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
HYUNDAI
IONIQ HYBRID
(2020) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jun 12, 2023
Incident date: Jun 6, 2023
2018 Dodge Ram 2500 with Cummins turbo diesel. When driving, the dash warning light for the ABS and the Traction Control System intermittently come in and spontaneously reset. If the cruise control is on and set, it turns off without driver input. Dodge dealer states that the hydraulic control unit needs to be replaced, but they have been on back order for over a year.
Incident date: Jun 10, 2023
The contact owns a 2022 Toyota Highland. The contact stated that while at a traffic light, and depressing the brake pedal, the vehicle experienced unintended acceleration. The contact stated that the failure had occurred on several occasions. The cause of the failure was not yet determined. The local dealer and manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 13,000. The contact s... Read more
Incident date: Apr 2, 2022
The day I bought the vehicle in 2019 the engine light came on, I took the car back to the dealership and was told they couldn’t do anything. I took it to them and the shop here in town and I was told by both shops on multiple occasions they could not fix any of the issues. They treated me like I’m just a paycheck for them. My car for 3+ years now shuts completely off when I slow down or stop, ... Read more
HYUNDAI
SANTA CRUZ
(2023) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jun 11, 2023
Incident date: Jun 3, 2023
Car under adaptive cruise control braked hard after changing lanes from behind another vehicle to an open lane with no traffic. Went quickly from 65 to 20 mph until driver started accelerating manually
Incident date: Jun 11, 2023
The van won’t throttle when requested and will lose power going uphill. I can set the cruise at 70 but the van will only accelerate to 55 to 65. When going uphill it will drop all the way to 45 mph with no ability to accelerate. Mercedes in Missoula has looked at it and said it’s the way the new update “fixed” the limp mode and there is nothing wrong with it. Our personal mechanic has al... Read more
TOYOTA
HIGHLANDER
(2021) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jun 11, 2023
Incident date: Jul 13, 2022
The ABS and Electronic breaking lights keep go on and off each time it does it it turns off the cruise control
Incident date: Apr 23, 2023
The Adaptive Speed Control will randomly, abruptly decelerate the vehicle for absolutely NO reason. This certainly is safety item if a car were following me. With the Tesla set in the "Hold" setting for regenerative battery charging purposes, this is the same as slamming on the brakes. Also, this vehicle now only utilizes cameras for sensing everything and it falls short in this area. Other ... Read more
GMC
SIERRA 1500
(2014) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jun 10, 2023
Incident date: Jun 10, 2023
In July 2022 our 2018 RAM 3500 Diesel 4 by 4 truck started having an intermittent alert. Service electronic brake system, ABS, traction control. Cruise control is disabled during this alert. May 2023 the vehicle was taken to local dealer for a diagnostic. They revealed no codes were revealed answer was to replace the ITBM at a cost of 921.00. And the diagnostic charge was 233.00. I tried to contac... Read more
Incident date: Jun 4, 2023
problem with speed control,will not turn on sometimes,turns off by itself while being used and then can not be turned back on. sometimes after it shuts off while using it will let you use the resume button but you can not adjust the speed and after using it like this it will shut off again and then it will not rest until you turn off the engine and restart it , then the whole process starts over a... Read more
Incident date: May 1, 2023
can't use eco sport motor is accelerate and the car can't read the sensors a/c stop working brakes hard to press
SAMSUNG MICROWAVE
MR6699GB
(9999) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jun 10, 2023
Incident date: Jun 5, 2023
Analog speedometer needle gets stuck at a certain speed OR increases beyond actual speed without limit OR displays incorrect speed OR remains stuck at a certain speed when parked. Digital speedometer functions as intended.
Incident date: May 27, 2023
Phantom braking at highway speed. Maybe a shadow or line on the road confuses the system and slams on brakes. Is more common if the cruise is engaged. Happens every day. My commute is about 30 miles happens once or twice every drive. Increases risk of being rear ended. The car is not FSD enabled.
