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 3, 2024
“shark fin” GPS antenna because unglued allowing water into the electrical system in the roof. This caused a malfunction that disabled the emergency call functions, GPS location service for emergency calls and GPS functions. The issue is the TCB component due to faulty waterproofing. It also makes hands free calling impossible which makes following hands free laws more difficult. Upon investig... Read more
Incident date: Oct 5, 2024
The Lead Frame in my truck went bad. I was driving on the highway doing 70mph, the truck downshifted to 5th and I lost control of what gear I was in. When I came to a stop the truck was still in 5th gear and it died. I was unable to restart the truck and had to get it towed.
Incident date: Oct 15, 2024
When pushing the gas car will not accelerate then they’ll be like a big “clunk” like it’s not into gear and then the car will slow slowly accelerate then it’ll shoot off. Also my screen goes crazy like something electrical is happening .
Incident date: Jan 1, 2002
I own a 2020 Tesla Y with Hardware version 3 and after a few weeks of a free trial, purchased Tesla's Full Self-Driving Software (FSD) version 12.3.6. Since then, the FSD software was updated to version 12.5.4 and then 12.5.4.1. FSD version 12.3.6 had some safety issues. But version 12.5.4 and 12.5.4.1 has had more issues that have resulted in nearly having accidents that I have had to suddenly a... Read more
INDIAN
SPRINGFIELD
(2017) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Oct 15, 2024
Incident date: Sep 3, 2024
The contact owns a 2021 Honda CR-V. The contact stated that while reversing into her driveway at 1 MPH, the vehicle accelerated, the brake pedal was applied but locked up, and the steering wheel locked up. The vehicle crashed through a guardrail and crashed into a tree. There were no warning lights illuminated. The contact stated that the failure was related to NHTSA Campaign Number 23V844000 (Ele... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Oct 15, 2024
The car had a (SUA) Sudden Unintended Acceleration malfunction. No, the car was totaled and towed away. My safety was put at risk as I was slowly pulling into a parking spot, eased my foot onto the brake and this malfunction caused my car to involuntarily jolt into a rampant high speed. It jumped a curb and crashed into a tree. My brake was useless in stopping this runaway vehicle. The only thing... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Jun 1, 2024
On Oct. 11, 2024, I was pulling into a parking spot when my vehicle suddenly accelerated. My foot was not on the accelerator. I braked but not in time to stop the car before it hit the side of a building. I was not injured, but do not want to use drive the vehicle until I understand what happened and whether this sudden unintended acceleration defect can be fixed.
Crash
Incident date: Oct 11, 2024
Dear NHTSA, I am writing to express my disappointment regarding my experience with my 2015 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel, particularly in relation to unresolved recalls and inadequate service from dealerships. Last year, I began experiencing significant issues with my truck, ultimately leading me to Southern Motors in Springfield. They diagnosed the problem as needing a new engine, which was concerning. Ho... Read more
Incident date: Oct 3, 2024
The accident happened at Noon on [XXX] at the Amazon Fresh/Post office parking lot’s far right exit lane facing [XXX] The address is [XXX] . We were leaving the parking lot and I stopped at the exit lane with 2 cars in front of us. After the first car exited, the second car, a black Ford Explorer, moved forward. I released the brake slightly but my foot was still on the brake pedal. At this mo... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Oct 15, 2024
Does not start reliably. When driving vehicle sputters and even stalls or complete shut offs while driving. Will loose ability to accelerate and lack power. Taken to 4 different mechanics / 2 of which Dodge Dealerships and no one can find whats wrong. Engine light on.
Incident date: Oct 7, 2024
Forward radar sensor pass side lower grill/bumper area. 1st told a sensor recall but after 3 hrs and then seeing the vehicle in the shop with the entire front bumper clip removed the sensor was out of its driver side socket and 1 side flopping around which may have caused a small dimple from the inside to pop out on the 6x5 cover that is the entire lower rubber/plastic black bumper/grill. Told the... Read more
VOLKSWAGEN
TIGUAN
(2016) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Oct 15, 2024
Incident date: Oct 14, 2024
My Tesla still has the phantom braking problem. It is repeatable and consistent. I can tell when it will occur on a route that I drive regularly. Day or night does not seem to alter the occurrence. There is no indication on the touch screen when this occurs. Traffic volume does not matter. It always occurs at the same places so it should be relatively easy to fix if someone would just monitor my c... Read more
FORD
EXPEDITION
(2018) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Oct 14, 2024
Incident date: Aug 21, 2023
Since purchasing the vehicle we have had extensive issues with the driveability of the car. Leading up to the eventual full transmission replacement, we surfaced the issues below repeatedly for over a year and a half. Yet, we were always told "everything is fine" "we couldn't duplicate what you are describing" or "the vehicle has to learn how you drive". Biggest Issues: - Poor shifting of ge... Read more
KIA
SORENTO HYBRID
(2023) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Oct 14, 2024
Incident date: Aug 1, 2024
After the PGM-FI update was put into our car, the engine cuts out entirely while at stop lights and will not wake back up. The Honda dealership is saying that there is nothing they can do.
