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: Jun 2, 2022
A friend borrowed my car to go to the corner store to get me a couple of things while my husband was getting surgery. My friend ended up in a rollover accident after hitting a tree. All recalls were up to date on my vehicle, he stated that no airbags deployed. Now after the vehicle was rolled back over and taken to the tow yard the insurance adjuster was the first to see and the driver airbag had ... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: May 21, 2022
Vehicle speed control / sudden unintended acceleration. This was NOT a "misapplication of pedal" by driver! It was clearly a mechanical failure—apparently accelerator pedal (not floor mat, which was secured on its pegs). NO warning lamp, msg, symptom prior to crash. Afterward, saw NHTSA rpts others FIXED speed control issue & same prob STILL recurred! My VIN wasn't listed as unrepaired (likely... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Jul 9, 2022
While driving at highway speed, vehicle stated to shake and the "Engine Power Reduced" and Service ESC. I was able to move to a safe zone and drive the vehicle home. The following day started normal and drove it, same problem occurred.
Incident date: Jul 6, 2022
Just completed road-trip from Florida to New England and back. Experienced 4/5 phantom braking events while using cruise control at highway speeds. When traveling in traffic at highway speed, this abrupt braking came very close to causing a collision.
Incident date: Nov 1, 2021
My truck goes into a code where the electric throttle control light, the engine light, and the tire traction light comes on. When the vehicle does this it reduces the speed to 35 no matter what or where you are. When you ho get the engine light checked, the code says it's a suction problem 🙄. Jeep started doing this in the colder weather than progressed to every other week
GMC
SIERRA 1500
(2020) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jul 9, 2022
Incident date: Jul 8, 2022
The truck stated to have the check engine light on, by the time that happened the brakes were hard to step on it and the steering wheel hard to turn, I had been asking to GMC superior of Siloam springs to check the truck because, got scared while I couldn't make stop the truck while on traffic, but they don't had open appointments for that day or the other following days, so a week after they got ... Read more
Incident date: Jul 9, 2022
Tesla has been phantom breaking during autopilot multiple times in a single drive and has happened on multiple drives.
Incident date: Jul 8, 2022
1. There is a problem with the vibration of the CVT when the car is driving, causing the engine to stall 2. The driver's desk and chair are shaking. Water leaks in the car, navigation not working, seats wobbling, problems with the CVT, etc. And the service of the manufacturer and dealer is very bad, I am very dissatisfied.
NISSAN
PATHFINDER
(2013) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jul 7, 2022
Incident date: Jun 27, 2022
My vehicle has a CVT transmission problem, It would shake when driving the car, when I made turns or went down hills. On the interstate it shook so bad a had to pull over. I got stuck in the parking a lot one day, the gears were stuck. I tried to go in reverse and the vehicle was moving forward. Then I tried to put the car back into park and try to put it in drive it was still stuck. SO I cut my v... Read more
Incident date: Jul 7, 2020
The contact owns a 2013 Nissan Rogue. The contact stated while driving 60-70 MPH, for approximately 30 minutes, the RPM revved up however, the vehicle started decelerating independently and was making abnormal whining sounds. There was no warning light illuminated. The accelerator pedal was depressed but the vehicle failed to respond and continued to decelerate. The contact veered to the side of t... Read more
Incident date: Jul 6, 2022
...The component that failed is the ABS and traction system, the hitch brake system and the cruise control also stopped working, all this abs and traction system when it stops working can cause the vehicle to not move have correct performance in its braking and skidding system, which can be dangerous, especially in severe rainy and humid climates. I took the car for inspection to the dealer in nap... Read more
Incident date: Jun 26, 2022
Cruise control set to 75mph (speed limit) on lightly trafficked divided highway at ~5pm on June 26. Skies were overcast and temp was about 80 degrees. Car braked from 75 to about 62mph but did not disengage adaptive cruise control and neither did I by applying the brakes. There was light traffic and it did not happen while approaching an overpass which has triggered this before on two occasions. ... Read more
Incident date: Jul 5, 2022
Cars computer froze and I was stuck in cruise control. Hitting the brake would not disengage. Pressing up on the stalk would not disengage. I could manually slow/accelerate the car with the brake/accelerator but after letting off the car would continue on at that speed while everything else remains frozen. No turning signal function. I was afraid to attempt to stop the car fully as it would not d... Read more
Incident date: Apr 4, 2022
Vehicle stutters and shakes violently when accelerating. And there's noise from the transmission.
