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
JEEP
GRAND CHEROKEE
(2023) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Oct 2, 2023
Incident date: Oct 2, 2023
The abs and traction control light are flashing on and off SEVERAL times especially when on a rough road. It kicks my cruise off and sometimes stays on which locks the diff and disengages any ABS functions resulting in the loss of braking performance and capability.
Incident date: Sep 23, 2023
What component or system failed or malfunctioned, and is it available for inspection upon request? ******Speed Control- Vehicle will stall while on road/ highway causing rear vehicles to brake. How was your safety or the safety of others put at risk? *****Several times I was forced to pull over to side lanes to avoid being rear ended. *****Has the problem been reproduced or confirmed by a deale... Read more
Incident date: Aug 1, 2023
We are having downshifting issues and the speed is randomly changing. The truck came to a stop while still driving. The speedometer doesn’t reflect accurate to the truck speed.
Incident date: Sep 29, 2023
I am 86 years old. I bought the car brand new so I am the original owner. I have kept the car perfectly maintained and garaged from the day I bought it. My wife is also 86. She and I are the only ones that drive the car. To date, it has 73,822 miles on it. The main issue I am having is random, unpredictable stalling and hesitation when trying to accelerate. We have also had unintende... Read more
Incident date: Sep 29, 2023
At 2:00 on a clear afternoon I was slowly coasting into a right hand turn into a parking space, and lightly tapping the brake to finalize the stop, when the car accelerated HARD forward over a curb and a sidewalk into the brick wall of a building. Airbag was deployed. My injuries were a nasty wrist contusion and bloody gashes where the airbag "door" deployed and I also had complete seatbelt brus... Read more
Crash
1 injured
NISSAN
ROGUE SPORT
(2020) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Oct 2, 2023
Incident date: Sep 30, 2023
We were driving on the highway and attempting to change lane when the engine ceased to work properly, the vehicle would not excelerate and a indicator with a crowbar came on. As we begin to steer toward the shoulder of the road we narrowly avoided getting hit by cars behind us. The car then begin to work again. We took it to the dealer who ran a diagnostic and stated there is no problem but the ve... Read more
Incident date: Sep 27, 2023
ABOUT 50 MILES IN DURING A ROAD TRIP, CVT TRANSMISSION FAILED. SLUGGISH WHEN ACCELERATING, WOULD NOT ACCELERATE PAST 40 MPH. GEAR WOULD NOT RELEASE TO REVERSE OR PUT INTO PARK TO SHUT THE VEHICLE OFF. HAD TO FIND AN OPEN FIELD IN ORDER TO TURN AROUND AND DRIVE BACK HOME DUE TO NOT BEING ABLE TO REVERSE. PROCEEDED BACK WITH FLASHERS ON AT A LOW RATE OF SPEED. WHEN I REACHED HOME, I PUSHED THE ... Read more
Incident date: Oct 1, 2023
Sudden loss of throttle control. Fist incident I had left my house and ridden a 1/2 mile and the throttle suddenly became unresponsive. The motorcycle then after restart would only go aprx 10-15mph with throttle applied. I replaced the battery as it was 3yrs of age. Motorcycle then operated normally for the next trip aprx 5 miles. The following day as I went to turn left and enter a roadway in a g... Read more
Incident date: Oct 2, 2023
The Driver Assistance System fails. Specifically, the cruse control, parking assistance, blind spot monitor, display of other objects, lane identification, stop sign or traffic light recognition and other safety features fail repeatedly.
MERCEDES-BENZ
C300
(2016) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Oct 1, 2023
Incident date: Oct 1, 2023
On left hand turns only never right turns, if you are going over 30 mph the ABS/Stability controls turns on and make the wheels wobble and slows it down in the turn. This abrupt slow down cause vehicles behind me to slam on breaks because there is no brake lights warning them of the slow down. I took it to a shop and after a month in the shop, they replaced the yaw rate sensor which did not fix th... Read more
CRAVENSPEED
SHIFTER SHAFT
(9999) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Oct 1, 2023
Incident date: Sep 25, 2023
Acceleration to the engine malfunction no power to engine going excessive speeds on interstate failure light appeared car shut off one stopped car turn right back on. I’ve reported this incident of the last two years to the dealership GMC to 2016 Chevy Malibu that has already had this instance back in 2019 and now has occurred at once again mileage since the last engine was replaced is 10,000 mi... Read more
Incident date: Jan 3, 2022
All of a sudden while driving on the road my vehicle lost total power in the middle of an intersection. I would pres the gas pedal and got no response the vehicle would not go. I had to turn car off and try starting it again then the vehicle got power. This keeps happening not everyday but it's happening about once a week while driving. There has been times where the car wouldn't restart for about... Read more
Incident date: Sep 29, 2023
Everytime the truck is driven I hear an audible chime multiple times over the trip with corresponding ABS and Traction control lights that say the systems aren't functioning. Multiple times I have experienced full lock up of all wheels while on snowy or wet roads. The chimes and flashing lights always come and go while rarely staying illuminated for more than 5 minutes, however at times will fla... Read more
Incident date: Sep 15, 2023
While driving on the highway, I had set the cruise control to max 65 mph. After some time it suddenly set the cruise control to max 35 mph and suddenly reduces the speed even though all front vehicles were running around 65 mph. It was incredibly dangerous and the vehicle behind me was about to hit.
