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 72,878 complaints — component: VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Incident date: May 23, 2024
On may 23,2024 I was on a very busy highway going 66. All of a sudden my 2016 malibu lt aburtely slowed to 27 miles an hour and two warnings lights came on 1 -engine power is reduced 2 - speed reduced to 27 I barely avoided getting hit by two semi trucks, as well as a car. The car is available for inspection on request. An independent service person confirmed it was indeed a defective electron co... Read more
Incident date: Oct 11, 2023
The car wouldn’t break a few months back causing it to smash into the person infront of me ever since then and getting repaired nothing has fixed it.
Crash
Incident date: May 23, 2024
Air bag light is on as soon as car power on until it turns off passenger airbag is off I dont know if my airbags will deploy if I get in an accident . While driving steady speed of 50-60 mph while pressing gas sometimes it doesn’t increase speed but instead jerks until I let go of the gas and then depress it again it happenes maybe 2-3 times during a drive .
Incident date: Mar 8, 2024
In September 2023, my 2016 Nissan started vibrating with noise. It was not shortly after that a warning appeared on the console. The warning, "Chassis Control System Error" caused research as the vehicle worsened. As I was driving, a warning of the brakes shutting down appeared. I returned home in time, and parked the vehicle. The truck was then sent to the mechanic where I was told that the trans... Read more
Incident date: May 24, 2024
Vehicle suddenly starts showing all warnings lights on dashboard, including: - Adaptive Cruise control - Collision Mitigation - Road Departure Mitigation - Vehicle Stability Assist - Hill Start Assist - Electric Parking Brake - Tire Pressure Monitoring and many more.
Incident date: Apr 24, 2024
Due to the recall of the ABS fuse I believe it has caused a electrical short and that's why my junction box does not work, also I had problems with slow acceleration almost causing me to get hit.
VOLKSWAGEN
GOLF
(2016) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
May 24, 2024
Incident date: May 23, 2024
Fisker Ocean One has less than 6K mileage and breaking system is extremely rough and makes lots of noise and squeaks, clash, etc. with abrupt halt sometimes throwing passengers forward. Fisker Ocean One User Instructions do not correspond correct with the actual user vehicle interface as items are missing or not available on the vehicle to correct safety issues per manual vehicle instructions per... Read more
CONTINENTAL
CROSSCONTACT LX SPORT
(9999) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
May 24, 2024
Incident date: May 23, 2024
My car engine light goes on and off due to transmission fault. It continuously has a hard time shifting gears in between 2500-3000 rpm and gives a jerky stop before continuing to speed up/accelerate despite when I have not let go of my foot from the pedal. After taking it to the auto shop, I was told this is the same problem other Toyota RAV 4 between 2001-2003 experiences and the mechanics told m... Read more
Incident date: Dec 1, 2023
The contact leased a 2018 Honda CR-V. The contact stated that the vehicle was consuming an excessive amount of fuel. The contact stated that whenever the fuel level reached the halfway mark, the fuel then quickly became depleted. There were no warning lights illuminated. When the accelerator pedal was depressed, the vehicle was slow to respond. The contact stated that the brakes were making an abn... Read more
Incident date: May 23, 2024
My car accelerated significantly on its own while I was pulling into a parking stall in a private parking lot. It caused my vehicle to jump a curb and accelerate up a dirt divider and push over a bush that was planted in the dirt divider. Depressing my brakes did not Decelerate the car, so I pressed the Park button to eventually stop the vehicle. I’m not sure what speed it was traveling when it ... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Oct 24, 2023
While turning into a parking space, my car unexpectedly accelerated rapidly. My car crashed into a concrete barrier damaging the front end and tossing items around the car. Additional details: I was driving my car in single-pedal mode. In this mode, when you lift your foot from the accelerator, the car automatically brakes. I have a lot of experience in single-pedal mode, and I am very familiar a... Read more
Crash
Incident date: May 20, 2024
Wheel hubs causes car to think that it’s going faster(200mph) causing car to drop speed, locks steering wheel making it impossible to turn away from traffic and drive it’s an accident waiting to happen not sure why there isn’t a recall. Also batteries causes the battery system warning to be a major problem even if alternator is good. I’m not sure if the two batteries is a good idea. The st... Read more
Incident date: May 9, 2024
While in the process of pulling into marked stall in parking lot car accelerated unexpectedly jumping over a concrete stop and crashing into the wall of a building. Car sustained eleven thousand dollars worth of damage and the wall that was hit was caved in. Cost of wall repair is unknown at this time. After the collision an attempt to dislodge the car was attempted by putting the car in reverse. ... Read more
Crash
FORD
F-150 HYBRID
(2021) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
May 23, 2024
Incident date: Mar 30, 2024
Glare in the cluster panel during the day. This causes me to not be able to see what is being shown on the cluster panel such as speed, engine temperature, or any other warning lights. I believe not being able to see the speed I am going because of this design error is very dangerous.
