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: Aug 11, 2022
Unexpected acceleration while driving my car at about 20 mph and making a right turn the car suddenly accelerated. Using the brake immediately worked. This has happened a few times with my car. The sudden acceleration surprised my wife and she asked what happened. The car does not have Full Self Driving installed and Autopilot had been off for several miles. There were no warning messages or ch... Read more
Incident date: Jul 29, 2022
When I go over 45 mile an hour it has the death wobble. Have almost had a few accidents due to this. What is the fix for this??
JEEP
GRAND CHEROKEE
(2014) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Aug 13, 2022
Incident date: Aug 13, 2022
Driving down the road in the middle of the night- the entire dash went black and only warning lights blinking across. Several error messages appeared and went black again.
Incident date: Jun 1, 2022
I'm not sure if it's the cruze control or just the the accelerator that is causing the problem. I'm driving along and then the truck kicks into high speed almost throwing me off the road. At times it's slow then it kicks in. Very scary.
Incident date: Aug 4, 2022
After updating to Tesla software 2022.20.6 (and 20.7 and 20.8) sometimes the regenerative braking fails to activate when lifting your foot off the go pedal. Sometimes the car just coasts at full speed, and sometimes it almost feels as if the car continues accelerating after the pedal is lifted. This obviously creates serious safety issues -- if you are expecting your car to brake after lifting you... Read more
Incident date: Aug 12, 2022
Delays in acceleration. When operating the vehicle. At a complete stop. When I depress the gas pedal there is a few seconds delay before the vehicle starts to accelerate. No warnings appear on dashboard. No check engine light, no visible indication of problem.
Incident date: Aug 11, 2022
The contact owns a 2009 Pontiac Vibe. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle lost motive power with the vehicle speed control (VSC), ABS, and check engine warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic who was unable to duplicate the failure; however, the independent mechanic replaced the heat shield. The dealer was not notified o... Read more
CHRYSLER
PACIFICA PLUG-IN HYBRID
(2022) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Aug 12, 2022
Incident date: Aug 1, 2022
Driving on a major highway with little to no shoulder, we were accelerating up a slight incline going 65 miles per hour on a route loaded with semi trucks. As we accelerated the engine cut off taking away the ability to accelerate. We had to pull to the shoulder and the vehicle kept cycling all of its lights on and off. We were able to get the car moving again and within 5 minutes the same thing h... Read more
Incident date: Aug 11, 2022
The contact owns a 2018 Ford Escape. The contact stated while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle emitted an abnormal winding sound. The vehicle decelerated independently, failed to accelerate and stalled without warning. The contact was unable to restart the vehicle. The contact had to push the vehicle out of the highway. The vehicle was towed to the contact's residence. The local deale... Read more
Incident date: Jul 7, 2022
The accident with my 2016 Subaru Forester happened on 07-07-2022. It happened in daylight on our farm. I was the only person in the car and was wearing my seatbelt. I had slowly pulled into a parking spot, had my foot on the brake and had essentially stopped at the 6x6 piece of lumber that was marking the spot. As I was stopping the car accelerated out of control and sped down a very narrow pa... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Aug 7, 2022
On 7 Aug 2022, I lost cruise control, Navigation function (GPS0 and had problems with other elecrical functions on instrument cluster. I took truck to my local ford dealer; they rand Ford diagnostics on truck and it had 3 module errors listed. They cleared the codes and tried to get me to accept the vehicle. Road tested it and there efforts of clearing the codes did not fix any thing. Brought ba... Read more
Incident date: Aug 10, 2022
PCV MY safety of my self and my 5 yr 17 yr I use my BMW X5 to take my kids or doctors and school and I work too and something need to be happen about this bc My family are AT RISK OF GETTING CAUGHT ON FIRE when iam starting up the car black smoke or white smoke comes out and when iam driving and people who are behind in they car get smoke out my lots of smoke that comes from my car in back and... Read more
MERCURY
MOUNTAINEER
(2005) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Aug 10, 2022
Incident date: Jul 4, 2022
started losing power ,did not want to go pas 30 miles per hr ,then it ramed up and came to a stop with no acceleration ,i shut it off then start it again and was able to get home at a low rate of speed while continuing to have these problems, another day while far away from home the engine rammed up again minimizing my speed as the transmission was slipping and not go fast then my O/D over drive w... Read more
Incident date: Aug 9, 2022
The contact owns a 2000 Ford Ranger. The contact stated after a short drive at approximately 30 MPH, the contact parked the vehicle at his residence. The contact heard a loud bang and observed through his residence window that the vehicle was on fire that was confined to the engine compartment. The flames eventually spread to the passenger cabin. The fire department was called. The fire was exting... Read more
Fire
Incident date: Jul 17, 2022
The GPS is malfunctioning- showing the car in a random location, direction and speed. All automation needs to be disabled. The car will attempt to make a non-existent turn based on where it thinks it is, or will speed up or will suddenly decelerate because it thinks it is coming up to a cross street or traffic control.
