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 25, 2022
I've had the car about 4,500 miles. No problems. Current mileage is 8899. Drove about 30 miles. 88 degrees. Humid. Dry. Slowed and turned right into my driveway. Stopped to run and open the garage. Standard tranny. The moment I slipped it out of gear, the engine began to howl, revving to between 5,500 and 6,000 r.p.m.s. Turned it off. Turned it back on after 15 seconds. Immediately we... Read more
Incident date: Aug 1, 2022
The week after I purchased it, the warning for my eco fuel came on and then service engine light. I was traveling at 45 mph and it instructed me to pull safely to the side of the road. Before I could do so, the car seized and jerked to a halt at a slowing speed of 10pm. The car had to be towed, “reset”. Since then I get the same alerts, the car will not accelerate when this happens and then sl... Read more
Incident date: Jul 10, 2022
Instrument cluster not powering on or crashes/glitches while operating the vehicle. This makes the vehicle unsafe to drive while auto pilot is engaged because the auto pilot system stops operating which could lead to a serious accident. The vehicle speedometer and all other instrument cluster warning systems are unavailable because the screen is off/not working. Tesla has performed a remote diagno... Read more
HARLEY-DAVIDSON
FLHTCU
(2010) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Aug 25, 2022
Incident date: Aug 20, 2022
on Saturday 8/20/22 i was driving to work when i got in the parking lot i lost throttle control it went to limp mode. shut bike off started it back up worked fine. after work i was riding home got bout 2 mile my engine light came on and i lost power to my throttle. it would not rev up. shut bike off for few seconds it ran fine the rest of the way home. this is very dangerous if someone would of b... Read more
Incident date: Jun 15, 2022
The contact owns a 2017 Nissan Altima. The contact stated while driving on the highway, the vehicle inadvertently accelerated and then independently decelerated. The contact stated that he was able to drive the vehicle back to the residence. The contact then stated that after he turned off and restarted the vehicle, the check engine warning light illuminated, and the gear shifter failed to engage.... Read more
Incident date: Aug 10, 2022
In May 2020 as I was driving down the road at approximately 50 mph I suddenly lost the ability to accelerate and dropped down to 25 mph immediately. I tried to accelerate, but the vehicle would not go over 25 mph. The check engine, traction control and another light illuminated on the dash. I pulled the vehicle over and shut it off. I waited approximately 5 minutes and restarted the vehicle. All o... Read more
DODGE
GRAND CARAVAN
(2016) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Aug 25, 2022
Incident date: Aug 24, 2022
The contact owns a 2016 Dodge Grand Caravan. The contact stated that while driving approximately 25 MPH, the RPM’s increased with the accelerator pedal depressed; however, the vehicle failed to exceed 25 MPH. On another occasion, while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle experienced unintended acceleration. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer. The cause of the failure was not yet ... Read more
Incident date: Aug 25, 2022
Driving down the freeway with Autopilot engaged and the autopilot started hard braking in the middle of the road going 70mph. No accidents occurred but it was a very dangerous situation
Incident date: Aug 23, 2022
While driving on the interstate, the car suddenly stopped accelerating even though my foot was still pressing the accelerator. I took my foot off the gas pedal and let the car coast for a moment, though the deceleration seemed faster than normal coasting, almost as if the brake was slightly engaged. When I pressed the gas pedal again, it started to accelerate for a moment but then the same thing h... Read more
Incident date: Aug 23, 2022
Driving with cruise control on two lane or interstate car will automatically just slam on breaks. Dropping cars speed 10+ mph. There is no warning it breaks hard enough to skid tires and lock seatbelt. I have several times it has break checked car that are behind me cause them to switch lanes abruptly. It will do it some times after you merge back into a lane after you pass some one. There is no ... Read more
Incident date: Aug 6, 2022
Since the car was new I experienced occasional situations where the car would not accelerate. I thought it might be the transmission slipping as it seemed to "bottom out" when hitting the gas. The car would not respond and I would coast onto the side of road for fear of getting hit. After a minute or so, the gas pedal would work and I could keep moving. I reported it to the dealer and at that ti... Read more
Incident date: Aug 19, 2022
While driving my 2010 Ford Fusion, on five separate occasions (two times less than a week apart) and over the last five months, while stopping for traffic lights, traffic or pedestrians the brake pedal travelled just inches from the floor and extra effort was needed in attempt to activate the brakes hoping to come to a complete stop. On two jarring instances collision was avoided only by swerving ... Read more
Incident date: Apr 20, 2022
The automatic transmission in the car causes the vehicle to shake and vibrate when accelerating. The faster the acceleration, the more violent the shaking.The problem seems to be when the car shifts from 3rd gear into the next higher gear(s). There is a significant, sometimes violent, shaking of the entire vehicle when shifting. The effect is that there is no confidence that the vehicle will shift... Read more
Incident date: Aug 1, 2018
Water linkage down door panels to the floor, Drivers side ECM is located in that area, water damages the components and caused it to produce codes, interfering with car engine, causes surges, and vehicle to all of sudden shut off even while driving on freeway or streets. Water linkage on the passenger side down into the fuse box. All so causing electrical malfunction that opens the door for poten... Read more
Incident date: Aug 21, 2022
Unknown. This has happened a couple times now. I am driving and the HEV light, engine light and battery light turn on, car won’t brake properly and almost cause me to hit other cars and will shut off on its own on the highway. It will accelerate on its own even when trying to brake. Extremely dangerous.