Incident date: May 28, 2022
While driving on the interstate and having the adaptive cruise control enabled, the vehicle unexpectedly and suddenly decelerated with no vehicles in front of us. This happened 3 times over a two day period, with a total time of about 3 hours having the cruise control on. The 3rd time it happened, we were traveling at about 75 mph with another vehicle behind us, no more than two seconds behind. No... Read more
Incident date: Jul 6, 2022
There are multiple issues with the Adaptive Cruise Control: -When setting the cruise control speed, it can drop 10-15 mph until it kicks in. -When a car pulls in front of you with the Adaptive Cruise Control on, it takes to long to recognize it has to slow down and has to abruptly decrease speed when it finally does. -If the Adaptive Cruise Control does slow down because of a driver in front of ... Read more
Incident date: Jul 26, 2021
To whom it may concern, On July 26, 2021, my Tesla was hijacked remotely and controls were overridden while I was on the highway (I almost crashed). This happened sometime between 11:30am and 4pm. I reported the issue to the NY State AG consumer affairs office. In December 2021, the car suddenly turned off and locked me out. It was then towed to another State and I’ve been unable to get it back... Read more
Incident date: Jul 6, 2022
While driving on 7/6/2022, upon acceleration, the vehicle began jerking and applying the brakes as if it was trying to attempt to avoid a rear end collision. Moments after that incident, the instrument cluster displayed warning lights of the following: check forward safety system, traction control, front end collision avoidance, electronic parking brake, and auto hold all in an orange color follow... Read more
Incident date: Jul 2, 2022
On July 2nd, 2022 I was driving back from a family visit in Palo Pinto County, TX and had auto pilot engaged for part of the drive. In a span of 40 minutes of that drive on a continuous stretch of Interstate 20 headed east to Dallas the car softly automatically braked once, and twice more strongly braked. In one of those instances I was near another car (near is defined as within 1/8th to 1/4 of... Read more
Incident date: May 19, 2022
My Dodge charger has 4 codes I can't figure out and one is a is a manufacturer code that popped up and lost connection to tcm and something to do with the fuel
Incident date: Jul 2, 2022
Stopped at red light, then the car didn't accelerate when hitting gas. Engine revs but the car does not accelerate. It happened multiple time when the car was out in sun with full ac on(100f). Happened once in intersection and almost got hit head on
Incident date: Jul 6, 2022
2022 Tesla was in auto-pilot mode, not FSD. Phantom breaking occured on July 6 in Sacramento on Business 80, two incidents about 20 minutes apart. First incident, vehicle suddently slowed from about 65 to 30. Second incident, vehicle suddently slowed from about 65 to 10 (almost stopped) where we almost rearended. The driver was extremely angry as evidenced when he changed lanes to pass us (can... Read more
VOLKSWAGEN
TIGUAN
(2018) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jul 5, 2022
Incident date: Jul 3, 2022
The first time this problem occurred was in April right after a routine maintenance check. The car was idling in a parking lot when the engine started to vibrate and a warning was displayed that said "Max Engine Speed 4000 RPM". The car was turned off and then back on. The warning did show up on the display, but the "check engine" light was lit. The car was driven back home, and after that drive t... Read more
Incident date: Jul 4, 2022
On 7/4 as I was merging onto the highway I was accelerating to merge onto the main lanes of traffic. I pressed on the accelerator to pickup speed, but when I let off the pedal the vehicle felt like it was continuing to accelerate similar to being on cruise control. I felt like I did not have control of the vehicle. I pressed on the brake pedal and let go to see if it would disengage the acceler... Read more
Incident date: Jun 30, 2022
I was driving and my car felt like it changed from drive to neutral without any physical prompt on my part. The for escape kept rolling away and I was able to bring it to a parking lot. I was able to turn the vehicle off and tried turning it back on again. It felt like it was changing gears without being touched. It kept trying to move forward and reversing when it was on park. I was scared so ... Read more
Incident date: Jan 17, 2022
I am having issues with my transmission. My gears get stuck between 2nd and 3rd gear while driving. It loses power and I have to switch to Neutral and put it back in Drive in order for it to become unstuck. I have taken it to Honda, and they told me it was the computer, and several other things. They replaced $2000 worth of parts and the problem still happens. I took it back to Honda and they told... Read more
Incident date: Jun 30, 2022
Recently, while traveling on the freeway with light traffic conditions (no cars near me to the front, sides or rear -- possibly no cars even visible) the car automatically applied the brakes causing the speed to drop by more than 30 miles an hour. This happened three times over the course of two minutes, with one of the incidences being particularly severe (throwing me forward in my seat as the br... Read more
Incident date: Jul 1, 2021
Car downshifting into first gear at random while driving causing instant loss of power, braking due to gear change and high revving of engine. When it occurs at highway speed it nearly causes my truck to stop and will not shift into proper gear. Truck continues to rev at nearly 6-7 thousand rpm and puts stress on transmission and motor. Terrifying to be behind the wheel when this occurs
VOLKSWAGEN
JETTA
(2011) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jul 4, 2022
Incident date: Jan 1, 2022
It's the transmission when the mph needle just Bob's constantly, when sometime up to 60 mph the rps stays above the three for at least 15 sec before sometimes going down others have to push the gas pedal fast to shift gears. Constant thud sound from the motor and more condensation then should be coming from tailpipe.the odor coming from the air vents is absolutely nauseating.
