Consumer Safety Complaints
Search 2,245,377 safety complaints filed by vehicle owners with NHTSA, including 140,173 crashes, 56,794 fires, and 8,580 deaths.
What is a NHTSA consumer complaint?
A consumer complaint is a free-form report filed by a vehicle owner directly to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) describing a safety concern about their vehicle. NHTSA collects these reports through its Vehicle Owner Defect Report (VOQ) system and publishes them publicly. Each complaint includes the affected component, the date and circumstances of the incident, whether the failure caused a crash or fire, and any reported injuries or deaths. The owner's full narrative description is included verbatim, NHTSA does not edit or moderate the descriptions.
The database below contains over 2,245,377 individual complaints. NHTSA's investigators monitor it for clusters of similar reports, when enough owners describe the same failure mode on the same vehicle, NHTSA may open a Preliminary Evaluation that can lead to a recall. Many of the largest recalls in U.S. history, including the Takata airbag recall and the Hyundai/Kia engine fire recalls, started as patterns visible in this complaint database years before they became formal recalls.
How to interpret what you read
A few principles for reading consumer complaints usefully:
- One complaint is anecdote; a hundred similar complaints is data. NHTSA does not investigate the truthfulness of any individual report, that's the job of the Office of Defects Investigation, which looks at the full pattern. When evaluating a vehicle, look for whether multiple owners describe the same chain of events.
- Crash, fire, injury, and death flags are owner-set. They are not verified by NHTSA. They are still useful as a filter, because owners who tick those boxes are typically reporting more serious incidents than those who don't.
- Component categories are NHTSA-assigned, not owner-assigned. NHTSA standardizes the component field so that complaints can be aggregated. The owner narrative often goes into more detail than the component category captures.
- Complaint volume scales with sales volume. A best-selling model will accumulate more raw complaints than a niche model even at the same defect rate. To compare across vehicles, look at complaints per 100,000 units sold, not raw counts.
If you've experienced a defect
File a complaint. NHTSA's investigators rely on this database to detect emerging defects, and useful complaints, specific, concrete, with dates and mileage and clear descriptions of what happened, feed directly into the agency's pattern detection. The form takes about 10 minutes and is at nhtsa.gov/recalls under "Report a Safety Problem." Your complaint becomes part of the same public record that this page is built from. Owners filing detailed VOQs are how recalls get triggered.
Read more from our blog
Showing 73,546 complaints - component: VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
JEEP
GRAND CHEROKEE
(2021) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Oct 8, 2022
Incident date: Oct 8, 2022
Vehicle reported on instrument cluster a loss of Electronic Stability Control, Power Steering, blind spot alert, adaptive cruise control, and cruise control. We have been having electronic issues for >2 months. Previously the vehicle reported an estart fault and would randomly engage the ebrake. It would not allow disengaging the ebrake unless the car was restarted and/or hood was opened and shu... Read more
Incident date: Oct 7, 2022
Some times car will not accelerate no matter how much stepping on the gas pedal, car will slow down like its going to stop or no power to the car while car is moving/driving. All lights on the dash board lights up, one of them that is known is the "brake malfunction" light.
Incident date: Oct 8, 2022
Vehicle disengaged itself from gear while driving on hwy going between 75-85 mph. Failed to re engage into gear when stepping on accelerator causing vehicle to just coast and slow down as fast moving traffic (semis) we’re approaching. Construction zone didn’t have shoulders to pull aside which made situation worst. Car did accelerate after a few attempts. The car did illuminate a “unable to ... Read more
Incident date: Oct 4, 2022
I was driving with my cruise control set at 70 mph, on Highway 95 ( the speed limit ) While driving my vehicle suddenly dropped to 40 mph, all dashboard lights began to flash. I had problems with the steering as I attempted to pull over. I had a tractor trailer behind me on a major highway. When I came to a complete stop, my engine light kept flashing. I drove my car to the KIA dealership in GA, w... Read more
1 injured
MERCEDES-BENZ
GLE 450
(2020) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Oct 7, 2022
Incident date: Oct 5, 2022
1. After coming to a stop, foot placed on the pedal to accelerate through a neighborhood security gate, the car would not accelerate despite how hard I depressed the gas pedal. After approximately 3-4 seconds the car finally accelerated. 2. When coming to a stop the vehicle has a very hard “clunk” in the transmission to stop. Vehicle was taken to the dealership but they could not replicate the... Read more
Incident date: Oct 7, 2022
When accelerating the vehicle has a hard shift every now and then that’s very noticeable. Seems to be slipping or having trouble shifting occasionally when trying to get up to speed.
