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 73,546 complaints - component: VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Incident date: Jan 27, 2024
Battery turned off car was really load when i started it and later when drive the car didnt slow down like normal
Incident date: Jan 25, 2024
driving down the highway at 65mph the car started bucking and losing acceleration leaving almost no control to the driver to maneuver effectively and avoid other cars. after a terrifying experience of losing control of the car my wife and children stranded on the side of the road for hours in sub 32 degree weather. the vehicle goes into limp home mode on the highway causing her to pull off with l... Read more
MINI
COOPER COUNTRYMAN
(2013) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jan 27, 2024
Incident date: Jan 10, 2024
I have a 2016 Hyundai Sonata that has had repeated engine issues including stalling overheating and shutting off. The car engine also caught on Fire on [XXX} and was reported to Hyundai Consumer affairs where a case was opened. The car was in the dealership for repair until [XXX] I have a warranty that the dealership or Hyundai did not honor for the engine, power train. The services that were rep... Read more
Incident date: Dec 1, 2023
23V-838 This recall made my car less safe, you should not have forced this change on my car I do not like it. It makes the car unsafe
Incident date: Jan 22, 2024
It won't catch up speed it slips on the freeway. Once I pass 60 miles per hour it excelerates very high and rpm get stuck after I hit 50 miles per hour. There's a knocking noise coming from the engine and burns oil fast.
FORD
EXPEDITION
(2018) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jan 26, 2024
Incident date: Jan 5, 2024
Driving the vehicle on the highway for longer than 60 miles at highway speeds the vehicle goes into “power limited” mode and a turtle pops up on the screen. You are unable to accelerate the car and once this happens you have to leave the car off for at least 5 minutes and then not drive above 65mph again or it will keep happening over and over. After taking it to the shop Hyundai Corporate sai... Read more
Incident date: Jan 26, 2024
On [XXX] as I was going in reverse the car started to accelerate out of control, I pumped the breaks and it increased speed, I then tried to power down truck and that did not work. My vehicle ended up going in ditch backwards and I hit a mailbox and ditch. Earlier in the week when I went to go from reverse to forward it felt like it was locked and then it would engage. I do not feel this is sa... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Jan 17, 2024
CX90 PHEV Premium Plus new purchase 12/2023. 1/24/2024: "Hybrid System Malfunction, Have the vehicle Inspected " On a busy freeway with big rigs and other cars during rush hour traffic (5:25pm), going about 70 MPH. Only 1700miles on car so far. 50-60 degrees Fahrenheit outside. 2mi left on charge, full tank of gas. Car completely unable to accelerate all of the sudden on busy highway once this lig... Read more
Incident date: Jan 18, 2024
Ice and sludge accumulated and froze causing the CAC system to fail resulting in engine issues, performance loss this was caused from GM poor design of a shield that they are aware of. GM knows that this can happen and have now designed a new shield to prevent this from happening but it is at the owner’s expense to fix. If GM knows that this will happen they should fix the issue I am now out o... Read more
Incident date: Jan 16, 2024
INTAKE CAMSHAFT CVVT COVER AND SENSOR INTAKE CAMSHAFT CVVT OIL PLUG PLUG Exhaust Manifold I am up to date on all me oil changes and everytime I get and oil change the oil goes so fast! This has actually been happening ever since I got the vehicle. My acceleration has been decreasing when I get an oil change.