Incident date: Apr 16, 2021
When I bought the car all brake lights were on. I took it to Landers and they diagnosed the problem as a bad ABS control module and another part connected to it. I'm unable to use cruise control and my traction control is off as well. The warning lights will occasionally go off but they are usually on. Also the manufacturer has discontinued the parts I need so I can't get them to fix the issues.
Incident date: Jul 4, 2022
I engaged cruise control on my 2022 Tesla model 3 at 70 mph while traveling on flat level terrain, and after about 1 to 2 miles in cruise, braking automatically occurred slowing my speed down to 50 mph in less than 2 seconds. I've read that this is considered phantom braking which is considered common on the newer 2022 Tesla model 3. There were no warning signals and no visible objects on the ro... Read more
Incident date: Jul 4, 2022
While attempting to cross a road the vehicle suddenly will not accelerate. This happened after entering the roadway with cross traffic coming at you. This happens more and more frequently and seems to occur after the vehicle initially rolls out from a stop or after coasting at low speed. If you press the accelerator pedal all the way nothing happens and you panic as traffic comes barreling towards... Read more
Incident date: Jul 3, 2022
I reached a hill using the cruise control at 65mph. The vehicle accelerated to account for the loss of speed due to the hill. The engine accelerated the vehicle to well over 70 mph and revved up to very high rpms. The engine remained at high rpms and higher than normal speeds until I manually disengaged the cruise control. The engine should not be revving up to and remaining at such high rpms for ... Read more
Incident date: Sep 5, 2021
Vehicle has a slow acceleration ration. I was merging onto the Freeway and pressing on the accelerator, but it does not accelerate. It takes quite sometime to pickup speed, throttle body light has just started coming on along with the check engine light. Purchased Vehicle 8/2021, no acceleration from the beginning. Check engine and Throttle Body light 2-3 weeks ago.
Incident date: Jul 3, 2022
The car hesitates accelerating. After coming to a complete stop, when the gas pedal is pressed, the car will not go. This happens after in town driving for about 20 min or so when it stops and goes, stops and goes. The gas pedal will be pressed and the rpms will be going up but the car just sits there until all of a sudden taking off. No warnings appear. I explained issues to service techs at Niss... Read more
Incident date: May 20, 2022
On May 20, 2022 at around 10 AM. I pulled into my work parking lot. I proceeded to park the car in front of the main building. I put the car on park but the car accelerated on its own at high speed. It curved around the bushes yanking them out and then smashed into the building. The airbags opened. I called 911 for help. Ambulance took me to a hospital nearby. I lost a lot of blood due to... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Jun 15, 2022
While the car is in Auto Cruise control, especially in the 72 mph and above range, the brakes engage for no reason. This happens repeatedly on long travel days. There is no notice of the slowdown. It can be abruptly and be extreme. The accelerator has to be used to disengaged the braking. We see it called phantom braking. It certainly is not safe.
CHEVROLET
SILVERADO 1500
(2020) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jul 2, 2022
Incident date: Jul 2, 2022
I was driving and a few different warning appeared. Service Parking Brake, Service Trailer Brake System, Steering Assist is reduced Drive with care. Along with these warning my speed was limited to 62 mph, my steering was reduced and my braking was reduced, all 3 of them to dangerous levels.
Incident date: Jul 1, 2022
while driving the vehicle randomly looses power to the engine and all electrical power goes off. The dash is completely without power. Engine will not accelerate and looses power steering like the engine is off. After a few moments all power is returned and engine comes back on to normal operation.
