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: Aug 8, 2022
Yes, both the safety of myself as well as others is at risk. The engine shuts off while driving, which is extremely dangerous in many scenarios: on a highway - the risk of rear-ending at high speed, hazardous when passing another car on a two-way street, inability to leave the intersection safely etc. During regular operation, the vehicle loses power and enters "idle mode"; the car shakes a bit ... Read more
Incident date: Aug 8, 2022
FEB (sensors) display on our Infiniti QX 60 dashboard - this occurred within several months when we received the car. The car was inspected by their Infiniti Repair dealer and was told the problem was solved. It was not and the same issue appeared after several miles of driving. Reported to Consumer Affairs at Infiniti and was informed its an Infiniti Dealer issue. Further electronic defects o... Read more
Incident date: Sep 28, 2022
I have taking my car to Chevy 8/2021 twice and now 9/28/22 for what I believe to be throttle body control and accelerator pedal issue. The engine reduce light and check engine lite continues to come on causing my car to lose speed while driving. Chevy keeps telling me its a oil pressure issue now their saying it may be a oil gasket. At this point I feel like there is a lot of complaints of the sam... Read more
Incident date: Jun 30, 2022
It is called a "Smart Cruise" and it does not hold the speed. When driving on the interstate and the speed does not hold that would cause a risk of collision by other vehicles that are driving the appropriate speed. I took the car to my Hyundai dealer and a tech drove it. He said he got the same result of not holding the speed it was set at. I was told this is a problem with the Smart Cruise and t... Read more
Incident date: Sep 24, 1970
On 3 different occasions the acceleration got stuck and increased speed. I pressed the brake over and over and the Jeep would NOT reduce speed or slow down for what ranged between 30 - 45 seconds. Had there been a vehicle directly in front of me I would have slammed into the vehicle. If I had been trying to stop at an intersection I would not have been able to stop. I had my child in the car ... Read more
Incident date: Sep 5, 2022
Engine takes a long time to start up, about 10-15 seconds of pushing the start button starts engine which is probably not good for the car. Also, the car jolts/ wants to stop while driving. Has been an ongoing issue since the week of 9/5/22. Loss of motor power issue sounds like what is going on with my 2018 Hyundai Sonata vehicle.
Incident date: Feb 18, 2021
If vehicle is in drive with engine running on a hill and rolls back a significant distance while in gear engine may shut off leading to a loss in power steering and brake control once booster looses reserve. also delays ability to move vehicle increasing risk for accident that could be avoided. am able to duplicate concern reliably.
Incident date: Sep 27, 2022
At approximately 1130am, pulling into parking space in a parking lot at very low speed, 50% of vehicle was in the parking space, when suddenly the car accelerated forward. This resulted in my vehicle jumping over a safety curb and crashing into a building resulting in damage to my vehicle.
Crash
Incident date: Sep 27, 2022
My cruise control just stopped working all of a sudden. It was working this morning but I got in the vehicle to go to work and it just wasn't working anymore.
Incident date: Aug 30, 2022
The contact owns a 2018 Tesla Model S. The contact stated while pulling into a parking space, the vehicle accelerated at high speeds without any warning, causing the vehicle to run through a construction site and collide with a building. The air bags were deployed, and the passenger in the vehicle was injured and sought medical attention. The contact was unsure if a police report was filed. The ve... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Sep 12, 2022
My cars intake runner control valve needs to be replaced when I am driving my car will beep and say malfunctioning on the dash the power to my car lessons I can push the pedal of my car to the floor and only be going 30 to 40 miles an hour, I tried getting the part from a couple garage is it is on back order a long list of people are waiting for this part Nissan said they don't know when I will be... Read more
Incident date: Aug 13, 2021
The dashboard for the vehicle loses all power and does not regain power/connectivity. I've had this problem "fixed" 5 times by the Chevy dealership and the issues continues. They've replaced the entire dash, checked electrical components, changed out the electrical bank, and the issues continues. Driving down the road at 65 mph to have your dash go out is not only terrifying but extremely dangerou... Read more
Incident date: Jan 15, 2021
ABS Hydraulic Control Unit and Electronic Control Unit Failure. ABS MIL and Traction MIL began turning ON and OFF intermittently during daily driving, sometimes turning ON and OFF over 50 times during a 20-mile drive. Lights up the dash and sounds a beep to inform the driver, while displaying a message on the dashboard screen. Again, this occurs every time the alarm activates. No dealership was ab... Read more
Incident date: Sep 15, 2022
I was running 65mph and my truck down shifted from 6th to 3rd. I called my dealer and they said they never heard of this problem so I called two more and can’t get any answers. Glad no one was behind me.