Incident date: Oct 3, 2024
The powertrain control units (engine and/or transmission) exhibit concerning behaviors when accelerating from a stop. The actual vehicle acceleration and propulsive torque does not match driver demanded torque for an extended period of time. The amount of delayed reaction is longer when the vehicle is ‘cold’ meaning that the vehicle has not been running prior to driving for an extended period ... Read more
Incident date: Dec 21, 2023
September 8th, 2024 @ approximately 3pm My Mercedes EQE 350+ accelerated to a high speed when the front tire touched a curb. The car ran over the curb and into the parking lot. I was able to steer the car but the brakes didn't work. The car kept going through a stop sign and into the intersection. Luckily there were no cars in the intersection and I finally thought to turn the car off. It then sto... Read more
Incident date: Oct 14, 2024
The vehicle has coolant leaking into the cylinders. The dealership shows that it was due to overheating but the vehicle has not overheated. The dealership states that the engine needs replacement but is unable to verify any damage in the cylinders. The vehicle was taken in due to misfiring and the vehicle dying upon starting after a short period of time being turned off.
Incident date: Oct 4, 2024
3 episodes of unexpected and sudden braking for no reason. Twice on Sept 13 when ACC was in use and set at 70 mph the car hard-braked and dropped to 40-42mph rapidly, then it stopped braking and I was able to use the accelerator again- the braking lasted perhaps 10-15 seconds. The third episode was on Oct. 13 and the ACC was not on. I was driving manually at 55 mph and again the car suddenly br... Read more
Incident date: Oct 8, 2024
We went to an appointment and when we got back in the car, a message was on the screen. It said that the brake system has failed and we could only drive 43 mph maximum! The engine light was on and we could not accelerate beyond 43 mph. This is extremely dangerous when driving on a highway! We drove home on the interstate going 43 mph in a 70 mph zone! We had small children in the car and almos... Read more
Incident date: Oct 10, 2024
I was driving the vehicle in the middle lane of a 3-lane (one direction) interstate highway when a message appeared on the dashboard "stop safely vehicle will shut off soon," the check engine light turned on and the vehicle lost all ability to accelerate so it was extremely challenging to navigate to the side of the road safely through busy rush hour traffic. As the driver I had zero ability to ac... Read more
Incident date: Oct 10, 2024
Was on highway going 65, check engine light started flashing loss power. Couldn't go over 2000 rpms car would struggle to accelerate, car had been using up oil like crazy the week before. Stopped at an autozone car read code P1326.
Incident date: Oct 11, 2024
I’ve had a recall on this car for over 4 months and the dealership/brand hasn’t been able to fix the car yet. I recently got another recall that looks it won’t be fixed because, as the first one, the repairs are not yet available. The dashboard and the screen every now and then will go off and reset as if I was turning the car on. It has happened when the car is moving. My car is loosing val... Read more
Incident date: Jun 15, 2022
Over the past month, the car has provided warnings when driving: 1. Front assist has limited availability, 2. ACC unavailable, and 3. Emergency assist is currently not available. Note: the ACC was not engaged when these messages appeared. On October 1 I was driving on a highway at about 65 MPH with adaptive cruise control engaged. The weather was clear. Suddenly the ACC disengaged and the c... Read more
Incident date: Oct 13, 2024
Driver set cruise control has FSD imbedded that causes the vehicle to slow down drastically on its own. The car has brake tested several following vehicles so far. I’ve seen this before many times of other Teslas but thought it was the driver and now I know it was not. This causes a chain reaction of braking and smoking tires. I am positive this has created accidents but the ones involved have n... Read more
Incident date: Aug 1, 2024
The transmission slips when giving it gas. I lose power when I excelerate Sometimes. Sometimes the truck excelerates when I'm not giving It throttle. Transmission jumps all over. The transmission seems to be very rough shifting back and forth
Incident date: Oct 9, 2024
My wife turned on the car after it had been parked for a few hours and the primary instrument cluster display (that contains critical information such as speed) was blank. There was nothing she could do to reenable it. This seems to be the same issue found by many other EV9 owners here: [XXX] INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
TOYOTA
HIGHLANDER
(2011) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Oct 11, 2024
