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: Dec 1, 2024
When my car is turned on there is a very noticeable shake coming from the engine area. It's not that bad once the car is driving. However, I was driving 40 miles an hour when my check engine light came on, then I was unable to accelerate and my car stalled (it's an automatic car).Once my car started up again, the check engine light was flashing, and I could only drive at like 15-20 miles per hour ... Read more
Incident date: Dec 3, 2024
for the past 3-4 months it started off with shaking. once i would try to accelerate it it would choke. took it to the dealer ship and they had it for almost 2 months. Supposedly the engiens head gasket tend to blow for those type of cars model and year. i was called yesterday that it was ready after almost 2 months. not 3 hours went by and the issue started to happened again. i have my kids if a a... Read more
Incident date: Oct 1, 2024
Husbands car started making a ticking noise and was loosing power while driving, so we brought it into the dealership. It will be $5796.58 to fix the rocker arms and camshaft. The estimate is for rocker arm roller failed damaging the camshaft. We are thankful that it has not caused any major incidents while driving that would casue serious harm to him and others on the road. Upon doing researc... Read more
Incident date: Dec 6, 2024
This vehicle has an extremely dangerous & ongoing issue related to the 9-speed transmission. Many times the vehicle does not know when to shift, sputtering/sluggish/jerky when accelerating from being stopped and coming to a stop. Frequently the vehicle engages itself into Neutral and/or Parking Brake while driving at both city and highway speeds. This is a very dangerous safety hazard as any motor... Read more
Incident date: Oct 30, 2024
While the car was in motion, the car slowed almost to a complete stop & the check engine light came on, along with the alert “Service Electronic Stability Control”. When pressing on the gas, almost no power was present. Vehicle barely moves. This has happened several times in the last 4 weeks. The first time on 11/12/2024, the most recent time 12/4/2024.The throttle was replaced, but the incid... Read more
TOYOTA
HIGHLANDER
(2019) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Dec 5, 2024
Incident date: Aug 1, 2024
Monocular Camera electronic Failure.
Incident date: Oct 31, 2024
Both main panel and infotainments system of the vehicle are inoperable. No information on the vehicle is available when operating it such as speed/charge remaining/safety information such as engine lights/cameras, etc.
Incident date: Nov 16, 2024
The contact owns a 2018 Toyota Prius. The contact stated that while in bumper-to-bumper traffic, the vehicle suddenly accelerated. The brake pedal was applied but failed to respond. The driver crashed into the front passenger side of the Lexus. The vehicle continuously moved forward. The contact was eventually able to pull over safely. The pre-collision malfunction warning light illuminated. The b... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Sep 1, 2024
The contact owns a 2020 Jeep Cherokee. The contact stated that while engaging the cruise control at 60 MPH, the vehicle unintendedly accelerated to 80 MPH. The contact attempted to lower the speed on the cruise control setting; however, the speed failed to be reduced as intended. The contact pulled over to the side of the road and turned off the vehicle to deactivate the cruise control. After wait... Read more
TOYOTA
HIGHLANDER
(2020) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Dec 4, 2024
Incident date: Dec 2, 2024
Shuttering while in motion at a speed of 35mph or above. My 2020 GMC SIERRA 1500 AT4 CarbonPro while driving at or above speeds of 35mph experiences a hesitation and severe Shuttering while trying to maintain any speed of 35mph or above. The hesitation causes extreme vibrations and hesitation when lifting or applying foot to the accelerator. This happens in any drive mode also with cruise control... Read more
Incident date: Mar 1, 2024
my wife was pulling into a driveway slowly approximately 5 mph when she went to stop the Toyota Highlander sped up to full speed and smash the tree while my wife was depressing the brake. All airbags were deployed and it looks like they are going to total the Toyota Highlander that has all the maintenance records Very lucky to not have somebody seriously injured.
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Dec 4, 2024
ABS light goes on and off constantly, cruse control will not work. Truck has 29,000 mikes and has been doing this for 3 years
Incident date: Nov 4, 2024
File has been attached.
MERCEDES-BENZ
C300
(2011) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Dec 4, 2024
Incident date: Nov 1, 2024
While driving on the highway I decided to pass the vehicle in front of me. At the same time I had hit the button to resume the speed I had set on the cruise control. I pushed the pedal all the way to the floor to quickly pass the vehicle in front and when I got past him and let off the peddle my vehicle kept accelerating. I tried turning off the cruise control but that didn’t help. I finally put... Read more
Incident date: Jan 1, 2021
I have experienced several instances where the car accelerates for a few seconds even after l let go the accelerator pedal. I will select the most recent date as I experience this almost once everyday
DODGE
GRAND CARAVAN
(2017) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Dec 4, 2024
Incident date: Aug 1, 2024
The contact owns a 2009 Chevrolet Cobalt. The contact stated that while driving 55 MPH, the contact struck a deer. The air bags did not deploy. Additionally, while driving at slow speeds, the vehicle lost motive power. The contact restarted the vehicle. There was an abnormal sulfur and fuel odor detected. The air bag warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer, where i... Read more
Crash
Incident date: May 21, 2024
Starting Dec 1st, the check engine light displayed on my dash and the electrical system has malfunctioned for many features of my vehicle. I am unable to switch to Sport & Eco Mode. The car also takes multiple tries to start the engine. It has been almost 4 months since the recall announcement and remediations are still not available. the engine coolant pump is a direct cause of short circuits and... Read more
Incident date: May 28, 2021
The big problem when I drive is that it is not safe, it jerks when I start to accelerate. I took it to the nearest dealer to have the problem fixed. And they do not want to fix the problem and now I just want to get this vehicle off the roads. I do not want to cause an accident and put my family at risk.