Incident date: May 1, 2024
Vehicle check Engine light on, showing "Reduced Engine Power." Vehicle still able to be driven, but will not accelerate with any proper pace or power. Cannot get above 3000 RPM without losing power, has put me in two dangerous situations in the last two days that almost made me lose my life. On highway, trying to accelerate to match traffic speeds, lose power and had to dive to the emergency lane ... Read more
Incident date: Jun 23, 2023
The Cruise control do not adapt to the speed of the vehicle in front of me like it’s supposed to and all of sudden windows won’t go up or down. Car is falling apart even though it’s new how is that possible.
Incident date: Jan 24, 2024
Reduced braking efficiency, loss of speedometer, loss of cruise control, brake light stays on when not depressing the pedal, electric power steering assist not functioning. Check engine light on, abs light on, traction control light on.
Incident date: May 21, 2024
The car started jerking and slowing down on the highway and would not accelerate. I was able to pull over to the side of the road and had the car towed to a service center. A repair shop did a print out of the error codes from the computer which indicated an error relating to the power steering control module. A search online show that many other Ford flex owners have experienced similar issues.
Incident date: May 18, 2024
DRIVING 60 MILES PER HOUR, ON [XXX] IN WALPOLE MASSACHUSETTS THE POWER STEERING FAILED OF OUR 5 MONTH OLD CHEVY EQUINOX. I WAS UNABLE TO TURN WITH THE CURVED ROAD. I PRESSED BRAKES AS HARD AS I COULD, HIT GUARD RAIL. DASH BOARD ILLUMINATED "SERVICE POWER STEERING DRIVE WITH CARE". CAR TOWED TO BOCH, I WAS HOSPITALIZED. INSURANCE AND GM INSPECTED SUV, GM ESIS CONCLUDED 3 MONTHS LATER NO ISSUES W... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: May 1, 2024
Out of nowhere, a notification pops up and it says “engine speed reduced” and all of a sudden you can feel the car losing speed. Took the vehicle to the dealership multiple times and either they always say it’s a fuel injection problem or they have no idea what’s causing it but when they perform that service on the vehicle, it still happens. Dealership even told me once that my car comput... Read more
Incident date: Dec 1, 2023
Car suddently lost power. There no torque. High voltage battery warning came on. Car dontvrespond as expected auddently lost of power.
Incident date: Feb 27, 2024
ABS and traction lights have started staying on and when on the cruise system does not work
POLESTAR
POLESTAR 2
(2023) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
May 23, 2024
Incident date: Mar 1, 2024
Starting in 2022 the car started to "black out" when I drove it. The spedeometer and screen would go completely dark, especially at speeds over 60 MPH I reported this to Polestar in 2023, they incorrectly diagnosed it as a TPMS warning when I brought it to the dealer. I called Polestar back in July 2023, but a nearby dealer was 7 hours away. I brought the car into the dealer March 2024, they had... Read more
POLESTAR
POLESTAR 2
(2023) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
May 23, 2024
Incident date: Apr 27, 2024
I have started to experience sudden acceleration issues. The car, when you are attempting to pull into a parking spot or garage, will seem to accelerate, sensors beeping. I have jumped curbs and even crashed into bikes in my garage. The car has had a slew of issues (engine propulsion, losing power), and I have had it at the dealer 4 times. Polestar stopped communicating with me when I let them kno... Read more
Crash
JEEP
GRAND CHEROKEE
(2019) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
May 23, 2024
Incident date: May 22, 2024
My car body material looks like a baby toy I have a bas accient and
Incident date: May 23, 2024