Incident date: Jul 13, 2022
The abs and traction control light is on and chimes non stop and my cruise control will not work when the abs and traction control is defective.It needs the abs pump replaced as do many of these trucks. The next issue is the computer sceen is delaminated and is wanting you to adjust the time and chimes non stop, so it will not allow you to turn on your defrosters so you can see the road. This tru... Read more
Incident date: Aug 1, 2022
A. 3 or 4 times while I was driving on the highway with cruise control the car very suddenly de-accelerated even though the road ahead was completely clear. This happened before. B. Also later on the same trip the car hit a part of a tire tread left on the road. The underside of the car was apparently damaged. The screen message was "okay to drive. power reduced". Over next several hours the powe... Read more
Incident date: Jul 11, 2018
Over 400 power train codes since day that it was purchased. Kept getting run around on issue. Finally was “fixed”. Now a new power train code. Vehicle has reduced power mid drive and has trouble accelerating from a stop. Both issues have almost cause accidents. Car has had several times where vehicle would have a clicking sound when trying to start and has not started at times. Dealership now ... Read more
Incident date: Aug 4, 2022
On 4 Aug 2022, at 10:24am (CST), while traveling northbound on Hwy 287 just south of Henrietta, Texas with the Tesla Autopilot speed set at 80mph with a posted speed limit of 75mph, the car was in the left lane of a two-lane, high-speed highway, when the car suddenly and unexpectedly slammed on the brakes, gave a "TAKE CONTROL IMMEDIATELY" warning and rapidly shifted its lane position, almost caus... Read more
Incident date: Oct 16, 2021
I was driving down the interstate for my work commute apx 70 mph when HEV warning light engaged and vehicle went into limp mode. Had vehicle towed to dealership after running several tests determined the engine was knocking and needed replaced. After 2 months reman engine placed in vehicle. Vehicle function apx 6 months when the exact same problem occured on the highway traveling apx 60 mph. Vehic... Read more
CHEVROLET
SILVERADO 1500
(2008) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Aug 9, 2022
Incident date: Aug 6, 2022
Vehicle abruptly malfunctioned (lose of power) while sitting at the traffic light during a heavy storm. Fortunately, I turned the vehicle off and restarted it, which gave me enough engine power to get a a safe place. I had the vehicle towed to Love Chevrolet, Columbia, SC. Dealership stated the entire wiring harness needed to be replaced. The replacement cost would be $3500. They also stated ... Read more
Incident date: Jun 1, 2020
The contact owns a 2014 Ford Escape. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V413000 (Power Train) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The contact stated that prior to receiving the recall notification, while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle experienced unintended acceleration after taking her foot off the brake pedal. The vehicle drov... Read more
GENUINE SCOOTER
NIU MQIGT EVO
(2022) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Aug 8, 2022
Incident date: Jul 23, 2022
The throttle has become unpredictable at best. First a check engine light and error 142 code appeared, then the throttle issues began. Sometimes the scooter wouldn't move at all, sometimes the throttle only works at the halfway point, and worst is at times the throttle goes from 0 to 100% no matter the throttle position. The sudden acceleration is particularly scary as this electric scooter has... Read more
Incident date: Aug 8, 2022
Dash cluster showed brake light and BAS light on, tachometer and speedometer dropped to zero while going approx. 40 MPH.
Incident date: Aug 1, 2022
While in cruise control, which is adaptive, vehicle will abruptly slow down for no know reason. Usually there are no other vehicles, no highway obstructions, nothing that I can see. Tesla finally told me that this is a "known issue", after making a service appointment, and them calling me to cancel the appointment.
