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: Jun 27, 2023
On April 22nd the car was in an accident when it struck the rear of another car at a red traffic light. I had stopped at the light with car in “B” drive mode and the brake on Auto Hold. I was stopped at the light roughly 2 minutes with my right foot on neither pedal. The car was in Auto Hold brake mode as I recollect the Auto Hold indicator being illuminated. The car remained stationary dur... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Jun 5, 2023
I was driving home from work on the expressway driving around 60 miles when my car out of no where started jerking and lost speed as driving at some points I could go over 40 I had to put my hazards on and drive at a speed of 30 on the expressway when I parked the car and put my foot on gas pedal I could not drive had a mechanic look at it they said it was my knock sensor
Incident date: May 27, 2023
While driving over the last month, the car shuts off with no warning. There are no check engine or other lights that come on once it shuts down. There does not appear to be any consistency in the occurences, sometimes while idling, sometimes while driving 40 mph. Up until recently, the car would restart once I put it in neutral, but it now does not restart right away.
Incident date: Jun 5, 2023
During the day the the instrument cluster that has a speedometer doesn't have any brightness so I cannot see the speed or warning lights. I took my car to the dealership and they said there is no solution to that problem right now and multiple vehicles have the same issue since September last year.
Incident date: Mar 16, 2022
Multiple times I have gone to pull out onto a road and the car has hesitated and actually stalled a few times almost causing me to be hit. Starting in 2021. Around 70,000 miles the Check Engine light came on saying Emission Control problem and went off. Around this time it all began. At 80,000 miles it would cycle on and off intermittently "check engine" and they told me it was the Catalytic ... Read more
JEEP
GRAND CHEROKEE 4XE
(2022) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jun 26, 2023
Incident date: Feb 22, 2023
I have filled claims with Ford Motor Company as well as the BBB regarding my vehicle and not shifting and lunging into gear. Ford has replaced my transmission 3 times and denied my claim for a buy back under the Lemon Law and Magnuson Moss Warranty claim. Now I am reading Ford is recalling many 2021 Ford Explorers for the same issue that I had reported struggled and continue to struggle with for o... Read more
VOLKSWAGEN
TAOS
(2022) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jun 26, 2023
Incident date: Jun 26, 2021
Sudden maximum acceleration accompanied by brake failure, without warnings, occurred on my 2002 Toyota Tundra 4.7L V8 causing loss of control of the vehicle, which ended in a rollover crash, resulting in total loss of the vehicle and injury to me. While departing a 25 mph zone (sign read "END 25 SPEED LIMIT") on a relatively straight section of the road, I very gently accelerated from 20 mph to 30... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Jun 24, 2023
Multiple moments of phantom braking 15+ times TODAY driving from North Platte, NE to Havelock, IA on cruise or auto pilot. Extremely dangerous, could've caused pile ups/rear end collisions. Screen would 50% of the time show a semi or vehicle in front of me when nothing was there. I tried cleaning the windshield, thought it helped for a bit then it happened again. This happened on both interstate d... Read more
CHEVROLET
TRAILBLAZER
(2023) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jun 25, 2023
Incident date: Jun 24, 2023
The car would accelerate spontaneously both from a stopped position as well as while moving. The brake pedal was able to slow and stop the car. The car is set to not roll when stopped and has regenerative braking when the accelerator is released, the exact opposite of what is supposed to occur is what happened. The company was contacted.
Incident date: Jun 24, 2023
The first time the situation occurred we were out of town. Warning lights appeared. The car had sluggish acceleration, noisy, rough ride, hesitating, jerking type movements . We thought it was going to stop. The message appeared "Do not drive the vehicle." My husband took the Jeep to the dealer and they were supposed to have fixed it. He was told it was the throttle. We drove the Jeep and the... Read more
Incident date: Jun 21, 2023
I recently purchased this 2018 Ram Dually for work on our farm. After 1 trip all the ABS/traction control/4wd and cruise control wont work. It seems that this a safety issue that ram will not address. I would like to file a complaint that if I had known about these issues, I would not have purchased this truck. It is unsafe driving and with no ABS and cruise control or traction control. I de... Read more
Incident date: May 10, 2023
I was driving on the interstate when my car suddenly stopped accelerating. There were no warnings or messages on my dashboard. I was almost rear ended by a semi truck because the car rapidly lost speed. I pulled off of the road for over an hour before the car would accelerate again.