Incident date: Sep 23, 2022
The engine valve stem failed prematurely due to poor quality manufacturing. Due to this low quality product it has created low compression in the engine. This has triggered multiple codes such as misfire, ETC, and has affected the acceleration of the vehicle as well as performance and at times from even starting. My family's safety has been put at risk due to stalling of the vehicle in traffic.Thi... Read more
Incident date: Jan 5, 2022
Every neutral safety switch made for this vehicle is faulty be driving down the road it'll switch from drive to neutral or any other gear I've had it go into reverse while going 50 mph down the road I've replaced this part five times still have same problem part works for about a month then goes out. Other times transmission won't even go into drive have to screw with shifter to get it to go into ... Read more
Incident date: Sep 24, 2022
Suddenly lost acceleration and engine stopped - without any dashboard signal of low gas or engine issue. Car was able to start after couple of minutes. At the time of losing acceleration and stopping gas indicator was showing two bars - and car was not running with low fuel indicator. My whole family was in the car and stopping in the middle lane of a busy national highway of 65 miles speed limi... Read more
Incident date: Jun 13, 2022
Was driving around 30 MPH. Audi Q7started showing malfunctions on the dashboard, stabilization control malfunction, transmission malfunction, startup system malfunction, backup system malfunction, drivers assist malfunction, tire pressure malfunction, drive system malfunction. The vehicle started to brake on it own, fishtailed and then started to accelerate on its own
Crash
Incident date: Jul 5, 2021
Complaint: Phantom Braking -- My wife and I took ownership of our 2021 Tesla Model 3 at the beginning of July 2021. We experienced what is referred to as Phantom Braking (Car initiating sudden braking while at highway speeds). We took it on a 3,000+ mile road trip to visit national parks in the western United States. Having owned electric vehicles since 2015, we found Tesla's charging networ... Read more
Incident date: Sep 25, 2022
When coming to a stop, car accelerated and went over curb. From a search of the internet I found examples with this and other cars where people with larger shoes had the same problem of pressing the brake and unintentionally pressing the accelerator pedal at the same time. I read of one manufacturer that programed the car to brake if both pedals are pressed at the same time and ignore the accelera... Read more
Incident date: Sep 24, 2022
The check engine light came on and said the vehicle will be shutting down and the vehicle died while driving and wouldn't restart! It said to service the power steering, vehicle not in service electronic stability control. It currently still won't restart. It has 300 miles and is one week old.
Incident date: Sep 24, 2022
While driving, if I don't make a complete stop (say at a yield sign), and I accelerate, there is a 1-2 second gap between when I press the pedal and the van actually goes. This can happen while fully stopped, while yielding, or even while getting onto the highway. Taking it back to the dealer has yielded only firmware upgrades to the software and recommending a $400 transmission flush. This hap... Read more
Incident date: Aug 30, 2022
transmission control module faulted out. In 2018 a recall for the dual powershift clutch was repaired, now the TCM faulted out in the car while i was driving, i had an infant in the car and it died in the middle of a busy highway almost causing us to crash! I had to be towed, I called ford motor company to be told it was not under recall, only to find out that in fact it is, and their in a lawsuit... Read more
Incident date: Sep 23, 2022
We just went on a longish trip, covering a total of about 2,500 miles. While driving on interstate highways and using cruise control, the car would occasionally brake for no reason. The first several times it happened, the car braked mildly and we tried to explain it away. ("It must have seen the guardrail/traffic cone/butterfly," etc.) However, the last time it happened, with absolutely nothing a... Read more
HYUNDAI
SANTA CRUZ
(2022) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Sep 24, 2022
Incident date: Sep 24, 2022
I was driving on the highway (55mph) with my two children in the backseat. My vehicle started slowing down quickly even with my foot on the gas. There was no warning, no lights on the dash lit up warning me there was anything wrong with the car. The rpm’s we’re going up but it was like there was no power to the car. I got off the highway onto a side road as fast as I could do I wouldn’t get ... Read more
