact pulled over and turned off the vehicle. Once the vehicle was turned off, the smoke dissipated. The vehicle was towed to t... Read more
TOYOTA
SEQUOIA HYBRID
(2026) — STEERING
Apr 15, 2026
Incident date: Feb 7, 2026
Supplementing Tracking #11731142. 2026 Toyota Sequoia i-FORCE MAX Hybrid 4WD, VIN [XXX] , ~7,500 mi. Purchased new 11/22/2025 from Prestige Toyota of Ramsey, NJ. Toyota Case XXX. THREE DEFECTS: 1. STEERING: Steering wheel has physical flex, looseness, and audible creak when touched or pushed. Connected directly to airbag module — raises concerns about steering integrity and airbag dep... Read more
Incident date: Apr 9, 2026
I am reporting a serious safety concern with my 2017 Ford Explorer. The vehicle currently has approximately 93,752 miles and has become increasingly unreliable and unsafe to operate. On April 9, 2026, while my wife was driving home from work, the vehicle overheated, creating a dangerous situation and risk of sudden breakdown. This is especially concerning as the vehicle is used to transport childr... Read more
Incident date: Mar 9, 2026
I bought the car at the end of October 2025, so it was always cold till last month. Last month the first day it’s warm I get a warning saying my steering assist has been limited with a code saying the thermostat needs replacing as well as the sensor. This is a known issue with these vehicles and now I have to pay $1500 out of pocket to have fixed because my limited warranty expired 2 weeks befor... Read more
Incident date: Jan 29, 2026
For months my vehicle has had intermittent loss of power steering making it nearly impossible to control direction. On Jan. 29, 2026, I ran into the back of a vehicle that stopped suddenly and due to sudden power steering loss, I wasn't able to swerve and avoid collision. I was issued an infraction for this incident and had to file an insurance claim to repair the front end damage to my vehicle.... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Mar 2, 2026
The vehicle has a sticky steering wheel causing overcorrection to either the left or right side. The safety concern is pretty high considering how hard it is to correct the vehicles lane.
Incident date: Apr 14, 2026
Power Steerin EPS went out, causin loss of control of truck
Incident date: Jan 11, 2025
Car begins to wobble very violently when going over 65. This has been ongoing for a while now and when I took it to the Jeep dealership they said it was just my tires. The problem is worse now and I feel unsafe driving my vehicle. I also was never called back for my recalls to be taken care of.
Incident date: Apr 14, 2026
While driving, I went to make a right turn and the power steering went out making the turn very difficult using manual muscle to complete the turn. Fortunately, it was in a parking lot. After the ignition was turned off for about 45 minutes, I turned it back on and the steering functioned normally. However, I am very concerned if this problem would again happen and I am driving at a speed and t... Read more
Incident date: Jan 16, 2026
On Friday 1/16/26 @ 9 am, my daughter was backing out her parking space to go to school. As she barely drove forward, the car just suddenly stopped. She got the apartment maintenance guy to take a look, and he said the steering rods were broken and the car needs to be tow. It was inside the parking lot and there was no major impact for it to be broken. Its a 2023 Rogue with only 45200 mileage on i... Read more
Incident date: Apr 7, 2026
Steering is intermittently difficult, requires greater effort, steering wheel sometimes makes noise when turning tight at low speeds. Unexpected periods of difficulty in steering make it harder to control the vehicle, affecting safety (personal and others). Independent service center could not find evidence of a problem; they focused on other components. No other agencies have been contacted or... Read more
Incident date: Jul 17, 2021
July 2021 bought ram 1500 limited. $75k September 2021 3k miles took to dealer with REVERSE TRAILER STEERING UNAVAILABLE MESSAGES AND BACK UP CAMERA issues. Not fixed. Issues still happening. DEC 2021 ram 1500 recall y80 issued. RTSCM NEEDS updated. April 2022 dealer visit 11k miles recall y80 addressed and repaired. Issues continued. Several undocumented stop by dealer visits by request to look ... Read more
Incident date: Apr 10, 2026
Any time I get above 55 miles per hour the steering starts shaking and I feel as if I’m going to lose control of the vehicle. I have had the recalls done on it, but it continues.
Incident date: Apr 10, 2026
Power steering is intermittently working. It happens at different speeds. It makes it very difficult to steer and power steering will engage after executing a turn which will jerk the vehicle and wheel.