Incident date: May 30, 2023
Dates of problem may 18 and June 9 The Jeep has engine light on the throttle control light is on I was driving on a highway and the vehicle completely went into limp mode would not go above 33 mph and almost caused an accident since the Jeep went into limp mode brought it to dealership they said the fixed it then a 2weeks later it happens again this time with my son in the car going 60 mph it does... Read more
Incident date: Jan 9, 2020
While I was driving, the entire accelerator pedal mechanism fell to the ground. My mechanic told me it is because the accelerator pedal mechanism is a bad design, including too small of a bolt, and I had to have it reattached to the car. The accelerator pedal functioned, but it was incredibly dangerous because it was on the floor and couldn't be practically used.
Incident date: Mar 6, 2023
On the last week of May, my car started experiencing sputtering and stalling out problems. I made an appointment at Mazda dealership for june 6th.meantime my husband checked all fluids and coolant was low so we topped up. Car was being driven very limited due to safety concerns. Then While driving on the freeway my car displayed a “excessive engine temperature, engine output will be limited” i... Read more
Incident date: Mar 1, 2023
Upon acceleration from a stop the transmission seriously shutters and stalls the vehicles engine seriously putting the occupants life and safety at risk as well as others. I also noticed that the vehicle shutters badly at speeds 3mph through 25mph bucking and stalling the engine all the way through making driving the vehicle a real danger and threat to the safety of others on the road. This is a s... Read more
Incident date: Jun 3, 2023
My wife was pulling into a parking space and braking. All of the sudden, the car accelerated. Fortunately, she was able to brake enough to stop it. We have a dashcam and you can see it a bit in this video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/10CzPCDWEwxmfKK4siRRTRez3YUxusMFR/view?usp=sharing
Incident date: May 9, 2023
The breaking system doesn’t take effect in speed and turn and when you leave the acceleration and the speed increase and loose control . Also the electrical system is damage not with seven month of brand new highlander hybrid . The rear cross traffic control and blind spot warning are coming . These is a serious electrical problem under 11,000 miles brand new vechile
Incident date: May 21, 2021
Car keeps going into limp mode. The VTM and VSA light flash on and the car will not accelerate. Happens at different occasions. It has happenstance while driving on highway and I’m traffic. The only way to reset is to cut car off and turn on. Sometimes, it doesn’t work with that and you have to sit and wait. It has been checked but no one see no faults and it’s never on the dashboard if you ... Read more
Incident date: May 19, 2023
When adaptive cruise control is engaged, the vehicle harshly brakes. This occurs very randomly and is abrupt. The operator needs to quickly take control and accelerate as the speed is reduced significantly. One incident, the speed was 80 mph and it reduced to less than 60.
Incident date: Jun 7, 2023
Abs and traction control indicator lamps have an intermittent flash and alarm that alert at random times. This is dangerous as this not only disables the cruise control but the traction control is then disabled as well as the abs system causing brakes to lock up. Mopar and ram refuse to fix the issue and it costs consumers $1200 for parts and labor that may or not fix the issue. This is reported ... Read more
Incident date: Jun 7, 2023
“Engine power reduced” service message “Stabilitrack” service message “4x4” service message Vehicle is available for inspection Vehicle jerks and loses power while driving at highway speeds causing 18-wheelers and other drivers to swerve around me, vehicle accelerates very slowly while in city traffic. Intersections and traffic lights are difficult to navigate due to reduced engine p... Read more
Incident date: Aug 20, 2022
The problem is with the 9 speed automatic transmission system. Yes, it is available for inspection. There is a delay in acceleration which has caused the vehicle to "stall" in dangerous situations such as pulling out onto a road with traffic, making a left turn with oncoming traffic, or needing to accelerate at a green light. There have been multiple incidents when an oncoming car has had to brake... Read more
FREIGHTLINER
CASCADIA
(2018) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jun 8, 2023
Incident date: May 1, 2023
I experience multiple and frequent phantom braking events when using the Active Cruise Control. This continues to occur every time I use cruise control, and occurs even on straight empty roads on bright sunny or overcast days, and creates a serious safety issue for any vehicles that are following. The deceleration is rapid because of the regenerative braking capabilities of the vehicle. There are ... Read more