FORD
MUSTANG MACH E
(2022) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Sep 23, 2022
Incident date: Sep 22, 2022
THE BATTERY ENERGY CONTROL MODULE RECALL SOFTWARE UPDATE WAS COMPLETED ON MY VEHICLE ON SEPTEMBER 22ND 2022 AT 1203 PM AT GOSCH FORD OF HEMET. UPON LEAVING AROUND A MILE DOWN THE ROAD I WAS DRIVING AROUND A CORNER. WHILE IN THIS CORNER MULTIPLE THINGS HAPPENED AT THE SAME EXACT MOMENT. MY TRACTION LIGHT MOMENTARILY FLASHED ALONG WITH A SERVICE WRENCH. VEHICLE SKID PARTIALLY OFF-ROAD INTO THE DITCH... Read more
Incident date: Jan 10, 2022
On many occasions the cruise control cancel button does not work. The brake system is needed to disengage the cruise control. When mentioned to dealership they stated probably dirt behind the steering wheel cover or in or around buttons. Stated would have take apart inspect at owners expense. Stated they have heard of that problem before. Seems to be a known safety or design problem. Did not have ... Read more
Incident date: May 2, 2022
Hello, To whom it may concern, My vehicle is a 2018 Chevy Suburban with a 5.3 motor. GM produced these motors made from inferior metal and defective lifters. My engine began failing in May 2022, I've taking my vehicle to several shops for work but the problem has not been resolved. I have links below explaining the problems with these motors. There are tens of thousands of individuals with fami... Read more
Incident date: Sep 15, 2022
The issue occurred twice over the period of the past two months, both times I was driving on highway with Tesla autopilot enabled ( It is Adaptive Cruise Control), for no apparent reason the car hit the brakes, all vehicles driving behind me had to hit brakes or change lanes to avoid Collision. Both times I created service request with tesla and got no clear answer to why its happening, first tim... Read more
Incident date: Sep 23, 2022
When the cruise control is on and I push on the brake to merge lanes or because a vehicle in front of me stops, the car continues to accelerate and gets stuck in acceleration the RPMs go up wildly.
Incident date: Sep 22, 2022
Vehicle will loose power and ac as if the gears are slipping causing a sudden reduced speed. The transmission warnings will also light up stating transmission overheating.
Incident date: Sep 23, 2022
Speedometer units and units used to set cruise control randomly change from MPH to km/h occasionally when the vehicle is started. No safety risk. Problem has occurred multiple times but dealer was not able to reproduce. There are no warning lamp associated with this issue.
Incident date: Sep 23, 2022
The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated that while driving approximately 70 MPH with the Adaptive Cruise Control activated, the vehicle suddenly and without warning decelerated to approximately 50 MPH. The contact indicated that no other vehicles or objects were nearby during the failure. The failure had occurred on three separate occasions during the trip. The cause of the failu... Read more
Incident date: Sep 23, 2022
I was driving with an SUV in front of me at 18-wheeler in front of them. This is on a road where the speed limit is 65 however there's a section on 301 where there's a traffic light. All three vehicles came to a slow normal stop and the adaptive cruise control was doing a good job of slowing the vehicle down without my input. But the SUV when we were at about stopping speed but had not yet come t... Read more
Incident date: Jun 29, 2022
I DO NOT OWN THIS VEHICLE. I WAS HOWEVER, INJURED BY THE DRIVER OF THE 2022 RIVIAN LAUNCH EDITION. I WAS REAR ENDED (WHILE I WAS STOPPED WAITING FOR A READ LIGHT) AT A RELATIVE HIGH SPEED FOR ROAD CONDITIONS. AFTER STUDYING THE OWNERS MANUAL, THERE ARE MULTIPLE COLLISION AVOIDANCE WARNINGS, AUDIBLE, VISUAL AND HAPTIC (VIBRATION OF THE STEERING WHEEL) WHEN A COLLISION IS IMMINENT. FURTHERMORE, T... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Sep 23, 2022
WHILE DRIVING APPROXIMATELY 50 MPH WITH THE CRUISE CONTROL ON, THE ENGINE LIGHT CAME ON AND SAID "SERVICE ENGINE", THE ENGINE SHUT OFF AND SHORTLY AFTER RESTARTED ON IT'S OWN. WHEN IT RESTARTED IT DID NOT ALLOW ME TO REACH THE PREVIOUS SPEED AND WOULD NOT ALLOW ME TO RESTART THE CRUISE CONTROL SYSTEM. IT DID FINALLY LET ME REACH A DECENT SPEED. I PARKED THE CAR AND THEN LATER STARTED THE CAR, IT A... Read more
Incident date: Sep 23, 2022
Using normal cruise control in the highway, my car brakes randomly and suddenly. This phantom braking has happened over 10 times in the past two weeks! It's very dangerous.