Incident date: Oct 10, 2019
Hybrid CR_V when at a stop, the vehicle has started acerating on its own when I remove foot from brake. Iin the 4 months, it has started moving slowly on its own when brake released, and I haven't touched gas pedal yet 2 time it started acerating faster and faster until brake was applied. took it to dealer, they cannot duplicate and weren't very helpful in trying it figure it yet. Vehicle has b... Read more
Incident date: Jul 28, 2023
Runaway Throttle at least 8 times now: 1. Driving in adaptive cruise control when deactivated by manual braking (to turn into a parking lot, which is a more common scenario for a brake based shutoff) 2. Parked nose first and shut off the truck 3. Start truck and reverse out of parking space 4. Shift to drive, apply throttle gently and truck continues to accelerate when throttle released requir... Read more
Incident date: Nov 28, 2023
I HAD 2 MILE HR FRONT SIDE INPACK IN A PARKING LOT WHITCH PUSHED ME INTO ANTHER PARKED CAR .THEN AT THAT POINT MY CAR WENT INTO AT A HIGH RATE OF SPEED .I HAD BOTH FEET ON THE BREAK NO HELP .I PROCEEDED TO HIT OTHER CARS AFTER THE 3RD AND 4RD CAR IT FINALLY QUIT .THIS WAS AT A SMALL AIRPORT THANK GOT NO ONE WAS COMING OUT OF THE AIRPORT .I DID EVERYTHING I COULD TO STOP THIS CAR .IT JUST KEPT PICK... Read more
Crash
2 injured
CHEVROLET
SILVERADO 1500
(2019) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jan 26, 2024
Incident date: May 1, 2022
The contact's daughter owned a 2019 Honda Civic Sedan. The contact received notification NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V858000 (Fuel System, Gasoline) however, the parts to repair were not available. The contact stated that her daughter was driving at an unknown MPH when the daughter stopped at the stop sign. However, the vehicle did not stop, causing the contact's daughter to crash into the front dr... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Sep 22, 2023
ABS , brake. Anti lock lights
Incident date: Jan 5, 2024
On Jan 22,2024 while driving on the interstate the speed was unexpectedly instantly reduced, the car would not accelerate over 60 mph and the service engine light came on, the car was safely driven off the highway then towed to the dealership. My safety as well as the safety of other drivers on the highway was at risk when the car suddenly decreased to 60 mph from 75 mph which could have caused a ... Read more
Incident date: Jan 24, 2024
While we were driving on the freeway, we saw a check engine light and “propulsion power is reduced” message. The car began driving very roughly and we had to slow down. We had this happen once before where the car engine stopped working entirely while driving at city speeds after seeing this error earlier in the summer, so we pulled over as soon as we could. We were traveling in a remote area ... Read more
FORD
ESCAPE HYBRID
(2020) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jan 25, 2024
Incident date: Dec 15, 2023
The first incident happened with my 2020 jeep Compass on 12/27/23 while on the freeway the temp light flashed the gage didn't indicate overheating I got off the freeway check the engine no sign of overheating waited for awhile then started the car again within five minutes car gage went to overheating had it towed the oil cooler went out out mixed with the coolant paid big bucks for the repairs. ... Read more
Incident date: Jan 7, 2021
I was slowly pulling into a parking spot with my foot on the brake and the vehicle suddenly accelerated. I hit the brake hard and the car eventually stopped but it did go onto the sidewalk before stopping. In the past, when I started the car, the engine would sometimes rev too much and I had to step on the gas while in park to get it to stop, but this is the first time it suddenly accelerated whil... Read more
Incident date: Dec 9, 2023
The transmission module, and Transmission. While on freeway with my family car shut off while driving. Yes , Yes , No there were no warning signs until after the jerking and shaking started after 39 days then the engine light came on. After that a that the sign said transmission over heating pull over and let car cool down. what was most scary is that it shut off while driving.
Incident date: Jun 20, 2023
I own a 2017 Honda CRV EX AWD. While driving downhill on a mountain road on Dec. 9, 2023, all of my dashboard warning lights and alarms began flashing and sounding off. Some of the warnings cycled through one after another while others were simultaneous. I continued to drive looking for a safe place to pull over. Going downhill I was able to maintain some speed, but when the road leveled off I... Read more
Incident date: Oct 1, 2023
Vehicle began flashing abs light and traction control light. Took vehicle in for repair. Was told this is a known issue and they are unable to aquire parts until june 2024 currently January 2024. Drove on 1-25-24 light was off used the breaks and abs light came on and breaks locked up and continued to skid on the ice almost causing me to go threw a stop sign into a ditch.
Incident date: Sep 25, 2023
There is an acceleration issue that only happens sporadically. From a stopped position (stop sign/stop light) when I let go of the break and start acceleration with the gas pedal, it doesn't work. Even if I press down more in the gas pedal, it merely creeps- as if it were in neutral. It happens with turns or going straight. I have no clue what could be causing it. The breaks still work, and the ga... Read more
Incident date: Jan 25, 2022
The car intermittently will stop and wont accelerate, usually when in drive… on inclines, after slowing down. Dealer can’t diagnose the problem and it’s getting worse. It jerks and it’s dangerous to drive.