Incident date: Jun 28, 2022
Car moving slowly and suddenly races and speeds UP. Hard to STOP it. Has happened twice, 8 to 10 Months apart.. First time was on a small driveway. Was able to STOP CAR , with no damages. 2nd occurrence i was pulling into a parking Space. Foot not on gas or brake and again the CAR accelerated. This Time the CAR hit a handicapped parking sign and pushed it over. The sign stopped the CAR wit... Read more
Crash
MERCEDES-BENZ
GLE400
(2016) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jul 1, 2022
Incident date: Aug 1, 2021
Sometime when I press on the gas. It does a hard shift gear change. Feel like I got kicked by a horse in the rear. I have changed out front and rear differential gear oil and I changed out the transmission fluid and filter. It still does it. I'm thinking it's something in the ECM or TCM firmware since the dealer refuse to update the firmware for me. I'm leaning towards a firmware issue since I'm o... Read more
Incident date: Jun 13, 2022
The contact owns a 2017 Chevrolet Malibu. The contact stated that while driving and attempting to accelerate, the vehicle jerked and decelerated from 65 MPH to approximately 20 MPH; the vehicle then independently accelerated to 40 MPH. While at a stop sign, the vehicle stalled. The engine power reduced message was displayed. Additionally, water had entered the trunk of the vehicle and the contact ... Read more
Incident date: Jun 21, 2022
I approached the intersection slowly and stopped completely to turn right. There were a couple of vehicles in front of mine. I pushed the 'Auto Hold' button while waiting on the Red light. A second later, I felt the car moving on its own and stepped on the brakes. The car did not stop and went forward and crashed into the vehicle in front of me. My vehicle did not stop after the initial collisi... Read more
Crash
MERCURY
GRAND MARQUIS
(1993) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jul 1, 2022
Incident date: Jun 18, 2022
Driving on the NYS Thruway with Cruise Control on and it dropped out. I tried to reengage several times and it would not engage. On the way home I tried it again it kicked on and kicked off right away and since this incident I've had no cruise control. I researched recalls and see there are 3 1999 Recall 99V124000, Electrical System. 2007 Recall07V336000 Vehicle Speed Control. 2008 Recall 08V05... Read more
Incident date: Jun 15, 2022
MIL Lamp is illuminated and cannot be turned off or reset. The code displayed on the scanner is for P2138 "Throttle/Pedal Position Sensor/Switch D/E Voltage Correlation." There is also a "Reduced Engine Power" message on the dashboard. Available for inspection upon request. My safety was put at risk before the vehicle was serviced because the car shut down in the middle of the street with cars beh... Read more
Incident date: May 13, 2022
Sometime Mid May 2022 I was driving back from Tri City Washington. As I was passing a semi truck I noticed my car was losing some power. I ten was able to to get in front of the semi when I seen a place to pull off. During this time I noticed my dash lights were coming on. Engine light. I was lucky enough to pull off where on a side road in Warden, Washington. My car then ceased and would not star... Read more
Incident date: Jun 30, 2022
CPU compatibility to existing OS and memory system causing multiple failures during driving with: 1. instrument cluster reset or reboot (temporarily disables all controls related to buttons/knobs on steering wheel and possibly other safety functions), 2. main nav/computer screen reset or reboot (temporarily disables all controls), 3. auto braking activation (cannot be disabled by user) enabled at ... Read more
Incident date: Jun 30, 2022
Traveling on the highway going on a road trip. Had vehicle inspected prior and no fuel system problems were noted. I was going 75mph with my family when there was a coasting feeling in the car. I looked and my check engine light popped on and my car immediately would not accelerate and we quickly lost speed. By the grace of God were we able to pull over safely! Code P0132 was the engine code and a... Read more
Incident date: Jun 29, 2022
I have been dealing with this problem for over 7 months now. My Buick Lacrosse '12, while driving it (doesn't matter the speed) all of the suddent it starts locking and unlocking, immediately after the speed drops and the car comes to a complete stop. I have little children that ride with me in the car- while driving on the interstate this is a HUGE LIFE HAZARD, because I can't control when the ... Read more
Incident date: Jun 29, 2022
When using cruise control (with or without auto steering to stay within a lane), the car randomly breaks. This does not appear to be associate with signage along the road. It appears to happen more frequently in the right most lane. There are certain locations where this problem always occurs, but we cannot determine what is different about that particular exit than others. The most dangerous situ... Read more