Incident date: Aug 1, 2022
Vehicle's cruise control got stuck and would not turn off by the brake, the cruise control off button. The only way it would shut off is by swtitching the car into “B-(Low Gear/Engine Braking). Was cruising at 70 mph, and then the cruise control kept speeding the vehicle up to 100 mph, until I switched it into the “B”-(Low Gear/Engine Braking). Now if I wasn’t familiar with this type of ca... Read more
Incident date: Aug 6, 2022
I was on the expressway and all of a sudden I couldn’t accelerate. The engine completed died. I just used a little smarts to get off before it completely stopped. No warning lights no warning at all.
Incident date: May 12, 2022
On May 12, 2022 I was driving our 2022 Rav4 Hybrid. At about 10 am that morning I arrived at the Sherwin Williams store in Chandler, AZ. I applied the brakes and put the car in park. But the car did not stop! It continued to forge ahead, smashing into the building barrier and even then it kept trying to move forward. 1.The whole front end was smashed. 2.The first responders had to pry open t... Read more
Crash
1 injured
GMC
SIERRA 1500
(2016) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Aug 7, 2022
Incident date: Oct 31, 2019
Transmission shifts hard and seemingly late and early (sometimes to the extent where it feels like someone is slamming into the vehicle). This has happened since purchase in 2019 ( when I told them about it them about it they tried to tell me it was normal and acted like I was a fool), continues to get worse especially in stop and go traffic at lower speeds, but does it at all different speeds.
Incident date: Jun 12, 2022
My truck malfunctioned at an automatic car wash. It has approximately 54k miles. I had no warning lights or system alerts on vehicle or Uconnect app. I stopped in the parking lot & put the Gladiator in Park, I left the ignition on. I got off truck & got a towel to clean interior.There are several spaces to vacuum. I put the vehicle in DRIVE to move forward & out of the way of a patron that was go... Read more
Crash
1 injured
FORD
MUSTANG MACH E
(2022) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Aug 6, 2022
Incident date: Aug 6, 2022
Adaptive cruise control fault, pre-commission sensors not working, anti-lock break fault, restraint fault, tire pressure fault, dash turns off while driving which makes unable to see speed driving.
Incident date: Aug 6, 2022
The vehicle without warning will lose all power; "Accelerator System Malfunction Output Power Reduced Visit Your Dealer" and "Pre-Collision System Malfunction - Visit Your Dealer" are the warning messages that appeared when power was lost. The "Check Engine" light also illuminated as well as a collision error light appeared. The vehicle has done this twice; the first time, the dealer found a rec... Read more
Incident date: Aug 4, 2022
Yesterday I had the most frightening driving experience of my entire life. It was raining heavily and I was going about 35 mph on the local road in my model 3 standard, 3 years old. Suddenly I lost all traction and was slipping side to side +/-90 degrees from the direction of traffic. I immediately took my foot off the accelerator and tried to slow down but didn’t brake. I swung 180 degrees each... Read more
1 injured
Incident date: Jul 19, 2022
The contact owns a 2015 Ford Mustang. The contact stated that the vehicle was repaired under NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V011000 (Service Brakes, Hydraulic); however, while driving with the cruise control activated, the brake pedal was depressed but instead the vehicle accelerated and failed to stop as needed. The contact stated that an excessive amount of pressure was needed to depress the brake ped... Read more
Incident date: Aug 2, 2022
The contact owns a 2020 Subaru Forester. The contact stated as she pulled into a parking space, the vehicle inadvertently accelerated forward causing the vehicle to drive into the bank building. The contact stated she depressed the brake pedal, but the vehicle would not stop. The air bags did not deploy. One of the employees suffered minor injuries and a police report was filed. The vehicle was to... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Aug 4, 2022
Slid warning light, VSC comes on randomly. Has been happening beginning at 110K miles. Taken to dealership and reported durning normal service. I worked at a Toyota dealer. Front end suspension has been rebuilt. CV shafts replaced. Rock solid. Dangerous as the VSC system engages and the slid light comes on, tire speed control engages, happens in a normal 70mph easy turn on the expressway. ... Read more
Incident date: Aug 4, 2022
I had an accident , last night 08/04/2022 I was parked an upper hill and out of no were my truck blast up w speed and went forward at full speed I couldn’t control it I try braking and the brakes weren’t working my foot was literally all the way forward. The steering wheel got really hard couldn’t control it . Unfortunately I end up crashing and hitting an innocent man performing his job my ... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Aug 5, 2022
Speedometer shut off. Truck stayed in 6th gear and wouldn't down shift. Gears are erratic. Wrench shows on screen. Check engine light is on. Truck won't shift properly.