Incident date: Mar 2, 2026
The contact owns a 2014 Ram 1500. While driving approximately 15 MPH and making a left turn, the steering wheel and the check engine warning lights illuminated. The contact stated that the steering became extremely difficult to turn. The contact stopped, turned off, and restarted the vehicle; however, the steering was stiff and difficult to turn. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic, w... Read more
Incident date: Sep 1, 2025
Steering rack failure (wheel does not return to center, crunchy steering with increasingly more resistance over time).
Incident date: Apr 12, 2026
The Steering Gearbox, Electronic Power Steering failed. The steering was resistant and sticks on the highway, causing jerking and overcorrection to control the vehicle. This was with both manual driving and Lane Assist. Took the vehicle to the local Honda dealership, they confirmed the problem, and replaced the steering gearbox, EPS, because it was still under warranty. However, this is the same... Read more
Incident date: Jan 11, 2024
My steering gear motor attachment bolts have fractured due to severe corrosion, which is the exact defect described in Safety Recall 19S26. This physical failure was confirmed by a Ford dealership technician on 1/11/2024. The technician documented the fractured bolts and recommended a full steering gear replacement. Despite this, Ford is denying the recall repair because this specific VIN was not ... Read more
Incident date: Feb 1, 2026
The contact owns a 2020 Honda Civic. The contact stated that while operating the vehicle, the steering wheel became sticky and jerked while turning in either direction. The vehicle was taken to the local mechanic to be diagnosed, and it was determined that the electronic steering rack needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer and local dealer were notified of the failur... Read more
TOYOTA
SEQUOIA HYBRID
(2026) — STEERING
Apr 14, 2026
Incident date: Jan 15, 2026
2026 Toyota Sequoia Hybrid. Three safety-related defects reported to dealer, all dismissed without proper diagnosis. STEERING: Steering wheel exhibits noticeable flex, looseness, and audible creak when touched or lightly pushed. The steering wheel houses the airbag module. Looseness raises concerns about steering integrity and airbag deployment reliability. Video evidence available. ... Read more
Incident date: Apr 11, 2026
When driving long distance (car is warmed up), and taking a left turn or a left curve on freeway, the steering wheel sticks, and does not return to center. When doing it manually, there is a popping sound before it returns to center. Its the same thing when taking the car out of parking lot after it is standing there overnight. This is not the first time this happened, as it has happened many time... Read more
MERCEDES-BENZ
GLK350
(2015) — STEERING
Apr 14, 2026
Incident date: Apr 1, 2026
Hello. Since I bought this car in 2015. Every now and again it will go into park when driving and tge car will stop suddenly. It has done it a few times over the years and it’s quite scary. Mercedes has put me off on you, without addressing the situation or looking at the car, unless I pay first it. I think there is a mechanical defect on this car and it is quite dangerous
Incident date: Apr 10, 2025
Steering wheel gets "Stuck" when making a sweeping left turn and needs force to return to neutral. Suspension "creaks" and "grinds" when going over bumps or hills.
LAND ROVER
RANGE ROVER SPORT
(2014) — STEERING
Apr 14, 2026
Incident date: Aug 8, 2025
The contact owns a 2014 Land Rover Range Rover Sport. The contact received notification NHTSA Campaign Number: 25V514000 (Steering) in 2025. The contact had been calling the local dealer for an update on the parts but was advised 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 informe... Read more
Incident date: Apr 12, 2026
While attempting to park in a parking spot at Walmart, the truck just lost steering suddenly, as the steering warning light began to flashand would not budge. Luckily, we were not involved in an accident. This Ram 1500 has an electric power steering (EPS) rack failure, resulting in sudden, total steering loss. There is a steering warning indicator light that flashes while it is malfunctioning. Th... Read more
Incident date: Apr 13, 2026
The vehicle is experiencing intermittent steering “sticking”, most noticeable during normal highway driving and minor steering corrections. The steering wheel does not always return smoothly and instead feels resistant before releasing. This condition is unexpected, repeatable, and presents a safety risk, particularly during normal lane-keeping. Especially happens during left turns or keeping ... Read more
Incident date: Nov 6, 2025
The failure involves the rear suspension system, specifically suspected rear control arm / suspension linkage play, which caused severe misalignment (rear toe out of specification). The vehicle is available for inspection upon request. This defect created a significant safety risk. The abnormal toe condition caused rapid and uneven tire wear, with both rear tires becoming nearly completely bald w... Read more
Incident date: Apr 9, 2026
The steering wheel got stiff and impossible to turn. I had to use extreme force to be able to make a left turn. It happened in a large intersection. No warning appeared.