2017 Ford Escape SE 4WD with a 4 CLYINDER D 1.5 DI TURBO engine. We purchased this vehicle used, in 2019 with 42,384 miles. We have kept up with all scheduled maintenance through the dealership. Until April of this year, we have had ZERO issues with this vehicle! First, the check engine light came on Upon starting, another warning "Engine Fault Service Now" would appear. Aside from the lights, th... Read more
Incident date: Oct 2, 2023
When driving, after a period of 10 - 20 minutes usually, of the adaptive cruise being on (not necessarily in use), the buttons on the steering wheel will re-map. That is, the + button for adjusting the cruise speed up by 1 mph increments will switch with the - button that adjusts the cruise speed down by 1 mph increments. This happens reliably... if I've driven the car with adaptive cruise on ... Read more
ALFA ROMEO
STELVIO
(2018) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
May 22, 2024
Incident date: Nov 1, 2023
Service electronic throttle control keeps going off and car goes into Lino mode and cannot go over a certain speed causing me to not be able to drive it
Incident date: May 21, 2024
The contact owns a 2024 Nissan Versa. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle stalled and went into LIMP Mode. The contact pulled over to the shoulder of the roadway. The contact was turned off and restarted. In addition, the contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed with the accelerator pedal depressed, the vehicle failed to respond as intended.... Read more
Incident date: May 20, 2024
Subject: Formal Complaint Regarding Vehicle Safety Issue with 2020 Audi Q5 Dear National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, I am writing to formally file a complaint regarding a critical safety issue with my 2020 Audi Q5, as advised by the New York State Division of Consumer Protection. Please find attached a copy of the Division's correspondence dated May 21, 2024, concerning my initial com... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: May 20, 2024
The contact owns a 2019 Acura MDX. The contact stated that while his wife was traveling on Interstate 75 and driving 85 MPH, the vehicle independently slowed down, failed to accelerate, and shut off. There were no warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer, who was unable to duplicate the failure. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not contac... Read more
Incident date: May 3, 2024
The contact owns a 2023 Subaru Forester. The contact stated that while in a parking lot, the contact depressed the brake pedal and attempted to shift into gear and the vehicle accelerated inadvertently, jumped a curb, and crashed into a tree. The contact was able to put the vehicle in reverse; however, while the contact’s foot was on the brake pedal, the vehicle accelerated backward independentl... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: May 21, 2024
When at a stop and turning left it makes a grinding noise with hesitation in movement. The ABS and traction control light comes on. When researching this, there are millions of these cars with the same thing. I have taken to 3 mechanics and no one can fix the problem.
Incident date: May 1, 2024
I bought the car new in 2015 and after about only 40,000 miles I began getting a Propulsion Reduced error and the car would have very slow acceleration. I took it to the dealer and they replaced the accelerator for $500. It drove fine for a month, but then the acceleration was reduced again. I took it back to the dealer and they were stumped. They wanted to charge me $1300 just to replace some wir... Read more
Incident date: May 20, 2024
I was driving at a high rate if speed on the interstate and the car did not even give a warning before just would not go. It was like the car was not acknowledging the gas pettle. I could have died. It is a very dangerous problem. A friend of mine died from her Honda.
Incident date: May 19, 2024
ABS warning lights lights keeps intermitting keeps going on and off. The ABS light and traction control lights flashes on and off, speed control goes off as well as a bell alarm. Had the ABS pump replaced under warranty at 22000 miles and now at 59000 mile same issues.