Incident date: Aug 23, 2022
This is a complaint about Tesla using unqualified drivers to test Atopilot Beta on the public roads. Please note that the VIN of a random Model 3 Tesla has been used to enable this submission to be completed. Here is a video of a driver testing Autopilot on what is in his own words the most dangerous road in Virginia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VBhdrj1CqM He is driving hands free around sh... Read more
Incident date: Aug 22, 2022
The gas pedal has come disconnected or stuck continuing to accelerate and I miraculously stopped the car with the emergency brake before it nearly Crashed into a crowded bus stop! The car only has 65k miles but regardless a car should never put anyone in this danger! It is giving me a nervous breakdown almost running people over!
Incident date: Aug 14, 2022
While driving cross country on interstate highways using cruise control my car would try to stop itself. During a 500+ mile day it would do this 10x per day. Most times hard enough to engage seat beats. There has been no inspection. Tesla is denying a problem. The danger is if someone is following too close they could resend me. I was never in traffic when this happens. Never anyone in fron... Read more
HYUNDAI
SANTA FE SPORT
(2017) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Aug 23, 2022
Incident date: Apr 19, 2022
UNKNOWN It started with the engine suddenly reducing my speed down to 10 mph while I was driving on the freeway, the check engine light turned on. We then took it to the Hyundai dealership who turned us a way and told us they couldn’t see us for several months. So we were forced to take it to a repair shop who ran a compression test and told us it failed. We were able to speak to the dealership ... Read more
Incident date: Aug 18, 2022
Phantom braking was caused numerous times (over 20) during a 2000 mile roadtrip that seemed to be caused by autopilot misinterpreting heat mirages into an object to avoid. This caused the speed of the car to drastically reduce leading to unsafe braking conditions which caused several near rear collisions.
Incident date: Jun 8, 2022
Lost ability to control cruise, horn, all buttons on steering wheel, and airbag light came on. I believe the Clockspring is defective
Incident date: Aug 3, 2022
Well known 6R80 Transmission Molded Lead Frame defective, causing unexpected and dangerous downshift/loss of power, instrument gauges malfunction and both wrench light and engine light come on. Ford somehow avoided recall to save millions, instead issuing Customer Satisfaction Program 19N01, however replacement part is in short supply and dealerships weren't taking appointments then due to Covid p... Read more
Incident date: Aug 20, 2022
Driving 70 MPH on highway with adaptive cruise on. Light traffic, no vehicles on left side. I just passed a semi truck on right side and my car had a phantom braking incident. Slowed from 70 mph to 40 mph in a second or two. No vehicles directly behind me at the time. I pressed on gas pedal and speed resumed to 70. This has happened a couple of other times on a different highway.
Incident date: Aug 22, 2022
While driving my 2022 Honda HRV the vehicle started losing acceleration on its own. The vehicle abruptly slowed down while I was driving it. There was no warning. This is a major safety issue as the car lost speed without any warning and can easily cause an accident.
VOLKSWAGEN
GOLF SPORTWAGEN
(2019) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Aug 23, 2022
Incident date: Aug 10, 2022
The vehicle suddenly shut off while going 60 mph on the highway, and a 'Check Starter System' message appeared before a message that indicated that I need to stop the vehicle appeared. Vehicle was able to restart and the same issue occurred again less than 1 mile down the road. My safety was at risk due to the loss of power, that on another road or a highway on ramp, could have caused a collision ... Read more
Incident date: Aug 21, 2022
Traction control said off light on. Car shut down power failure. Car shaking as it stopped in traffic almost causing an accident. Barely made off road. I have seen other multiple complaints and no way to fix this problem. It is a death sentence on the highway. With no other transportation for me.