Incident date: Dec 3, 2024
The whole ADAS system went down and a brake system light came on. Van isn’t in warranty but isn’t old either. Just out of warranty. Lots of safety items disabled because of a faulty camera that’s too expensive to replace on our own, so now we operate a mini-van without all the extra safety items that ADAS gives you. Guess ADAS was never intended to improve safety if it only works for a coupl... Read more
Incident date: Nov 29, 2024
I was driving to my drs appointment and as I was pulling up to the hospital I saw a message from my dash and my steering wheel locked up and I had to get it towed and then sent to the dealership but since I had made a few of previous attempts to get it fixed with u guys it wasn’t getting no response, so I had to go get it fixed force and I ended up with a bill..
Incident date: Dec 1, 2024
There is an issue with 2025 Pilot Safe Systems such as adaptive cruise and blind spot detection. Honda knows about this issue and working on a fix however there is no ETA.
Incident date: Nov 25, 2024
The contact owns a 2025 Honda CR-V. The contact stated while driving 30 MPH, the contact slammed on the brakes to make an emergency stop. The vehicle stopped, but the engine revved to 500-800 RPMS. The contact stated that upon releasing the brake pedal, the vehicle lurched forward, and the RPMs were significantly higher than normal. The contact depressed the brake pedal, and the contact released t... Read more
Incident date: Jul 1, 2024
I’m having trouble accelerating when the vehicle is stopped at a stop sign or when making a left or right turn. This has been dangerous because I end up stuck in the middle of intersections without being able to move. The vehicle is new and has 1400 miles on it.
Incident date: Oct 1, 2024
This has happened three times . First time i was driving my vehicle on the street and randomly turned off . The second time this happened i was driving on the freeway at 66 mph & it randomly turned off and the speed was reduced on seconds. This incident was very dangerous to the point were i almost got hit with my family in the vehicle I needed a tow truck to take me home and it was super risky ... Read more
Incident date: Oct 15, 2024
Cylinder head gasket(s) has a leak. It limited my ability to speed up and keep up with traffic in a timely manner, requiring me to put on hazards forcing others to navigate around me causing a backlog of traffic and other potential hazards. I have had inspected by two different auto repair shops and both came to the same conclusion, they have also told me that they have seen this issue on the ... Read more
Incident date: Dec 2, 2024
Mid October 2023, we driving on the freeway and the car started to slow down on its own. We could not accelerate to match the speed of cars around us or to get the speed limits in a 55 to 65 zone, making it dangerous for us and others to continue driving on the freeway at extremely slow/low speeds. We towed it the dealership, who said it was defective spark plugs. This car was only 4 years old wit... Read more
Incident date: Sep 2, 2024
While driving on the freeway some of the lights on my dash kit up and all the sudden my car would not go over 15 mph. I tried to turn it off and turn it back on and it continued to do the same thing. I did have my grandkids in the car.
Incident date: Nov 23, 2024
[XXX] the motorcycle accelerated on its own and then stalled out in the middle of the street. [XXX] the next time the dealership was open was May 14, 2024 the vehicle was returned to House of Kawasaki (HOK)_May 15, 2024 HOK told me to pick up my bike that they could not find any issues. On [XXX], I went to pick up the bike and when Kevin the service person pulled it to the front it stalled on him... Read more
Incident date: Dec 1, 2024
The service electronic braking system and service abs system continues to ding and pop up on screen. Cruise control will not work either.