VOLKSWAGEN
TAOS
(2022) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Oct 7, 2022
Incident date: Sep 27, 2022
While driving down the road at a speed of 45mph my vehicle decelerated to a speed of 20mph. Vehicle would not let me accelerate to get out of the road to safety. Check engine light started flashing, EPC light came on, tracks control light came on, and caution symbol under oil gage came on. VW of Macon erased 7 stored codes after doing a diagnostic. The technician was unable to find the issue or re... Read more
Incident date: Sep 24, 2022
When driving on the freeway I went to accelerate the car then begin to accelerate by itself even when I was hitting the brakes it would not slow down. Finally after a few seconds it slowed down. About a week after that started feeling like the transmission was having issues. Now I cannot drive my car. And this happened about three times with the acceleration of the car doing that by itself.
Incident date: Oct 6, 2022
I have multiple problems with the dash lights going on and off , have taken it to car repair when scanned and had replaced relays many times. I have read many stories of people having the same problem with toyota tundras and no one can figure it out. Toyota should have a recall for this because it is not just one or two people with this same exact problem, it is many toyota tundra owners going thr... Read more
Incident date: Jul 24, 2022
On July 24, 2022, while driving from Champaign-Urbana, Illinois back to our home in Lisle, IL, in a heavy rainstorm, our RDX suddenly started flashing the engine light and lost power on Interstate 57. We were fortunate to be able to maneuver it to the side of the road, and off the nearby ramp at Bradley, IL. We ‘googled’ the circumstances on our iphone, to learn that this is considered a seri... Read more
Incident date: Oct 5, 2022
While the vehicle has adaptive cruise control engaged, there are times it applies braking (sometimes aggressive braking) for no reason (commonly referred to as phantom braking). It’s almost as if the vehicle thinks there is an object in front of it and is applying emergency braking, however there is nothing on the road. In my experiences, it happens mostly on the Highway at speeds 60-80mph. T... Read more
Incident date: Oct 5, 2022
The contact owns a 2020 Subaru Forester. The contact stated that while pulling into a parking space and pressing the parking brake, the vehicle suddenly experienced unintended acceleration and accelerated forward. During the incident, the vehicle drove over a curb, hit a lamp post, and crashed into a parked vehicle. No injuries were reported. A police report was taken at the scene. The vehicle was... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Oct 1, 2022
The throttle body threw a code. My car lost "power' and stalled. It went into limp mode. Became inoperable. My four year old, his dad, and my safety was at risk due to this happening on a rural road on a hill. We were stuck in the middle of nowhere and an hour and a half away from home. The dealership replaced the throttle bottle, accelerator pedal, reprogrammed it, and it still will not function ... Read more
Incident date: Sep 29, 2022
the gears automatically changed while in motion driver at risk of loss of control of vehicle and pedestrians in residential area at risk of contact symptoms cannot be duplicated and verified by manufacturer vehicle has been inspected by local auto diagnostic repair buisness warning error displayed on driver console of 'open wrench' indication of random electrical or mechanical error
Incident date: Oct 4, 2022
Driving with cruise control on following another vehicle 150 yards in front of me. I'm not even using Auto-Pilot because on how dangerous and unpredictable it is. I'm using Normal Cruise Control, which is also a disaster. A car built in 80s can perform cruise control without any hassle. It phantom braked and the vehicle behind me had to take corrective action. This has to be addressed to be fixe... Read more