Incident date: Aug 5, 2022
Car regularly brakes for no reason causing near accidents constantly and posing a huge safety risk. Additionally, the full self driving option is totally unusable. Both these issues have been reported to Tesla multiple times. We have been told the only way we can have an actual working cruise control is to disable the full set aware driving without refund for that Bert expensive option
Incident date: Aug 1, 2021
Vehicle does not accelerate once running for a period of time despite pressing down on gas pedal.
Incident date: Apr 11, 2022
I have had several instances while driving on the highway when my forester revs to a very high RPM, the vehicle speeds up suddenly, and then shuts off completely. The only fix is to put the vehicle in neutral, move to the shoulder, and restart the vehicle. This has happened approximately 4 times during my 1 year of ownership and it is completely random when it occurs.
Incident date: Aug 4, 2022
When accelerating hard (pedal to the floor) from approximately 55 mph, the transmission may not downshift correctly and loses power causing a safety issue. When attempting to continue accelerate at full throttle, the RPMs hang while simultaneously losing vehicle speed. Other symptoms noticed were slight vehicle jerkiness from RPMs bouncing up and down a couple of hundred RPMs. When letting off of ... Read more
Incident date: Jul 30, 2022
Took my car for Regular maintenance and they did tire rotation and etc after that the car was driving kind of off now its just acting up started shaking and jerks like shutters and stuff feels vrry unsafe
Incident date: Jul 26, 2022
I started my car to drive to an appointment and noticed that the car was jerking/bucking as I pulled out of my driveway onto the main road. I was unable to accelerate appropriately for oncoming traffic behind me because the car was jerking violently and it was a bit scary since this had not happened before. This continued for several days, primarily when I would attempt to drive the car in the m... Read more
Incident date: Jul 27, 2020
I have a 2005 Nissan Xterra. I am the original owner and have been driving it over 16 years. Two years ago, in 2020 while driving my car on the road and with kids inside (with a 1 year old and a 6 year old child), the car began to shake and turned off (we were stranded in the middle of the road, at a traffic light). Since it was my only means of transportation I kept driving it (no kids inside a... Read more
Incident date: Aug 2, 2022
I was driving with cruise control going around 70 when the car started slowing down suddenly. Not wanting to slow down even more, I turned off the cruise control by hand using the cancel button on the steering wheel (rather than tap the brake) but when I then hit the accelerator, the engine felt like it was in neutral, revving past 6000 rpm on the tachometer. At that point, I realized I had no con... Read more
VOLKSWAGEN
TAOS
(2022) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Aug 4, 2022
Incident date: Aug 1, 2022
While driving, there is a significant lag in acceleration after pressure is put on the gas pedal. There have been multiple instances where I have been making a left turn across traffic and the lag in acceleration has caused me to almost get into an accident. Downshifting and attempting to accelerate immediately after also produces a significant delay, which prohibits the driver from avoiding accid... Read more
Incident date: Mar 21, 2018
The original side detection system is not an enclosed system. Allowing water, snow, sleet, and salt can penetrate the system. Once, there is penetration and corrosion in the system it effects the entire automobile's electrical system and instrument cluster. Causing the vehicle to come to a complete halt.
Incident date: Jun 8, 2022
My friend was driving the vehicle (a 2019 Tesla Model 3) while it was engaged in Full Self-Driving Beta 10.12.2 mode. The vehicle was navigating through roadworks with temporary signage and cones in place. This seemed to interfere with the FSD with the vehicle moving left to right in an erratic manner and accelerating to 28mph whilst still in the roadworks zone. There is Go_Pro video of the incide... Read more
Incident date: Jun 9, 2022
My friend was driving the vehicle (a 2019 Tesla Model 3) while it was engaged in Full Self-Driving Beta 10.12.2 mode. The vehicle failed to recognise a speed limit change approaching a sharp left turn. The vehicle took the turn too fast at 29mph veered into the oncoming lane. The quick reactions of the driver, who took control averted a collision. There is Go_Pro video of the incident here https:... Read more