Incident date: Jun 1, 2023
The Automatic Emergency Braking System has activated at least 3 different times while I was driving. At each occurrence there was nothing in the roadway or travel lane. The vehicle came to an abrupt stop twice and slammed the brakes on but then released them a moment later once. In each event a very near collision with other vehicles was almost caused. There are other drivers that use this truck t... Read more
VOLKSWAGEN
GOLF
(2022) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jun 8, 2023
Incident date: Apr 24, 2023
While driving the vehicle will just go crazy all lights come and things stop working throttle control, etc. it’s hard to control the vehicle
Incident date: Jun 22, 2022
The contact owns a 2022 Honda HR-V. The contact stated while driving at approximately 5 MPH and slowing for a traffic signal, the brake pedal was depressed, and the contact heard the engine rev before the vehicle lunged forward. The contact stated no warning light was illuminated. The vehicle crashed into the rear of the vehicle in front of her. The other vehicle sustained damages to the bumper an... Read more
JEEP
GRAND CHEROKEE
(2018) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jun 8, 2023
Incident date: Jan 1, 2023
The contact owns a 2018 Lexus ES350. The contact stated that while driving approximately 5 MPH and making a left turn into a parking lot, the vehicle suddenly experienced unintended acceleration driving to the opposite side of the parking lot before the vehicle shut off. The contact stated that moments later the vehicle was restarted and operated normally. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer... Read more
ROYAL ENFIELD
CLASSIC 350
(2023) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jun 8, 2023
Incident date: Jun 2, 2023
We have been without service of the Grand Cherokee L vehicle for nearly 6 of the 11 weeks since we leased the vehicle. The four (4) incidents and ‘repair attempts’ to ‘fix’ the randomly/sudden occurring mechanical and electrical problems were inter-related and causal to the mechanical and electrical blackout troubles. 1.02/27/23 Purchase 2.03/20/23 631 total miles traveled. Dash board bla... Read more
Incident date: May 3, 2023
THERE IS A ISSUE WITH... ROYAL Enfield REBORN CLASSIC 350 MOTORCYCLE. THAT SPEEDOMETER STICKS AND CAN'T TELL HOW FAST I AM AM GOING. THERE IS HUNDREDS OF THIS COMPLAINT ONLINE EVERYPLACE
Incident date: Jun 4, 2023
After setting the adaptive cruise control, and overriding it with the accelerator pedal when approaching a vehicle in front of me to pass it, my vehicle briefly accelerated hard while switching lanes after clearing the vehicle in front of me. This happened even though I had taken my foot off the accelerator already. My current speed was also slightly higher than the set cruise speed. E.g. I set it... Read more
Incident date: May 24, 2023
All electrical systems proceeded to malfunction with the check engine and driver safety system warnings blaring. Vehicle proceeded to accelerate from 10-40 mph on its own for approximately 400 meters on the freeway. Vehicle brake and acceleration system did not respond to any driver input for approximately the entire length. Vehicle then proceeded to respond normally temporarily allowing us to pul... Read more
Incident date: Jun 6, 2023
Car has been hesitating to start this last week, Friday 6/2/23 warning lights came on & air conditioning stopped working. My local Hyundai shop is booked 2 weeks out so I already have an appt for 6/13/23. But on 6/2 I barely made it to a shop close to my home for a diagnostic check. Code P1111 was stored, cleared & retested. It's for fuel pump, circuit was tested & no faults were found & test driv... Read more
Incident date: Jun 5, 2023
On 5/10/23 I was driving approximately 50 mph on a highway when my car slowed to 15 mph. I stepped on the accelerator and nothing happened. On the dash screen there was a warning which stated "drivetrain malfunction. Driving not possible. Call Roadside assistance". So I was stuck with a sudden deceleration on a busy highway and had to creep over 2 lanes to the shoulder and put the car in park. It ... Read more
Incident date: Jun 1, 2023
Diagnosed CVT failure; Nissan refuses to replace the transmission at their cost. Took the vehicle to multiple mechanics before the issue was officially diagnosed, as the issue is difficult to diagnose. When operating the vehicle, at times the vehicle will stop accelerating; driver is pressing on the accelerator and the RPMs will increase but the vehicle will not be propelled forward and the power ... Read more
Incident date: Sep 9, 2022
We upgraded our auto pilot to the advanced auto pilot system and when driving from Denver to Santa Fe the Tesla would brake abruptly without notice or reason. The braking reduced speed by at least 30-40 mph in a matter of a second or two. This occurred 6 times during this drive. The concern is if this happens when other cars are driving behind our car, it will cause a collision.