Incident date: Mar 14, 2021
On March 14, 2021, a failure with the vehicle posed a serious safety hazard when my two children, another minor child and our dog were accompanying me, with the car fully loaded for spring break, and the brake system completely failed, among other electrical issues, as we were departing our neighborhood. The vehicle was subsequently towed to the dealership. I cringe to imagine what would have en... Read more
Incident date: Oct 4, 2022
I received a recall letter in 2019 for N192221960. The engine control module software needed to be updated. I have taken my car to the Moran chevy dealership on Gratiot perhaps 3 times before. I was driving yesterday, Oct 4th and my car did the same thing again: Reduced engine power while I was on the freeway. It would not allow me to accelerate past 40 mph very dangerous. They informed me that th... Read more
Incident date: Oct 1, 2022
Cruise control set @70 to 74mph on open highway with no vehicles in front or behind. Midday, sunny, clear, and dry. The vehicle suddenly applies brakes. This could have easily lead to being rear-ended if another vehicle were following too closely. This happened numerous time this last weekend. Contacted the manufacturer and they stated this is normal and no hardware faults were detected in the ve... Read more
CHEVROLET
SILVERADO 1500
(2009) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Oct 5, 2022
Incident date: Sep 26, 2022
For the past few years I keep getting code P2138. I have spent several thousand dollars trying to get my truck fixed. I have replaced the accelerator pedal at least 3 times. Replaced the throttle body. Did a complete rewire. Replaced the ECM and still the dealership can’t figure it out. Every time I leave I’m hopeful the problem is resolved but then a month or two later I will be driving and t... Read more
Incident date: Oct 4, 2022
For a while now I have noticed that intermittently when barely stepping on the accelerator pedal, the car will accelerate but continue to speed up even with my foot off of the accelerator. I have to step on the break extremely hard to come to a stop, and car will still be doing around 40mph when at a complete stop or light. The check engine light has been on, and I have taken it to a mechanic tw... Read more
Incident date: Oct 3, 2022
Dash digital display screen completely black and not working. The truck was driving fine the day we noticed the screen being black but could not determine speed or anything else. Now the truck will not start.
HYUNDAI
SANTA FE HYBRID
(2021) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Oct 4, 2022
Incident date: Sep 27, 2022
While driving on the highway, when I pushed on gas pedal the car would not accelerate, I was uncertain if I was losing power of the vehicle, luckily it maintained the current speed and did not decelerate,but I was unsure at the moment if I was losing complete power, because it wasn't responding, it felt like the car was going to stall similar to when you run out of fuel. This occured for around 20... Read more
Incident date: Oct 1, 2022
On 10/1/2022 in Berwick, PA while pulling into the Dollar Tree parking lot, smoke appeared in the passenger cabin and the vehicle accelerated on it's own. The brakes were applied and the vehicle continue to accelerate. The vehicle went down through a yard, across a road through another parking lot and crashed into a high curb before stalling out. The airbags deployed. My mother was transporte... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Aug 25, 2022
Lost control of my car when I looked down to pick up a piece of ice in my console. In the crash the steering wheel air bag did not deploy, and my accelerator stuck. I had my seat belt on but the force of the impact in the ditch was so hard and my air bag did not deploy that my back was fractured in the accident!!