Incident date: Sep 30, 2023
I was driving at a very slow speed of 1 mile per hr as I entered into the Kohls complex in Pleasanton ca. Then as I was pulling the car to a parking spot, all of a sudden I felt the car accelerated on me. My foot was always on the break and I pressed the break but the car still accelerated at a speed I had no control and it went over the parking bump and hit 2 cars that was parked opposite. I felt... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Sep 30, 2023
Dear NHTSA, I am writing to report a serious safety issue with my 2023 Kia Sorento, purchased in February 2023 from Ken Garff Kia Avondale. In July 2023, I began experiencing alarming issues, including flashing lights, dashboard error messages, and malfunctions, despite the vehicle being unused for several days with no visible damage. The air conditioning system malfunctioned, blowing hot air eve... Read more
Incident date: May 29, 2023
HELP! I now regret that I bought a Hyundai Ioniq 5. I hoped the recent campaign would fix my problem, but I think it is now worse. While driving my speed drops 3 to 4 miles per hour, then the car lurches forward to regain my speed. At first I thought it was when using cruise. Now the car does it on the highway even when not using cruise. When it starts dropping the speed, the accelerator is... Read more
VOLKSWAGEN
TAOS
(2022) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Sep 30, 2023
Incident date: Aug 30, 2022
I was driving on the highway last night again and my 2022 Kia Sorento SX Prestige AWD lost engine power and the check engine light immediately came on. The truck would intensely vibrate when I tried to push the gas to get over to the highway shoulder. This was extremely unsafe on a highway but I was able to pull over to the shoulder and stop the car and turn it off. When I turned it on, the check ... Read more
Incident date: Sep 4, 2023
Vehicle accelerates rapidedly or sluggish from stopped. Unable to anticipate which response you may get operating the vehicle and is therefore a safety in my opinion. Also the drop pad overheats my android phone to the point the phone shuts down and is so hot you can't pick it up.
Incident date: Sep 29, 2023
While I was driving with my family on a highway, I deployed the drive assist function that controls the speed of the car and keeps car in lane, out of a sudden the car itself deployed a sudden quick brake without any immenant risk in fron of me ( there was no car in front of my car for at least more than half a mile) this caused a very close threat from being hit by the cars behind me amd all of ... Read more
Incident date: Sep 15, 2023
Today the vehicle was hesitant to start but did. After two stops I turned car off, went into a business. When I came out the car would start but would not go forward or backwards but rev up. I nearly slammed into a curb in the process. I have a video of this.
Incident date: Sep 15, 2023
I have no back tail lights , mechanic says it's an electrical issue yrans module needs fixed right front hub bearing and head light switch, my air bag system is constantly on my car cruise control system is messed up the cruise control steering switch needs to be replace my cars control panel all messed up.