Incident date: May 11, 2023
I was driving on an interstate highway at approximately 75 mph. I had cruise control activated. Suddenly the car dramatically slowed down, accompanied by rapid beeping noise. Luckily, there was no one close behind me.
Incident date: Jun 14, 2023
The Jeep says High Coolant Temperature even after adding much coolant. Car shuts off while driving on the streets and highways.
GMC
SIERRA 2500
(2013) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jun 23, 2023
Incident date: Jun 19, 2023
I am having an identical issues as described in NHTSA ID Number 11526094. Vehicle hesitates when accelerating from a stop. Have been almost hit a couple times as it is unpredictable when this happens. This is a dangerous behavior and I cannot in clear conscience sell this minivan to another family. I have returned it to the dealer multiple times and they were eventually able to reproduce the prob... Read more
Incident date: Jun 22, 2023
Driving on freeway and truck downshifted and almost control, orange wrench was on display, speedometer stopped working and I could barley get to 30 mph...finally was able to pull off freeway...turned -off...waited and turned back on...engine light was on...it drove alright for alittle bit, than it downshifted to first and would shift had to pull over and shut it down again and restart...made it ho... Read more
Incident date: Jun 23, 2023
Got caught in bad rain and both speedo and tach filled up with water. Bike completely shut down on highway doing 60mph (70 mph highway) and if I did not pull in on clutch, bike would have went down and I could have possibly lost my life. I believe a less experienced rider would have not been so fortunate. It is clear this is a manufacture defect as the seal on these gauges are minimal or undervalu... Read more
Incident date: Jul 29, 2022
The contact owns a 2018 Jeep Cherokee. The contact stated that the vehicle failed to start. The contact placed the gear shifter in the park and the restart message was displayed. While driving at unknown speeds, the vehicle failed to accelerate as needed. While making a turn, the vehicle was difficult to steer. Additionally, the key fob was inoperable. There was an abnormal rattling sound detecte... Read more
Incident date: May 23, 2023
Was driving the vehicle in a local road and felt sudden drop in vehicle speed. Had to press hard the acceleration pedal to avoid any collision from behind. The vehicle could not gain enough speed in a ~45~60mile speed zone and driven ~2miles slowly to work place. The vehicle had to be towed to a local delearship as they suggested. The warning message was 'Stop vehicle and check Power supply' immed... Read more
MITSUBISHI
OUTLANDER
(2022) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jun 23, 2023
Incident date: Sep 24, 2021
2017 RAM 2500 has known issue with Antilock Brake Unit Hydraulic Controller - This prevents brakes from operating correctly and traction control / speed control is disabled - Confirmed diagnosis with dealer - Vehicle has current Mopar Vehicle Protection (service plan) but part is unavailable to be ordered - RAM dealer stated vehicle does not pass state safety inspection. RAM Care case submitted. N... Read more
Incident date: May 20, 2023
Without warning the transmission failed. Along with loss of power, when the tranny failed, the ability to use the exhaust brake also fails. The ability to manually downshift fails. I was on steep winding roads in North Idaho (Elk River) when this occurred with three passengers aboard. Once I was able to stop, I was on a steep uphill grade with no forward gears or shoulder to pull over on. I had to... Read more
Incident date: Mar 14, 2023
Recurrent phantom braking while using autopilot. Sudden deceleration that does not seem to correlate to any specific traffic or weather condition.
Incident date: Jun 2, 2023
steering & traction control issues. My ryker has issues turning right under acceleration , like merging onto highway. The bike want to traction control .?This has happened multiple times .