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Sep 25, 2022
Pushed accelerator to floor. When I took my foot off the accelerator car continued to accelerate at full throttle for about 15 -20 seconds. Uncontrolled acceleration stopped when I pumped the accelerator. Chevrolet dealer found no fault codes due to a problem with the fly by wire. It appears that when the accelerator was pushed all the way down it somehow got caught and held in the full throttle p... Read more
Incident date: Jan 1, 2020
When driving the car at low speeds, or right after having been stopped for a few moments. Upon, acceleration, the car will sometimes go into a limp mode. On the DIC, will be displayed a warning about how the car will have the speed reduced after 175 miles and to check the emissions system. The speed has already been reduced at that point. Also displayed maybe a warning about how the power has ... Read more
Incident date: Oct 3, 2022
Service Electronic Braking System and Service ABS system lights are flashing intermittently and the ABS and traction control lights are on. Dealer has indicated the hydraulic control unit is bad and needs replaced but they no longer manufacture that part and there are no aftermarket offerings so vehicle cannot be repaired until parts are located. In the meantime these vehicles affected have no ant... Read more
Incident date: Aug 15, 2022
While driving a freeway speed (80 MPH) my vehicle suddenly down shifted without cause. The vehicle had shifted from 6th gear down to 3rd gear while driving at 80 MPH nearly causing an accident. This similar random downshifting occurred several more times before I was able to take my vehicle to my local Ford dealership. The Ford technician diagnosed the issue from the computer logs as a code P07... Read more
Incident date: Sep 30, 2022
When the pedal is pressed, there is a delay in acceleration. This has happened several times over the past couple of months. It seems to happen mostly when trying to make a left-hand turn, typically at low speeds or from a stop. I will have time to make a safe left turn, but the unexpected delay in acceleration has created dangerous situations and has almost caused accidents. I'm not sure what's c... Read more
CHEVROLET
SILVERADO 1500
(2020) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Oct 3, 2022
Incident date: Sep 19, 2022
Purchased the truck through CARMAX and two weeks later received the “Service Brake Assist” and “Brake System Failure” message on the Console. This has happened twice in in one month.
Incident date: Oct 2, 2022
This vehicle has a dangerous flaw while downshifting and holding in the clutch lever. The engine will stall ! It is dangerous because I am relying on the engine braking to help slow down the motorcycle in a turn. Because the engine stalls the speed of the motorcycle increases. It is a worldwide problem BUT I do not see a recall listed in the NHTSA's website. Please have this matter resolved b... Read more
Incident date: Sep 28, 2022
Upon exiting my local car wash, I drove my car around to the area used for vacuuming. I pulled into the parking space and when I applied the brake pedal to stop, the car suddenly accelerated and crashed into the wall of the building. I have the Car Wash Security Camera footage of this incident. It shows my brake light is ON at the car's point of acceleration and my brake light is ON at point of... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Oct 3, 2022
The accelerator pedal position sensor failed causing reduced engine power mode. This happened on the highway with the speed limit of 55 which reduced my speed to 20 mph while around other vehicles. This put the safety of myself and my two children at risk because cars behind me didn’t expect a sudden change of speed along with myself. Having no warning is insanely scary. This problem is apparent... Read more
Incident date: Jun 16, 2021
This issue was repaired by the dealer one year ago and it has happened again, they tried to charge me by pretending they didnt know about the previous repair. the internet is full with the exact same complaint and how is this not a recall to hold them accountable?? the service electronic brake system and ABS lights come on and off each time making annoying noises. when the lights are on th... Read more
Incident date: Aug 16, 2022
While I am driving my car will beep and say malfunctioning and drop the please power as I push on the peddle, and it's hard for me to gain more speed as the speed limit increases. If I am to slow down or stop at a red light then start to go again my car takes a few minutes to get to the speed limit it's like the car has bo power going it is. Today I pulled into fhe road after leaving a store and w... Read more
VOLKSWAGEN
ATLAS CROSS SPORT
(2020) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Oct 3, 2022
Incident date: Sep 1, 2021
Adaptive cruise control (acc) will not work if you remote started the vehicle. To get it normally work, you have to fully switch off the car and then push start it. Had the vehicle checked by vw dealer and they found no problem, but the car won't engage cruise after remote start. After months of this; the remote start will not work. Carnet told me to wait on an update to be released soon.....it... Read more
Incident date: Jul 7, 2022
As my vehicle was in drive and I was actively driving, an error displayed on the dash stating to "stop safely immediately." The vehicle would neither accelerate nor decelerate and would not generate any RPMs. The check engine light came on, went off hours lately and the vehicle appeared to perform normally thereafter. Nonetheless I had the vehicle towed to the dealership and was told they were una... Read more
JEEP
GRAND CHEROKEE
(2014) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Oct 2, 2022
Incident date: Oct 1, 2022
Car is not reporting accurate speed, 20mph or more on display and shifting my be affected
Incident date: Oct 1, 2022
Adaptive cruise control has failed many times. Recently had adaptive cruise control set at 75 mph on interstate. With no warning, the car instantly slowed to 55 mph. If a car would have been behind me I would have been rear-ended. Or worse, if someone behind me thought I was intentionally braking hard or "squating" they could become angry and instigate a road rage incident. The car provided z... Read more
Incident date: Sep 30, 2022
While driving at any speed the vehicle will start jerking and RPM's will rev way up and heat Guage will fluctuate like the car is going to over heat but immediately drops back down to normal, when I let off the gas the vehicle starts to slow down very quickly like if I was pushing the break pedal.