Incident date: May 7, 2023
For some reason my car won’t accelerate. Went to Nissan twice and they can’t do anything about it. I was on second gear almost stalling out on a slight hill and no acceleration on third gear that one time I was merging onto the highway.
Incident date: Jan 3, 2024
Your website has some trouble & won't accept my jpg files. First time to see this. I use cruise control all the time on 3 vehicles I own. But, this JEEP has a strange problem that is not safe. Almost all vehicles I have driven with cruise controls will exceed set speed by 1~3mph while going down a steep hill. But my JEEP will exceed by 5~7mph on steep hills. I have turned off cruise control when ... Read more
Incident date: Jan 15, 2024
The contact owned a 2017 Subaru Forester. The contact stated that after driving into a parking space in a parking lot with the brake pedal depressed, the vehicle jolted and veered to the right. The passenger's side of the vehicle hit the driver's side of another occupied vehicle. The other vehicle was scratched and there was no injury sustained. The contact stated she then reversed out of the park... Read more
Crash
1 injured
FORD
BRONCO SPORT
(2022) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jan 24, 2024
Incident date: Jan 24, 2024
The issue concerns my 2023 Telluride SX X-line (AWD) when driving in the "snow mode" setting. The issue has occurred on several occasions, approximately 2-3 times last winter when I was driving the vehicle and at least one time this winter when my wife was driving in snowy conditions. The issue is that the vehicle accelerator basically becomes unresponsive when driving in snow mode under a set of ... Read more
Incident date: Jan 15, 2024
ABS and Traction Control light on . This cancels out cruise control also. Vehicle was repaired at 23562 miles and is out again at 32000 miles. I have been on dealers waiting list for over a month. The part used for the repair must have been defective also. W11aiting time for the repair is entirely too long. Antilock brakes are a safety concern and should be quickly fixed.
Incident date: Jan 18, 2024
What component or system failed or malfunctioned, and is it available for inspection upon request? The vehicle speed control failed to accelerate above 50 MPH. Pushing down on the accelerator would continue to increase RPMs, but instead the car would coast. How was your safety or the safety of others put at risk? This malfunction made it impossible to reach highway speeds, which meant I was trav... Read more
GMC
SIERRA 2500
(2022) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jan 24, 2024
Incident date: Jan 20, 2024
Stalling, jerking, losing power
Incident date: Jan 22, 2024
An intermenttent loss of the transmission output speed sensor signal to the powertrain control module resulting in a unattended downshift into first gear when accelerating.
FORD
ESCAPE HYBRID
(2020) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jan 23, 2024
Incident date: Nov 15, 2023
On [XXX], I was traveling from Georgia to California in a 2024 Ford Maverick XLT 2.5L Hybrid with approximately 219 miles on the odometer, using cruise control set at 73 mph and in the ECO mode. I'd stopped for gas and upon returning to the highway [XXX]) the vehicle, still using cruise and in ECO mode, experienced an extreme reduction in power and the check engine light illuminated. I pulled o... Read more
Incident date: Jan 18, 2024
The contact owns a 2011 Toyota Rav4. The contact stated while stopped at a red light with the brake pedal depressed, the vehicle accelerated and rolled forward. The contact quickly put the vehicle in park and was able to pull over down the road. The contact stated that while pulling over and then shifting from park to drive with the brake pedal depressed, the vehicle accelerated, and the contact q... Read more
Incident date: Nov 1, 2023
When driving on the highway next to a large truck or semi and on a curve, the adaptive cruise control thinks that there’s a vehicle in front of you and slams on the brakes. This has happened a few times with my vehicle. Thankfully, there were no vehicles immediately behind me, or the results could’ve been tragic.