Incident date: Jun 7, 2023
6 months ago, the ABS brakes and stability control warning lights started to randomly light up on the dashboard. Sometimes I would not see a repeat of this for a week or more. The warning lights started to appear more frequently, and now are on all the time. When on, the cruise control does not operate. I took it to a Ram dealer near me, and the service department confirmed it is a defective ABS p... Read more
Incident date: Jun 15, 2023
The CVT Transmission has a bad shudder while driving and shifting into gears. It jerks when trying to accelerate and is extremely slow trying to accelerate the vehicle. The safety of me and other vehicles were in danger because the vehicle failed to accelerate when going up an incline or just driving down an even lane road with no inclines or hills. The vehicle has been inspected by a certified a... Read more
Incident date: Jun 15, 2023
Vehicle has continually shifted roughly, but beginning last year it stalled while coming to a stop. We replaced the battery and removed the auxillary battery that controls the automatic start/stop and had no issues for almost a year. Approximately a week ago, the vehicle began to stall again when coming to a stop, and giving a message stating to "service shifter." It has happened multiple times si... Read more
VOLKSWAGEN
ROUTAN
(2012) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jun 22, 2023
Incident date: Jun 13, 2023
Consistent and predictive Failure of Anti-lock brake control module (68143491-AA /68143491-AB) in 2018 Ram 2500/3500 Trucks. Nationwide shortage of OEM Replacement Parts leading dealers to hoard exclusively for customers for whom repairs are to be made. Extremely difficult to find a dealer willing to sell brake control module, if they have one in stock, to anyone. Instead, dealers recognize there ... Read more
Incident date: Apr 22, 2023
Car abruptly changed from mph to kmh. All safety aspects stay in mph, including speed limit and alert. So while on highway going 65mph, suddenly speed said 116kmh. But speed alerts were still saying “65”. Pro pilot on and car abruptly slowed down towards 65kmh on highway. Only way to change mph to kmh and back is to have car at complete stop, scroll to menu on steering wheel. Click it. Scr... Read more
HYUNDAI
TUCSON PLUG-IN HYBRID
(2022) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jun 22, 2023
Incident date: May 22, 2023
The contact owns a 2023 Nissan Rogue. The contact stated that while starting and driving the vehicle, the vehicle failed to respond while depressing the accelerator pedal. The check engine warning light was illuminated. Additionally, the "Power Reduced", "Malfunction", and "Service Now", messages were displayed. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer, where a diagnostic test was performed but t... Read more
Incident date: Jun 22, 2023
The ESC kight keeps turning on . The brake lights wont turn off, it wont let me accelerate while im driving at different speeds or it will decelerate abruptly. Yes its available for inspection. My safety and the safety of my two young children were at risk multiple times. This is my daily driver. And i was driving them to school when the car would not let me accelerate and someone almost hit me f... Read more
Incident date: May 10, 2023
Stalls when pressing down the acelator pedal from 0 to 30mph and takes between 2 to 7 seconds to ramp up the RPMs
FORD
BRONCO SPORT
(2021) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jun 22, 2023
Incident date: Apr 21, 2023
My 2022 Mercedes GLE 350 With distronic adaptive cruise control accelerates with the cruise control disabled. It's happened about a dozen times since I purchased the vehicle in September of 2022. All acceleration issues occurred at low speed while turning. Right after I release the brake while turning my car accelerates like the distronic cruise control is engaged eventhough I just braked and it'... Read more
Incident date: Jun 10, 2023
Just returned from round trip from Kansas City Mo. to Denver Colorado. Used the cruise control quite a bit on the trip. On 10-15 occasions the regenerative braking automatically came on for no reason.In one instance I was driving the 75 mph speed limit and a car was following too close when the regenerative braking activated and almost caused a crash.It seemed a lot of the times it happened on a b... Read more
Incident date: Apr 1, 2023
Hyundai's connected car service (bluelink) suffered an outage that resulted in driver profiles on many Hyundai vehicles being deleted/reset. No notice was provided and the profiles were not recovered. As a result, the vehicles did not funtion as expected. Driver assist settings were set to default (steering, braking, and acceleration functions included). Hyundai provided instructions on how to set... Read more
Incident date: May 4, 2023
On rare but recurring occasions, perhaps twice a month, powering on the adaptive cruise control results in one of two issues: 1. The ACC will engage, but set itself for 15 MPH, even if driving at highway speeds. When this occurs, the ACC either cancels itself out, or remains on until it detects a malfunction, and then cancels itself out. 2. On rare occasion, the autonomous breaking will, upon p... Read more
Incident date: Jun 20, 2023
When I am driving my car the collision brake come on and my car will reduce speed and the not accurate. The car would still be started but will not move upon me pushing the acceleration. When I start my car and I’m reversing it will not move upon me accelerating, when I put the car in drive it will jerk and take off really fast. At a red light after coming to a complete stop my car will not acce... Read more
Incident date: Jun 19, 2023
As I was driving the car today, I had a car ahead of me at a full stop, so in order to slow down the car I lifted my foot off the acceleration pedal. However, instead of slowing down it sped up. My car has regenerative breaking (and it was turn on) which usually applies break when the pressure is lifted from acceleration pedal. However in this instant my car started speeding up. I then applied pre... Read more
Incident date: Jun 5, 2023
I am finishing a drive across the country and every time I put my Tesla into cruise control or adaptive cruise control, it will eventually abruptly break for no reason, in traffic with cars. It can only be restarted by stopping the cruise control feature and turning it back on, after which it inevitably happens without any warning
Incident date: Oct 28, 2022
The car had unintended acceleration. I was driving and suddenly it sped up really fast and I needed to slam on the brakes. This was on a residential street so it was really dangerous. This happened once before, on a highway. Both times this happened, I was touching the wipers controls. I have no idea if it’s connected or coincidence.