Incident date: Mar 28, 2024
On Friday, May 17th around 2:00pm I was driving approximately 25mph when I got an abrupt warning and the truck started to drive differently. I don’t think the vehicle was responding to the gas pedal normally. The first warning said something about selected gear engaging at lower speed. Then there was a message about the pre-collision assist not working, hill ascent not working, and something els... Read more
FORD
MAVERICK HYBRID
(2022) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
May 20, 2024
Incident date: May 19, 2024
The contact owns a 2019 Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid. The contact stated that while driving at undisclosed speeds, during sunny weather, the vehicle unintendedly braked without warning. The warning light "Brake" was illuminated. The contact stated that the failure reoccurred. The contact also experienced a failure with Lane Keeping Assist and Road Departure Mitigation, where the vehicle jerked out... Read more
Incident date: May 2, 2024
The contact owns a 2020 Ford F-150. The contact stated while driving 45 MPH, the vehicle started losing motive power and failed to accelerate as needed. The contact stated that after stopping the vehicle, the vehicle inadvertently shifted from first to fourth gear. There was a delay in the vehicle shifting. The power train icon was displayed. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer, where it was... Read more
Incident date: Mar 25, 2024
I was driving on [XXX] in the City of Chester, PA, at the merge with [XXX]; this is a high traffic, multi-lane, confusing merge for drivers unfamiliar with the road ( I know it well). My truck just shut down, and I had to put it in neutral to re-start it. I knew there was a problem, because it had previously shifted roughly at times. But I just had it inspected at the Garnet Ford dealership, told ... Read more
Incident date: Jan 15, 2019
The options above were not exact for my vehicle issue. But here is the letter i am mailing to FORD. [XXX]. [XXX], Queen Creek, AZ 85142May 20, 2024 RE: 2019 FORD EDGE VIN 2FMPK3K90K[XXX] with 60K miles in 12/2023 Ford Motor Company Customer Relationship CenterTo P.O. Box 6248 Dearborn, MI 48126 We've purchased several used Fords growing up and loved them and found them to be reliable like your... Read more
Incident date: May 16, 2024
Transmission needs to be replaced per mechanic, costing around $3,5000-$5,000 Jerking or shuddering during the normal course of driving Hesitations while attempting to accelerate from a stopped position Engine stalls out or intermittently shutting off Rough start or hard shift and sudden acceleration Hesitations while attempting to accelerate from a stopped position
Incident date: Nov 20, 2023
I drove an ID-4 down south and preparing for right turn. Suddenly, the car was accelerating to a very high speed with the accelerator not being pressed (spontaneous acceleration). I tried hard to press the brake, but no effectiveness. Instead of turning a 90-degree angle to the west direction, the car only turned 45 degrees toward southwest, hitting the safety island and jump over the island, then... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Mar 6, 2024
Transmission: this is the 2nd transmission in about 22,000 miles. Car will start to stall out and then high rev the rpm’s. This has caused significant power loss suddenly in traffic. Issue has been recreated by mechanic and has been inspected thoroughly. Previously transmission was rebuilt with the torque converter being replaced. No indicator lights have come on prior or during sudden loss, on... Read more
Incident date: Feb 1, 2024
Issue: manually setting cruise control to current speed (say 55mph) sets the cruise to 110mph . This has happened more than 10 times in 2 years of my ownership. This happens randomly and not possible to reproduced on-command. The dealers have refused to note this info and send it to Hyundai for investigation. Car accelerating to 110mph all of a sudden while you expect it to stay at your current ... Read more
Incident date: Apr 22, 2024
Intermittently my 2021 Toyota Venza will not accelerate. It feels like it loses power and will not accelerate. It started in March and has progressively gotten worse. It happens from a stop and from rolling acceleration. Toyota dealer Fred Haas Toyota said "they cannot duplicate the problem" even though I told them to go look online since this seems to be an ongoing problem. I do not feel saf... Read more
Incident date: May 16, 2024
The contact owns a 2024 Hyundai Tucson. The contact stated that while the vehicle was at a stop light while depressing the accelerator pedal, the vehicle hesitated to accelerate. The failure occurred on several occasions and the vehicle was taken to the local dealer. The dealer was unable to duplicate the failure and the vehicle was not repaired. After retrieving the vehicle, the failure persisted... Read more
FORD
BRONCO SPORT
(2021) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
May 20, 2024
Incident date: Apr 8, 2023
I WAS DRIVING 45 MPH WHEN MY VEHICLE TOLD ME PUT MY CAR INTO PARK. I LOST CONTROL OF MY STEERING AND CONTROL OF MY ABILITY TO PUT MY CAR INTO OR OUR OF GEAR. I HAD STARTED TO SLOW DOWN DUE TO LOSS OF CONTROLS AND MY CAR HALTED TO AN ADRUPT STOP AND WOULD NOT ALLOW ME TO HAVE ANY CONTROL OF ITS FUNCTIONS. DUE TO BEING IN TRAFFIC I ATTEMPTED TO THE VEHICLE IN PARK AND IT DID NOT ALLOW, I WAITED APPR... Read more
Incident date: May 20, 2023
on the freeway and along side another car and "emergency breaking activation" warning. Happened 2 times in a month. Car swerved but I was able to control it. I was doing about 65 mph in each case.
Incident date: Apr 29, 2024
I ran into the existing issue described in "Part 573 Safety Recall Report" NHTSA Recall Number 22V-011, but in a state not listed under the recall (vehicle purchased used in Pennsylvania in 2017). As a result of this part failing, my brake lights remained engaged permanently, and the car's engine power would increase and decrease rapidly (presumably because it thought I kept hitting the breaks). ... Read more