Incident date: Jun 5, 2023
2018 RAM 2500 ABS module failure in 9/22. Dealer diagnosed & said part was on back order until 12/22. I have called the dealership multiple times checking on availability of the replacement part & each time I am told a different ship date with the current ship date a year out from the start of the problem. RAM seems to be unconcerned their product is endangering their customers with ABS failure... Read more
Incident date: Jun 4, 2023
The Electronic Throttle Control light(steady) and the Electronic Stability Control Activation/Malfunction Indicator Lights came on. There are times the engine light comes on. The vehicle would not accelerate, jerking kind of movement, going 20 miles.
Incident date: Jun 7, 2023
Started months ago on the highway, now in the streets too. Press the gas, car goes then suddenly loses power. Going at 60 mph on highway, car suddenly starts to go slow, and pressing the gas doesn't move the car not even a mile higher. Semi trucks begin to honk horns at you. Afraid now to take highway again. Soon as I exit highway, press the gas and the car doesn't want to shift, almost as if it g... Read more
Incident date: Jun 6, 2023
While driving my Subaru Outback, I encounter a problem where the Starlink Multimedia system abruptly goes black. Shortly after, the driver information center also goes black. Although the car continues to run, the cruise control, if engaged, and the EyeSight safety system shuts off as well. Both systems then undergo a reboot.
Incident date: May 10, 2023
This has happened several times, when cruise control is activated like 1/50 times the car will go into limp mode randomly with the brakes activating at speed. This makes it very difficult to steer and has led to me almost getting hit. I have stopped using cruise control and the problem has not happened since
CHEVROLET
SILVERADO 1500
(2015) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jun 7, 2023
Incident date: Jun 7, 2023
Reduce Power Engine appears on the dash board. The car starts slowing down, I can’t speed up, I Have to park on the side of the heavy traffic in the Highway. I have to wait around 5 minutes and then drive. I still have the engine symbol on. This happens regularly like 2 to 3 times a week.
Incident date: Jun 1, 2020
My car has reduce engine speed. I’m driving on the highway and out of nowhere the car shots down and a symbol appears on my dashboard that says Reduce Engine Speed. Literally the car slows down to a minimal speed until I can’t drive anymore. I have to stop and turn off the car for 5 minutes until I can turn it on and drive to my destination in a reduce speed.
Incident date: Jun 6, 2023
I carry my family with me and in traffic the traction control light would come on and the car would loose power and not accelerate almost causing accidents I was told it was the speed sensors malfunctioning and the brakes would not work properly when trying to stop
CHRYSLER
TOWN AND COUNTRY
(2014) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jun 6, 2023
Incident date: Feb 10, 2023
My mother in law contacted me and stated her 2014 ford expedition’s transmission felt like it was failing. I drove same the next day. As I was test driving the vehicle at approximately 60mph down a U.S. highway, I hear a “clunk” noise and then immediately the RPMs went up and the vehicle downshifted into 1st gear causing the vehicles’s wheel to lock up. I went sliding down the highway and ... Read more
Incident date: May 15, 2023
The transmission shifts hard when traveling around 14 mph then will jerk (like being rear ended), slows down then accelerates on its own. I'm afraid it will cause an accident. Chrysler said it is supposed to work like that and nothing is wrong with it. I have had 3 diagnostic tests done it and it shows nothing is wrong.
Incident date: Jun 5, 2023
Erratic behavior when semi-autonomous Blue Cruise engaged. Fault may be due to failures/malfunctions in side view mirror camera modules.
Incident date: May 29, 2023
While driving northbound on the CA111 freeway along an elevated ramp leading to the Interstate 10 freeway, in the evening after sunset, and on a dry road, without another vehicle beside the car, with the 'autopilot' (not full version) engaged, the car suddenly initiated an uncommanded acceleration which required the driver to aggressively depress the brake pedal to stop the acceleration and to dis... Read more
Incident date: May 1, 2023
While driving eastbound on the CA60 freeway and merging onto the Interstate 10 freeway, on a clear sunny day and on a dry road, without another vehicle beside the car, with the 'autopilot' (not full version) engaged, the car suddenly initiated an uncommanded acceleration which required the driver to aggressively depress the brake pedal to stop the acceleration and to disengage the automated drivin... Read more