Incident date: Jun 22, 2022
When driving on a longer trip, I have repeated sudden deceleration and sometimes harsh braking when using cruise control. This has also happened in normal daytime hours with no traffic around me on rural interstates. On my last trip, I had to keep my foot on the accelerator to keep the car at a constant speed. It is unnerving to me and very scary for passengers. It has made it impossible to use cr... Read more
GMC
SIERRA 1500
(2016) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jun 21, 2023
Incident date: Jun 21, 2023
Driving the car about at 45mph then I heard a pop sound from the rear of the car. Car displayed warning "Check Electrical Vehicle System." I pull over, shut it off, then restarted it. The "check Electrical Vehicle System" light stills on then an emergency message displayed 'Stop Vehicle and Check Power Supply.' When I tried to drive to a safe place I noticed the car would not drive faster than 25m... Read more
Incident date: Jun 8, 2023
I was at stop position. i pressed the hold button and then took my foot off the break. when traffic started moving i pressed the hold button again with my foot still on floor the car started jumping and pressing the the two other car on my front. the two other cars got totaled.
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Jun 19, 2023
The contact owns a 2021 Subaru Forester. The contact stated while parking the vehicle in a parking lot, the vehicle accelerated independently and jumped the curb and into the bushes. The contact attempted to reverse the vehicle but continued to also accelerate independently in Reverse. The contact stated the gear shift was on Neutral and continue to Rev loudly. The contact stated the vehicle stop ... Read more
Crash
Incident date: May 26, 2023
While driving at highway speeds (50mph-80mph), on 2 lane or 4 lane highways, in the day or night, in sunny conditions and overcast sky's, while using the cruise control (auto-pilot), the car will suddenly and unexpectedly apply the brakes. It happens between 8 and 10 times on every road trip, each way. Not only is it a shock to me as there is never a visual obstacle that seems to be causing the ... Read more
Incident date: May 26, 2023
VW repaired clock spring (a recall) after airbag warning, steering wheel controls stopped working. VW returned the vehicle to me, the customer, with the clock spring supposedly repaired yet steering wheel buttons, including cruise control and others, remained broken and unusable. VW wanted several hundred dollars to fix this, despite the issue obviously being directly related to the clock spring a... Read more
JEEP
GRAND CHEROKEE
(2014) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jun 20, 2023
Incident date: Jun 20, 2023
My trucks ABS keeps cutting off, it’s operation is intermittent. This also disables the cruise control and traction control. I have researched this on this year and it’s a problem with many of doges trucks. The dealer has no fix for this safety issue.This is an on going issue that happens every time i drive the vehicle.
Incident date: May 30, 2023
Lights that alert inside the vehicle at random times but more often in the last few months are: stability trek, power steering reduced and check engine. Acceleration decreased/reduced after being idle. This prompts serious danger for myself and children when there is no power being given to the car when sitting in traffic. Multiple mechanics have diagnosed the issue. Dealership gives me the run a... Read more
VOLKSWAGEN
CC
(2014) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jun 20, 2023
Incident date: Feb 5, 2022
During phone calls, the system would start making sparking noises and stall the calls. While navigation was input parts of the screen would disappear. While backing up, the rear cameras would freeze and stall. The rear camera freezing had caused us to get into an accident, and caused us to have 4 near misses. When I was trying to download the latest software release, the software download froz... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Jun 19, 2023
1:Brake fail when trying to stop the car after the accident. The car is available for inspection at Arrow towing service Oklahoma City. 2: After the car accident the car keep going can't stop got Tee boned and my passenger broke his legs and ankles, elbow. 3: No, the problem has not be discussed with the dealer or manufacturer yet. 4: No one, including police, insurance have been inspect it. 5: No... Read more
Crash
2 injured
Incident date: Jun 1, 2023
Waiting to turn at a busy intersection then proceeded to press the accelerator the vehicle lossed power and had shut off. I Shifted gear to park to start engine and it would not go faster than 10mph. Vehicles behind nearly wrecked into me and were honking their horns. It had died again then started back up. I was able to drive home before it died again. Vehicle towed to dealership. Was told they ... Read more