Incident date: Oct 9, 2024
I am reporting an incident of sudden unintended acceleration of my 2024 Kia Sportage plug-in Hybrid. On Oct. 11, 2024, my wife was parking the vehicle in a lot near our home when the car suddenly accelerated, only stopping when it crashed into the side of a building. My wife was not injured, though the vehicle was damaged. She insists she did not accidentally hit the accelerator instead of the bra... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Jun 17, 2021
I am reporting a critical safety issue with my KIA EV9. The vehicle's information screen, which displays essential driving data such as vehicle speed, cruise control status, advanced driving system indicators, lights, and signals, has malfunctioned. On two separate occasions, the screen went completely black while driving, leaving all critical driving information inaccessible. This malfunction pos... Read more
NISSAN
PATHFINDER
(2022) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Oct 11, 2024
Incident date: Oct 11, 2024
The contact owns a 2013 Ford Escape. The contact stated that immediately after driving into a parking space and stopping, the vehicle suddenly experienced unintended acceleration and drove forward over a median curb before crashing into another parked vehicle. During the incident, no injuries were reported and no police report was filed. The vehicle was driven to the home and later towed to the co... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Sep 20, 2024
The contact owns a 2015 RAM 1500. The contact stated that while driving on multiple occasions at various speeds the vehicle lost power. A " Service Electronic Throttle Control" message appeared. The check engine warning light was also illuminated. The vehicle was taken to a dealer where it was diagnosed that the crankshaft position sensor needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The m... Read more
HYUNDAI
IONIQ HYBRID
(2018) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Oct 11, 2024
Incident date: Oct 28, 2023
THE ABS BRAKES YES IT IS AVAILABLE FOR INSPECTION BY NOT HAVING ABS BRAKEING WHEELS HAVE LOCKED UP HAVE NOT HAD DEALER CHECKIT HAD A MECHANIC PUT ON COMPUTER FOR CODES NO TRUCK HASN'T BEEN INSPECTED BY ANYONE ELSE BUT THE MECHANIC WARNING LIGHTS HAVE COME ON AND OFF A NUMBER OF TIME AND LATELY MORE OFTEN IT STARED ABOUT A YEAR AGO TOOK IT TO DEALER THEN BUT WASN'T REPAIRED PROPERTY
Incident date: Jul 22, 2024
The system that is malfunctioning is the transmission. It is randomly shifting into neutral while at stop lights and while driving down the roads. This is an unsafe problem because the vehicle has to stop and be turned off then restarted before the transmission will allow you to change into drive. Stopping in the road on multiple occasions due to not being able to move to the side, has been caus... Read more
CHRYSLER
TOWN AND COUNTRY
(2015) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Oct 10, 2024
Incident date: Oct 3, 2024
While driving to work at approximately 6:30 am , as I was signaling to merge onto the on ramp the cars gas pedal stop controlling the speed of my car. I pulled over to the side of the road and my car would not move. I tried to put the heat shifter into park but it was stuck in drive. I had to have the towed to a mechanic which informed me that I needed a new transmission. (3 different independent ... Read more
Incident date: Jul 17, 2024
The contact owns a 2024 Rivian R1S. The contact stated that while his wife was attempting to park in a parking space, the vehicle unintendedly accelerated. The brake pedal was violently depressed however the vehicle continued to accelerate. No warning lights illuminated. The contact stated that the vehicle hit a curb in a landscaping zone and crashed into another vehicle. The air bags did not de... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Oct 10, 2024
The car behind me was very close. I wanted to get up to the speed limit and pressed the gas. The car did not accelerate. I heard
Incident date: Oct 10, 2024
The contact owns a 2022 Toyota Highlander Hybrid. The contact stated while driving approximately 45 MPH, the vehicle independently accelerated while the brake pedal was depressed. No warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was taken to a dealer on several different occasions to be diagnosed; however, the dealer was unable to determine the cause of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The ... Read more
Incident date: Oct 10, 2022
Front camera stopped working after a long period of working intermittently (started to happen after passing warranty at 30,000 miles). Without that camera many safety features are disabled, like a front collision warning, lane departure, cruise control with adoptive speed, emergency breaking. The cable and processor issue was confirmed by Ford dealership service.