Incident date: Sep 28, 2022
The vehicle intermittently brakes for no reason with the cruise control enabled. This is going to cause an accident.
Incident date: Sep 29, 2022
I was traveling approximately 70 mph in passing lane when I engaged (standard) autopilot, as I approached to pass a vehicle with another vehicle following me in the same lane as I was traveling. My vehicle (phantom) braked hard to which the wheels began to squeal slightly and the vehicle behind me had to brake hard to avoid hitting my vehicle. I almost immediately applied pressure to the accelerat... Read more
Incident date: Sep 26, 2022
Problem started 1 month ago. As I approached the round about I am at very slow speed,and for no action on my part, my MDX accelerates! Fortunately it has only happened as my vehicle is coasting or I am applying the break slowly. This is happening more and more. It has over 20K miles on it.
Incident date: Sep 30, 2022
While driving highway speeds with the cruise control on, car suddenly brakes. No vehicle or obstacle was in front of us. This happened approximately 6 times in 200 miles. 5 of the 6 times happened on the interstate in a rural area.
Incident date: Sep 17, 2022
Highly repeatable issue: driving on left lane of a highway going at high speed (60) with adaptive cruise control enabled (but *not* full self drive mode). Put on turn signal to merge into right lane. There was a car in the right lane directly next to me but I had not initiated the merge, was merely signaling my intent to merge. My car SLAMMED on the breaks (very dangerous as I was almost rear ende... Read more
Incident date: Sep 1, 2022
OIL SHOT OUT THE CAR WHILE DRIVING AT HIGH SPEED ON THE FREEWAY, CAUSING ALL THE OIL TO SHOOT OUT, AND THE ENTIRE FUNCTION OF THE CAR TO STOP WORKING. THE ENGINE ESSENTIALLY DIED, CAUSING THE BRAKE, THE GAS, AND STEERING TO LOCK AND NOT WORK.CAR WENT FROM 65 MILES A HR TO 5 MILESW, VERY SCARY Summary ON Certain Passenger Vehicles, Prolonged High Under-Hood Temperatures MAY Cause THE Power Steering... Read more
Incident date: Sep 18, 2022
Secondary air injection pump has high rate of failure, recalls in older models. Has caused truck to go into limp mode. Could cause serious accident/fatality if vehicle suddenly goes into limp mode on highway. This has happened on multiple occasions in forums I’ve read. Known problem by Toyota that isn’t being addressed.
Incident date: Aug 17, 2022
The car makes a knocking noise from the engine and in order to drive, you have to hold in the traction control button. I was told that the connecting rod broke and has to be repaired & I believe that should be a recall with the engine.
HONDA
CR-V HYBRID
(2022) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Sep 28, 2022
Incident date: Sep 16, 2022
When traveling with the cruise control engaged, the vehicle will suddenly begin braking with no vehicles or objects in front of the vehicle. It’s occurred multiple occasions and some episodes are a quick braking where it then suddenly accelerates back up to the set speed, and during other episodes I quickly hit the accelerator as I wasn’t sure if it was going to recover itself and I did not w... Read more
Incident date: Sep 27, 2022
While stopped at a red light, I stepped on brake and without warning, the car accelerated uncontrollably, at a high speed. It crashed into a parked vehicle and was a total loss. i had my 17 mos. old granddaughter in a rear facing carseat, in the rear passenger side. Luckily, the Upa Baby carseat protected her and she was not hurt, nor was anyone else. Airbags did not deploy. Now i have to get a n... Read more
Crash