Incident date: Sep 16, 2022
I purchased my 2012 Hyundai Sonata on 4-7-22. The car has had no mechanical work, no accidents and has less than 1000 miles. On 9-16-22 i was driving my car home and was less than five minutes away on the highway. My car began to decelerate, I attempted to stop at a red light but my car would not give me control and the brake was rock solid and would not push down. I also could not turn the car of... Read more
Incident date: May 22, 2016
The contact owns a 2016 Hyundai Sonata. The contact stated that while driving at approximately 30 MPH and approaching a traffic light, the accelerator pedal was released, the vehicle sped up, the brake pedal was depressed, and the vehicle stopped. The contact stated the failure occurred after the vehicle was taken to the dealer for a software recall update. The contact stated that no warning light... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Apr 6, 2022
Since we purchased this brand new vehicle, we have had in the dealership service department at a minimum of 5 times for same issue. The vehicle accelerates while stopped at a light so we have to put it in neutral to keep it from accelerating. Once we take out of Neutral and release the break, the vehicle accelerates rapidly without stepping on the gas pedal. The computer system always comes on war... Read more
VOLKSWAGEN
TIGUAN
(2019) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Sep 22, 2022
Incident date: Sep 20, 2022
From a stop at an intersection, the initial depressing of the accelerator produced no throttle response and then suddenly the car lurched forward. This resulted in rear ending the care in front at the intersection. The collision avoidance did not stop the car before contacting the car in front. Even after the accident the car continued to respond in the same way until it was placed on the two tru... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Apr 14, 2022
PHANTOM BRAKING: I was driving northbound on the I-5 highway south of Sacramento, California using cruise control and traveling at the 70 MPH speed limit on September 14, 2022. At approximately 2:50 p.m., I moved from the right lane into the left lane by using the turn signal to execute the lane change. Once in the left lane, the car immediately began violently applying the brakes. There was ... Read more
Incident date: Sep 19, 2022
39,125 miles - 2018 RAM 2500 6.4L (purchased new in 2019), intermittent ABS / traction control light and alarm dinging! Dealership diagnosed it as the ABS / hydraulic control unit with code C0020-07. Many reports of this same issue can be found online from RAM owners having this exact issue, most are just out of the warranty. Low or backorder status of the replacement parts also suggests an is... Read more
Incident date: Sep 20, 2022
Last evening , when doing a lane change on Highway 680 , I lost control of the car and the car began to swerve pretty badly. Thankfully I hit the brakes on time and everything was fine again. A blue car was trying to get in my lane and I quickly changed lanes to be safe and the severe swerving began. It was like I was in a roller coaster. Thankfully it was a 4-5 lane freeway and there were no ca... Read more
Incident date: Sep 21, 2022
MY 2014 F 150 5.0 has the 6 speed auto trans. transmission will downshift while running highway speeds or speed over 50 mph. On 09/13/2022 the rear wheeI's locked up for a brief moment causing the rear of the truck to fishtail while I was running 70 mph on the highway. I was able to control the truck and was able to pull off to the side of the road safely this time. turned the truck off and let it... Read more
FORD
ESCAPE HYBRID
(2020) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Sep 21, 2022
Incident date: Sep 21, 2022
I was driving on the NYS Thruway with lane assist and cruise control enabled. This is after already having an issue with my computer where the car a couple of months ago just stopped in the middle of the road. This morning I was driving on the Thruway when suddenly, if felt like the collision impact system was engaged and the car shifted to the right slamming into the car next to me. No airbag dep... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Sep 21, 2022
The lane keep assist of the car is supposed to keep the car centered when enabled. It does this job well most of the time however a few times, the car keep wanting to hug the right lane line to the point where lane departure alert starts beeping. In summary the car thinks the center is closer towards the right lane line to the point where lane departure alert warning comes on. As the driver you ha... Read more
Incident date: Aug 1, 2022
The adaptive cruise control disengages abruptly during its operation with a beep and cannot be reengaged unless it is restarted. Honda seems to have released a TSB for this issue but this car hasn't been updated for that TSB software update. Nevertheless I wish to log this complaint since it did occur a couple of times on the road so far with no obvious abnormal surrounding situations. The windsh... Read more
Incident date: Sep 21, 2022
When traversing from one hwy to another on an off ramp at 39 mph the truck suddenly accelerated like the pedal was pushed to the floor, speed jumped to 55mph in a flash. I hit the brakes hard once and then again to stop the sudden acceleration. Truck had a mind of its own. Dangerous situation, fortunately no one was in front of me to run into.
Crash
Incident date: Sep 20, 2022
Current recall of vehicle shifting up and down while driving down the road. Sometimes shifting all the way down to first gear while going down the highway at 45-50 miles per hour.