MERCEDES-BENZ
SPRINTER 1500
(2021) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Sep 29, 2023
Incident date: Sep 29, 2023
unintended sudden acceleration defects without warning without driver input. I could kill & be killed. It can happen again! I backed up a little in an angle moving away from parking. Suddenly, without any warning, the car took off and frantically flew backward, passing a stop sign (offense), crossing the main road 4 lanes, perpendicular to the marked lanes (offense), mounted on the sidewalk and la... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Feb 25, 2023
My car had engine seized while driving on the road with no warning light prior nor other mechanical issues. When the engine seized, all mechanical powers are have lost power including brakes and power steering in which have almost caused a near accident at an early morning rushed hours. The vehicle's odometer reading at 120,836 and was up to date on all normal tune up performances. Other issues th... Read more
Incident date: Jun 29, 2023
I took a recent road trip of 1,200 miles across the southwest. Numerous times while using adaptive cruise control the vehicle suddenly and violently braked for no apparent reason. This was particularly concerning when passing trucks. One particular event was on interstate 5 when passing a big rig truck, I was along side the truck with a following car tailgating me, my car suddenly braked hard, cr... Read more
Incident date: May 1, 2023
These vehicles are equipped with an automatic start/stop feature to save gas. This feature automatically turns off the engine when stopped at lights, traffic, etc. the problem is that once you apply the accelerator, it can take up to ~5 seconds for the vehicle to start moving and depending on how hard you depress the pedal, the vehicle can start very abruptly accelerating (almost to the point of w... Read more
Incident date: Jun 13, 2023
Horn only occasionally works when honking and/or locking car, which increases the risk of a crash since I can’t always use my horn to alert other drivers of presence. One front headlight only occasionally works (lightbulb is not the issue), which increases the risk of a crash since other drivers may not be able to see me as well & I am not able to see the road as well in the dark. Cruise control... Read more
MERCEDES-BENZ
S550
(2008) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Sep 28, 2023
Incident date: Sep 28, 2023
My wife pulled into our driveway at 5 mph. Suddenly our Tesla Y. Auto accelerated,before my wife could realize it ramped into our garage through the door and collided on the wall of our Laundry room and kitchen damaging Foundation of the laundry room.My wife was also injured badly. This incident has shaken my wife. We complained to Tesla and filed the complaint but they are not even following up. ... Read more
Crash
1 injured
MERCEDES-BENZ
C300
(2015) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Sep 28, 2023
Incident date: Sep 28, 2023
Breaks locked or failed and was forced off road into a ditch, car totalled
Crash
Incident date: Sep 23, 2023
Driving on the freeway with my foot on the accelerator, the car lost power even thought the engine was running. The engine light came on as a static light - it was not blinking. I pulled off the freeway, put the car in park, and shut the engine off. When I restarted the car the engine light was off and I was able to accelerate again. After the first incident, I took it to a Honda dealer who re... Read more
VOLKSWAGEN
ATLAS
(2023) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Sep 28, 2023
Incident date: Aug 3, 2023
Honda Odyssy 2018- While slowing down and then trying to accelerate does not accelerate and stalls in the lane and requires pumping of accelerator pedal before gear is changed. some time when this happens you can heard grinding noise of gear change. Last time it happened it showed 'Transmission system Problem' and 'Blind Spot Info system Problem' on screen. This is after dealer has looked at the p... Read more
Incident date: Feb 20, 2023
ABS and Traction Control warnings cycling on and off randomly. Warnings are off only for short periods and are on most of the time. Cruise control is not working when the warnings are on which causes a sudden unexpected drop in speed on the highway when a warning cycle occurs. Two dealers have advised that the unit is faulty in manufacture and design but no replacement parts are currently availabl... Read more
Incident date: Oct 31, 2022
On 32600miles abs and traction control start glitching. Happened to me on the highway pulling a rv and using cruise control, all of the sudden I lost cruise control on 70 mph and ABS with traction lights came on and off several times and end up go away, I stopped in the safe area and check all related parts on the vehicle that related brakes and abs, fluid was up to level all parts, brakes, wiring... Read more
Incident date: Sep 24, 2023
While driving the MB sprinter with distronic cruise control and there are no vehicles around the cruise control option on the sprinter will disable itself and fail to restart until it senses another vehicle object around. I have noticed this many times while driving long distance on the interstate.
Incident date: Sep 27, 2023
While driving down the highway, a wrench appeared on the display, then the speedometer went down to zero and the truck wasn’t shifting or accelerating. I took it to the Ford dealership and the diagnosed it as an issue with the Leadframe sensor assembly. They also let me know this is a known issue and there was an extended warranty program that my vehicle is over mileage for. The repair cost est... Read more
Incident date: Sep 22, 2023
My clock spring has failed three times now the first few times I had it fixed at the dealership but my warranty is now no longer valid once since I bought it from the dealership and it has failed again saying my airbags deployed and none of my features on my steering wheel work at all not even my paddle shifters and nor does my horn. And this has happened every time all those things have not worke... Read more
Incident date: Sep 27, 2023
ABS and traction control is not working intermittently Blinkers are not working Windshield wipers are not working Cruise control is not working Gear electronic (+/-) is not working -Service electronic stability control light is on intermittently -Service trailer brake system light is on intermittently -When towing heavy load I see a leak under hood. I'm extremely worried about driving my truck.... Read more
SHINKO
SHINKO E705
(9999) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Sep 27, 2023
Incident date: Sep 22, 2023
I have a 2018 Dodge Ram 2500 pickup truck and my ABS engine light came on back in February 2023 indicating that I have a problem with my braking and traction control system. It was because of the Hydraulic Control Module was bad. I Contacted a Factory Chrysler Parts supplier to obtain a new part to have it replaced but they were on backorder until June. In June I contacted them again and was told ... Read more
Incident date: Sep 20, 2023
This warning light has been present since I test drove this car in March 2023. The dealership stated if I purchased the vehicle they would fix the issue before I took delivery after purchasing the vehicle in March 2023 the warring light came on several times within hours of picking up the vehicle. I took the vehicle back to the dealer at least twice within a week or so to have them fix the issue, ... Read more
Incident date: Sep 27, 2023
this system is malfunctioning and braked suddenly twice and I almost got rear ended. now the system is not working and the dealer at diamond honda wont repair.