Incident date: Jul 20, 2022
2014 CHEVY TRAVERSE LT. Randomly driving on the freeway @ 60-65mph going uphill it started losing power. It started stuttering/coughing. The TRACTION CONTROL OFF and SERVICE STABILITRAK lights flashed. I finally got it home and shut it off. The next morning it drove fine. Then it happened agai a few days later. I replaced the throttle body after it was diagnosed as the problem. On the way home it ... Read more
Incident date: Aug 21, 2022
Multiple instances of hard phantom highway braking on clear sunny days with no other vehicles close while using adaptive cruise control. If another vehicle had been following closely it could have caused a rear end collision as there was no cause to slow down. This problem is recurring. Tesla says to just report the incident on their automated system but there has been no response from them.
Incident date: Aug 13, 2022
When using the cruise control, the vehicle will suddenly brake losing 20MPH before I can react. It has always happened on the interstates, often with no other vehicles in front of me. On the last 2 day trip the brakes applied themselves at least 6 times. I can no longer use the cruise control as I'm afraid somone behind me will crash into me. Tesla has been no help.
Incident date: Jul 30, 2022
My wife and I have owned the Tesla Model Y for one year. We have taken it on several long distance drives from our home in Moscow Idaho to the Oregon and Washington coasts, Vancouver BC and Seattle. During each of the trips we experienced phantom braking when the car was driven with cruise control engaged at highway speeds on 2 lane highways. Phantom braking has occurred when 1) there was no oncom... Read more
Incident date: Aug 20, 2022
While driving on the highway "service stabilitrack" warning suddenly appeared. The warning went away, but the light on the dash stayed illuminated as if I had manually turned off stabilitrack. Dash then indicated traction control was turned off, speedometer, rpm gauge, and temp gauge all started bouncing around and fuel range indicated "--". Also received a warning that power steering is not funct... Read more
CHEVROLET
TRAILBLAZER
(2021) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Aug 21, 2022
Incident date: May 20, 2022
3 times in the last year while we were driving the acceleration wen very high like from 50 to all of a sudden went up to about 80. I had to stand on the brake and try to pull over. Still accelerating I put it in park and shut it off. When you restart it it drive fine again. This has happened three times and the dealership says they can't find a problem. We are stuck driving a death trap. Please h... Read more
Incident date: Aug 20, 2022
My Nissan Rogue 2017 constantly stalls when I accelerate after having to stop on a hill. I live in Pennsylvania and there are a lot of hills. It mostly happens when I have my air conditioning on. I go to accelerate and the car lags. The worst occasion was on 8/20/2022. I was stopped at a light going up hill and pressed the gas pedal and it lagged for about 30 seconds. The RPM shot up and my car wa... Read more
Incident date: Aug 17, 2022
Our Subaru Forester is slow to respond on acceleration and then surges quickly. This problem just started to surface. Our concern is when stepping down on the accelerator the car is very slow to react and then surges forward quickly, creating a serious concern over a potential accident. On August 17, 2022 I was reversing up my driveway to the garage and as I depressed the accelerator the car f... Read more
Incident date: May 16, 2022
I filed a complaint on 7/4/2022, complaint number 11472254. Since then, I have done some research and found out that there have been MANY FAILURES OF THE ABS MODUALS on RAM trucks. I have attempted to buy a new one, but there are none. I called dealerships around the United States, and many have some in stock but can't sell them (won't sell them). And if I try and order from a local dealership, ... Read more
Incident date: Aug 17, 2022
The inverter water pump failed while I was driving 50mph, it caused the car to stop working and the brakes malfunctioned as well. When I tried to hit the brakes I had to hit them a lot harder and it still acted like it wasn’t going to stop. I was lucky enough that the light up ahead was still green and the cars in front of me started going forward.