Incident date: Jan 1, 2022
The speedometer can report zero (0) when the car is moving slowly. This is probably the rounding policy in software. The actual speed was maybe 0.4 mph, but was reported as zero mph. If the actual speed was 10.4 mph but reported as 10, fine, not a big deal, but zero has a much different meaning than any other value. It means none, that the car isn't moving, but the car was.
Incident date: Oct 8, 2024
I was in a parking lot on [XXX] in Mamaroneck, New York waiting in line to get out at approximately [XXX]. Many cars were ahead of me due to the school drop-off rush, with parents and kids lined up in the parking lot waiting to leave. While I was waiting, the Tesla unexpectedly accelerated on its own, but I managed to hit the brakes just in time to avoid colliding with the car in front of me. A... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Oct 9, 2024
The service parking brake warning pops up on start up (P)!, along with the engine light and the traction control light. A warning that says service parking brake appears, around with a service transmission warning, and occasionally another message saying 4wd unavailable at the moment. Another message says restart car in park at zero speed, which the car is already in park & not moving. The car is ... Read more
Incident date: Oct 9, 2024
My car is always hesitating to go , sometimes it will slow considerably down and won’t go , and my engine lights pops on and starts flashing. I have to turn my car off and turn it back on. That’s very dangerous Ive almost been hit like that AND I HAVE TWO KIDS!!!!!
Incident date: Aug 19, 2023
While driving home, driving speed was 55 mph, car engine bogged down and orange wrench icon illuminated on dash. I was not far from home and was able to continue and "limp" home. Car would not go faster than 10-15 mph. When I parked car in garage and shut car off, the brake lights stayed on. There was no warning lights or anything wrong with car before incident. Car has not been inspected by ... Read more
Incident date: Jun 22, 2024
The screen that shows speed, miles remaining, etc. went black on a long trip. All of the automated cruise control, lane keeping, etc. are also housed in that screen. The blinkers would not work, I had no idea how fast I was going at any time which is unsafe. I could not see how much range is left on the vehicle which I imagine could lead the car just dying while driving or going into the turtle mo... Read more
Incident date: Sep 6, 2024
While merging onto the parkway, the gas pedal snapped off during acceleration. There was no warning at all, it just snapped off when I stepped on the pedal. I was fortunate enough to pull over onto the shoulder of the parkway without incident, but I had no way to accelerate the car if I needed to. I was very lucky that nothing happened, but I'm very concerned about driving this vehicle and the pot... Read more
Incident date: Dec 19, 2023
My car experiences issues around acceleration. It often feels like it gets “stuck” or hesitates when I try to accelerate from a stop (ex. a stoplight) or low speed or when I try to merge onto the highway. At times I have not been able to merge onto the highway at a safe speed because my acceleration gets stuck/lags at a low mph (ex. 35 mph onto a 70 mph highway). My car also excessively consum... Read more
Incident date: Jun 20, 2024
2021 Chevy Traverse went out in September, it would shutter causing take off to jerk so hard and cause traffic to stall, hurting passengers necks, and almost causing accidents
Incident date: Oct 5, 2024
Vehicle Information: 2024 Kia EV9 Light Long Range Mileage: 850 miles Issue Summary: I am reporting a serious safety concern with my 2024 Kia EV9 Light Long Range. Within the first three weeks of ownership and with less than 900 miles on the odometer, I experienced multiple instances of the vehicle entering "turtle mode" while driving at high speeds on the freeway. This mode significantly reduced... Read more
Incident date: Oct 7, 2024
My 2019 Ram 1500 is experiencing the exact same issues listed in recall 75B but my VIN number is not part of the recall. The symptoms that it is having are the exact ones listed in your recall from 9/11/24 concerning the ABS and stability control issues. It is very disheartening that there wasn’t a better investigation done on this issue either on your end or on Ram’s end. I’m sure there are... Read more
Incident date: Oct 1, 2024
Components related to timing chain failed, and vehicle is currently available with plans to sell to a salvage yard by 10/25/24. My 9 year old and I were at risk of collision when the vehicle failed. I was driving approximately 70-75 mph when we started to lose power. At 65 mph, I managed to cross 2 lanes of highway traffic and stopped on the shoulder. I turned off my vehicle and waited several m... Read more
Incident date: Oct 4, 2024
I have had several codes pop up on my Equinox, such as P0016, P0017, P0089 and P228D. All of these codes are between the Crankshaft position, variable timing position and high pressure fuel issues. I almost wrecked my SUV because of these 3 factors and I have seen thousands of videos on YouTube with other people having the same issues. This is beyond dangerous to be out on the road driving and the... Read more