1 injured
Incident date: May 17, 2023
On 9/14/23 after starting car parked on level surface, I placed car in Drive, but it went in Reverse. The vehicle was supposedly repaired for Safety Recall Notice 22S43 by dealer. I placed car back in park, then shifted back to Drive and it moved forward as expected. Later in day while my wife was driving, she experienced difficulty in disengaging cruise control and when she tapped brakes, vehi... Read more
Crash
2 injured
Incident date: Sep 26, 2023
When cruise control is engaged, the vehicle suddenly decelerates, (at times dropping speed by more than 20 mph in less than 2 seconds). This occurs as often as 5-10 times in a single 60mi trip, and occurs at least once per trip on this same route (divided highway, sometimes with hills, often with no other cars ahead of or around the vehicle, speed 60-70mph) These events are unsafe because unexpect... Read more
Incident date: Sep 27, 2023
September 26th 2023 i noticed my traverse accelerated by itself while in park i reported the evap issue made my check emgine light come on and stay on i noticed gm recalled 2019 traverses and up a year models for the same reason but not 2018 models on september the 7th 2023 i also got a code saying control moduoe communication chassis expansion can bus offf when the check engine light ccame on als... Read more
CHEVROLET
SILVERADO 2500
(2019) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Sep 26, 2023
Incident date: Sep 26, 2023
The abs brake light, traction control, and downhill assist lights all came on at the same time. This is being caused by a faulty speed sensor. This item was recalled on the two wheel drive kias, but not the all wheel drive models... hiwever.. looking for answers in the forums show that there is a systemic problem in the kia system, just Google search it and watch all the other car owners stories p... Read more
Incident date: Sep 26, 2023
This vehicle has problems with the ABS Module, they have been replaced 3 times, and now the exact same thing is happening again, it is pulling same code from times before C0020-01 ABS Pump Motor Control General Electrical Failure [brake module] will attach work orders first one 10/11/2018 where module was replaced twice and again on 06/17/20
Incident date: Sep 26, 2023
The vehicle will show that it is overheating when it is not and it will power down where you are only able to go around 50. When going over mountain passes it will do this and sometimes it will totally shut down. It will do it in town and any time it is at a traffic light. Sensors, water pump have been replaced. Antifreeze does not leak stays at the same level it is not actually overheating. W... Read more
Incident date: Sep 26, 2023
Unintentional acceleration. After making right turn, vehicle accelerated for approx 1/2 mile until crashing into wall. Several attempts at braking and trying to shift into neutral did nothing.
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Sep 25, 2023
Over the past year, the car has had 4 crank position sensors, new pig tails/connectors on the wire harness, a new throttle body, and a new MCM. The Jeep will randomly shut off without warning either at stoplights/traffic or on the highway at speed. While at speed, the car will "restart" itself, but if it stalls while stagnant a manual restart is necessary. When the stalling occurs, warning lights ... Read more
JEEP
GRAND CHEROKEE
(2021) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Sep 25, 2023
Incident date: Sep 15, 2023
My 2018 Ram 2500 has an intermittent ABS/ Service Electronic Braking System light. If I am using the cruise control when this light, comes on the cruise control turns off and the vehicle slows in front of moving traffic. I seem to also loose traction control which is dangerous when towing heavy loads.
VOLKSWAGEN
ID.4
(2021) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Sep 25, 2023
Incident date: Sep 25, 2023
The Stability Control System engages on low speed left turns when it is not required. It does not engage on right turns at similar speed and sharpness of corner. Power is cut to the rear wheel and the right brake engages, causing a "wobble", unsteady, and jumping sensation. This creates unease and the sense of losing control. I've been told this is a common problem that the YAW sensor and sas syst... Read more