VOLKSWAGEN
JETTA SPORTWAGEN
(2010) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Aug 20, 2022
Incident date: Aug 16, 2022
In June of 2021 my car had a warning light for the DPF filter come on and told me to follow the instructions in the manual to drive it on the freeway at certain RPMs to get it to clear well that didn’t work and eventually the check engine light came on as well, I took it to the dealership and found out that the Diesel Particulate Filter was bad and needed to be replaced, the DPF was under an ext... Read more
Incident date: Aug 20, 2022
I pulled into a parking space with a friend and as I turned the wheel to pull in and had the foot on the break, as soon as I let up on the brake the car lurched forward. Luckily, I slammed back on the brake since my foot has just come off it. This was very scary as I came close to ramming into the car parked in front of me. There is no way that I hit the gas and made it lurch like it did. The car ... Read more
Incident date: Jul 17, 2022
I was driving down the road like I always do, the cruise control just shut off. I tried to re-engage it and it would not respond, about 15 minutes later I engaged the cruise control successfully. This has happened numerous times over the last three weeks and now in order to engage the cruise control, I lift with my fingertips, the top left and the bottom left of the button and then it will engag... Read more
Incident date: Aug 17, 2022
On August 17th 2022 I received the reduced performance and acceleration reduced sign with an icon of a turtle. Besides getting this light on my dash my evening ended in fear and distress as I received a call from my family that the new car purchased was acting up and all that they were afraid for their life. This occurred to my spouse in the middle of driving home on the freeway (as she had our tw... Read more
Incident date: Aug 12, 2022
My car was slow to accelerate, and sounded like the engine was over-revving. The engine stalled several times, and the car itself was shaking, while driving at a moderate speed level, which I feared would have caused an accident, because it was sudden. The service warning light appeared. I had the manifold replaced by one mechanic, but the problem occurred again. I got a second opinion, that deter... Read more
Incident date: Mar 12, 2022
When starting my BMW motorcycle it normally can be started in two modes: (1) in neutral or (2) In gear with the clutch handle pulled back to the handlebar and the clutch disengaged. However, my BMW 2015 BMW R1200RT motorcycle will NOT engage the starter motor to start the engine with the Clutch handled pulled back to the handlebar which disengages the clutch. The problem was noticed at 17,500 mile... Read more
Incident date: Jun 21, 2022
On June 21 Inn the afternoon my wife and I were driving on I-94 near Minneapolis, MN in a rental car. Suddenly the car started accelerating on its own – and the acceleration was aggressive (“pedal to the metal” type acceleration). I hit the brakes but nothing happened. As the car continued to accelerate I pumped the brakes taped on the accelerator and hit the ignition switch but nothing w... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Aug 11, 2022
The contact owns a 2010 Ford Edge. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 21V158 (Air Bags) however, the parts to do the repair were unavailable. The contact stated that the manufacturer exceeded a reasonable amount time. The dealer was not contacted. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue and informed the contact that she will be notified when parts are available. VIN t... Read more
Incident date: Aug 18, 2022
About a year ago the Vehicle Stability Control warning light along with an audible alarm started coming on intermittently while turning on highways going uphill or downhill in dry weather and with no risk of any tire slipping. At first this only happened at higher speeds 65+mph. Over time, it has occurred more and more frequently and can occur at speeds down to 25 mph. At times, the Anti-lock Br... Read more
Incident date: Aug 8, 2022
I put my right signals on and came to a near stop, as I did a right turn into the parking space in front of the dry cleaners. I was slowly creeping into the parking space, and pushing the brakes, as I slowed down to a near stop in the parking spot. All of a sudden, as my right foot was still on the brakes, I felt the car lurch forward, and felt myself pulled back into my seat from the velocity, ... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Jun 18, 2022
While driving on the freeway pulling approximately 70 miles per hour, my car will begin to shake violently, continuously decelerate and my RPMs drop significantly. I am unable to go over 55 miles per hour when this happens. This has happened to me a total of four times now within the last 2 months. I had my car take this one auto repair shop in which my spark plugs were changed out a brand new air... Read more
Incident date: Aug 18, 2022
The contact owns a 2020 Subaru Forester. The contact stated that while attempting to park her vehicle, the vehicle independently accelerated without warning. The vehicle ran through both the parking lot fence and a fence located on private property. The contact made multiple attempts to stop the vehicle by depressing the brake pedal; however, the vehicle failed to stop. The vehicle continued accel... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Aug 18, 2022
In Autopilot there has been a phantom braking problem (automatic emergency breaking due to object avoidance) since day one. It happened more than just regularly and would be uncalled for, scary, and dangerous. Ever since the update I have done that the company sent though, this has become now not just more than regularly but more than frequently and uncontrollably dangerous. It has done it around ... Read more
FORD
MUSTANG MACH E
(2022) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Aug 17, 2022
Incident date: Aug 15, 2022
Vehicle had an unintended acceleration resulting in crash in a parking lot.
Crash