Incident date: Apr 1, 2026
I was driving the vehicle and a warning message came on related to the power steering module not functioning correctly. Immediately after the steering column locked up and was stiff and to tough to continue driving. I looked into repairs and notice a recall # 19S26 was issued in 2019 with my specific vehicle in the list by year, brand and model for the exact problem described. When I contacted For... Read more
Incident date: Apr 10, 2026
Car got stuck between gears while driving on the road. The vehicle accelerated by itself almost causing me to crash. I immediately pulled over into a business and put the truck in park. The car stayed on. It turned on and off but would not shift gears. Would not go from park to reverse or drive. And unfortunately the “warranty” only cover 60k miles. Conveniently right before this well known is... Read more
Incident date: Feb 14, 2026
The electric power steering system has now completely failed and the steering is fully locked/stiff at all times. The vehicle cannot be safely driven or operated. The issue began as intermittent loss of power steering assist and progressed to total failure without warning. Steering now requires extreme force and is effectively unusable. This creates a serious safety hazard, especially if it occu... Read more
Incident date: Mar 29, 2026
The contact owns a 2014 Ram 1500. The contact stated that while driving on several occasions at various speeds, the steering wheel became stiff, and the vehicle failed to turn as intended. The contact stated that the message "Service Power Steering System" was displayed. The vehicle was taken to the residence. An independent mechanic arrived at the residence and diagnosed the vehicle with steering... Read more
Incident date: Apr 13, 2026
The contact owns a 2025 Honda Pilot. While the contact’s wife was driving approximately 70 MPH, the steering wheel became extremely difficult to turn in either direction. The driver was able to forcefully steer the vehicle over to the shoulder. After turning off and restarting the vehicle, the steering failure was self-corrected, and the vehicle operated normally. The driver was able to continue... Read more
Incident date: Apr 10, 2026
My vehicle has had the steering recall performed. However I have an issue where the steering is becoming very sticky, mostly when turning left. For example on an interstate clover leaf where steering angle is held constant for a short period of time, the steering feels stuck and requires extra effort to overcome that stuck point. It's alarming. This appears to be getting worse over the past few m... Read more
Incident date: Apr 5, 2026
Problem presented in April 2026 at 34,300 miles on odometer. The vehicle steering sticks or locks at the 12 o'clock position at highway speeds. A high degree of effort is required to overcome the steering stiction resistance to make small steering adjustments to maintain vehicle course. This anomaly results in overshooting the desired steering adjustment which could potentially cause a accident ... Read more
Incident date: Jan 5, 2026
While making sweeping turns, but predominantly left-hand turns, the steering wheel will get momentarily stuck in a turning position. Sometimes it is more difficult to get the wheels to straighten out than other times. Also, it normally only happens at higher rates of speed, more than 30mph. The steering getting "stuck" in a turning position, especially at elevated speeds, poses serious risks of ge... Read more
Incident date: Jan 22, 2026
I have a 2024 Mazda CX-90. I want to report that about two years ago I was contacted regarding a recall (or possibly multiple recalls). The steering would become stiff while turning on curves. I took the vehicle to the dealer, and they reprogrammed something, which fixed the issue for a few months (I don’t remember exactly how long). However, the same problem happened again about three times. I... Read more
MERCEDES-BENZ
E300
(2017) — STEERING
Apr 13, 2026
Incident date: Jul 7, 2022
I’m having issues with my control module not going forward or backwards at times and there was a recall on models of this vehicle for that exact reason NHTSA ID: 17V078000 Issued: Feb 2, 17. Dealership is telling me it’s not open. I’m scared for my safety when my car doesn’t shift in the correct gear. This started in 2021 or 2022 and I’m not getting resolution. When getting my bumper rep... Read more
Incident date: Apr 1, 2026
Vehicle GPS self driving is malfunctioning. GPS shows the route driving through houses and buildings The assisted self driving is extremely unsafe to use and the same goes for the GPS guided navigation The GPS is untrustworthy giving multiple unsafe routes.