Incident date: Dec 23, 2023
I am writing to express my concerns regarding the performance of the transmission in my Nissan 2018 Nissan Sentra. Recently, I have encountered my car stopped accelerating and only able to drive backwards. I had a few transmission,shifting problems, jerking which has raised concerns about the overall reliability and safety of the vehicle. I understand your concern about Nissan transmissions. If yo... Read more
Incident date: Jan 23, 2024
In September of this year, I would get a random code thrown by the computer, usually telling me that the sway bar disconnected required service, but sometimes it was also the 4wd system. These codes would reset themselves within a few minutes, but I still took it to a dealership for a checkup. The dealership told me that since it currently was not throwing any codes there wasn't really anything ... Read more
Incident date: Jan 23, 2024
I was driving on [XXX] in Virginia, speed limit is 70mph, a warning flashed in the screen: “Stop Safely, Vehicle will Shut Off Soon.” The car immediately began decelerating, I pulled off the highway and restarted the car, but it would only drive very slowly (approx 15mph). After restarting two more times, it was able to drive normally. This is the second such incident, the car is under warra... Read more
Incident date: Dec 1, 2023
Driving on a two lane highway with the cruise control set, tapped brake to eliminate the cruise as a truck had pulled onto highway ahead of us. Accelerated to pass the truck and resumed the cruise control to maintain previous speed. The vehicle began increasing speed as if the gas pedal was floored. Tapping brakes didn’t stop it nor did shutting the cruise off on the steering wheel, car was go... Read more
Incident date: Jan 21, 2024
1. these are manufacturing problems right after I got the car within 1-3 months the seat belt is exceedingly difficult for a child /toddler the seat belts go into the seat and other problems 2. the middle shift ( park reverse drive) shift with the button area when you're at a red light made of plastic 1 month after I got the car it keeps losing pins falling out and dropping down this happe... Read more
Incident date: Jan 22, 2023
The cruise control stopped working and there is a collision/crash malfunction.
Incident date: Jan 3, 2023
The truck developed a warning light for ABS / Stabilitrak needing to be serviced. Ram dealership replaced an ABS Pump, but the issue came right back. They are now saying it needs a new control module at great expense, but that they are unavailable currently. Delivery on the part has been pushed back continuously over the last 12 months, still no parts. This issue causes a regular intermittent digg... Read more
FORD
BRONCO SPORT
(2022) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jan 22, 2024
Incident date: Jan 16, 2024
I have had a new engine put in my Sonata back at the beginning of 2023. For the past two days my car will jerk really hard, and then loose power not accelerating over 25 rpms and my check engine lights comes on when it jerks really hard.
Incident date: Jan 20, 2024
As I was backing into my driveway on Thursday 1/18/2024 @ 5:25 pm. I was on my way home from work. As I was backing into my driveway I lost power, the ABs and the MIL light both came on, the abs went off but the MIL began to flash and I lost all power in the car. I shut it off immediately and we pushed my car the rest of the way into the driveway. I had received a KIA Safety recall notice that sa... Read more
Incident date: Nov 29, 2023
A few times I have pressed the brakes when coming to a red light and stop signs But instead of my vehicle stopping it propelled me forward as it excellerated out of no where and pushed me into oncoming traffic, I almost was hit by other cars and I almost hit other cars and even have had to swerve onto the side walk to prevent myself from getting g hit by another car. If there were people walking, ... Read more
2 injured
Incident date: Jun 1, 2023
This vehicle has a "digital cockpit" without traditional analog gauges. It completely shut down on me while driving on the freeway, leaving me without a speedometer, and a red caution "do not drive" warning indicator. I have a video of this incident captured by my partner that I can share, as well as a static image, which I attach therein. Prior to this incident, it repeatedly shut down while d... Read more
Incident date: Jan 20, 2024
Upon driving out of my school parking lot at approximately 15 to 20 miles per hour I noticed a cushiony filled with a brakes and all of a sudden I heard a shhh all of my lights popped up on my dashboard. When I took my vehicle in to be able to find out what was going on with it I was told that I need a master cylinder and a brake booster. This was after having my vehicle for only 3 years where I ... Read more
Incident date: Jan 15, 2024
Hello, Twice in the past two months, my car's engine has lost power while driving on the highway. First, while entering and merging onto the highway, and once while exiting the highway. Both times, the check engine light came on, pressing the gas pedal had no effect, and we could only coast to the side of the road. Both times we had to restart the vehicle. After the first incident, I went to t... Read more
Incident date: Jan 21, 2024
Check engine light came on and was blinking. Had to get it towed. There is an engine recall on my vehicle. Full diagnostics test was run showing faulty engine due to the engine recall.
Incident date: Jan 18, 2023
I am experiencing delays in transmission shifting when the vehicle is cold. This behavior has recently started at about 85k miles. I have taken to dealer and had the transmission oil changed and Ford recommended cleaning the solenoids (at my cost). The dealer also resets the controller to relearn as well. I experienced the issues while driving away after the work, but I have been asked to drive... Read more