HYUNDAI
TUCSON HYBRID
(2025) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Dec 2, 2024
Incident date: Nov 13, 2024
I was on the highway going approximately 65mph for 10 minutes when my engine light turned on and began blinking. Immediately when it turned on I lost the ability to accelerate and had to go across 3 lanes of extremely busy and fast traffic to pull over onto the shoulder. Once I was on the shoulder, I shut my car off for 2 minutes and restarted it and the car worked as normal again. The initial inc... Read more
VOLKSWAGEN
GOLF R
(2016) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Dec 2, 2024
Incident date: Nov 29, 2024
The 2025 Hyundai Tucson's Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) system does not operate properly due to either a design flaw or a flawed implementation of the design. Hyundai's integration of Forward Attention Warning (FAW) with the ACC prohibits the driver from using ACC while wearing sunglasses. If one is driving the vehicle with ACC engaged and puts on sunglasses, the FAW flashes a warning on the dashb... Read more
TOYOTA
HIGHLANDER
(2021) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Dec 2, 2024
Incident date: Jul 1, 2024
When shifting the truck into gear the lights such as the parking, driving, neutral, reverse and lower gears lights as well as the lights showing which gears the trucks shifting into do not light up! Therefore, you cannot tell what gear the truck is currently placed into. Also, if the lights do light up, they flicker very erratically, and the truck will change gears on its own. When driving the v... Read more
Incident date: Dec 2, 2024
Vehicle was going around 55 mph and dropped out of gear and into limp mode or 1st gear. Happened yesterday as well around 55 mph with cruise control on. Used a scan tool and no codes given.
Incident date: Oct 2, 2024
Transmission control module, transmission clutch
Incident date: Nov 23, 2024
Leaving a parking lot and after turning right, the truck failed to accelerate for over 800 feet. Over this distance, the accelerator was pressed all the way to the floor and the truck stayed stuck in 2nd gear, slowly increasing from 2,000 rpm to 2,500 rpm, and from 17mph to 21mph. After this time, the accelerator pedal was pumped, and the truck responded with normal acceleration. This is not th... Read more
Incident date: Nov 9, 2024
The Instrument Cluster and the Infotainment Display blanked out for about 3-5 seconds while driving one evening. I'm not certain of the time interval. Just noticed both went blank, then returned.
Incident date: Nov 21, 2024
The main infotainment screen does not function. The car reboots itself every 5-6 minutes while driving. This temporarily disables all the seat sensors, signals or anything that requires electrical. The regenerative braking is also disabled. Furthermore, I can not control any Heat, AC, defrosters, which is extremely dangerous during the winter season.
Incident date: Nov 30, 2024
Transmission clutches are swollen and would make car loose throttle but I’m not to sure I got everything checked out new throttle busy and all so idk why my car hesitate to get up to speed or looses throttal
Incident date: Dec 1, 2024
The truck has an issue with 3rd gear. It wants to jolt forward and if it doesn’t catch speed it goes into “limp” mode. It’s a safety feature where it goes as fast as 2nd gear needing service to Electronic throttle body, stop/start system, and electronic stability control.
MITSUBISHI
OUTLANDER
(2018) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Dec 1, 2024
Incident date: Nov 29, 2024
Hello, thanks for reviewing. I recently bought a brand new Hyundai (VIN provided) and the speedometer intermittently is inaccurate. Maybe 50% of the time, which I would argue is less safe since I can’t reliably tell what my speed is. When it is an issue, it’s worse the faster I drive. It breaks the 10% threshold I’ve read about around 30mph, where it will say 26mph. I brought it to the Hyund... Read more
Incident date: Jul 2, 2024
While towing, the cluster presented "Service Electronic Throttle" warning, lost the ability to accelerate (limp mode), and also lost electronic skid control. Code P00AF was stored. The turbocharger is now being replaced. This is a serious safety issue that is being reported by hundreds of owners of FCA products with this engine across their brands. The same repair is being applied regardles... Read more
Incident date: Oct 19, 2024
Using the 1 pedal drive mode, I was entering my driveway, which is 90 degrees adjacent to the street I was on. My approximate speed entering the driveway was 2 MPH. As I was finishing the turn and almost straightened out, my hand accidently glazed over and engaged the cruise control button. My truck lurched forward and started to accelerate towards the garage door. I quickly stepped on the brake a... Read more
Incident date: Oct 5, 2024
I was driving and my truck check engine light came on and it said engine power reducing and the truck only went 10 mph.
Incident date: Oct 4, 2024
I have been without transportation for 3 months now and I’m about to lose my Job
Incident date: Nov 25, 2024
vehicle constantly phantom brakes while driving. i have reported 100+ incidents thru my tesla "report bug" feature. It will read the speed limit sign on the off ramp and slow the vehicle down 20mps abruptly, it will see a car on an onramp and slam the brakes on thinking there is a collision coming. it is every single day using cruise control
CHEVROLET
SILVERADO 1500
(2017) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Dec 1, 2024
Incident date: Nov 25, 2024
Service engine light illuminated indicating different occurrences. The vehicle was taken to a Ford dealership for repair since it's under factory warranty. The service representative, after taking control of the vehicle, he wrote the following in the repair work order: "When Brandon went to park the vehicle, vehicle did not want to go, barely pressed the throttle pedal and it took off like it ... Read more
FORD
MAVERICK HYBRID
(2022) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Dec 1, 2024
Incident date: May 8, 2024
On [XXX] I bought new 2024 Ford Maverick XLT Tremor AWD Ecoboost Engine with an 8-SPD Auto Transmission. On [XXX] I experienced a safety failure on this vehicle that put my son and I in a very dangerous situation. While driving on a busy avenue, I stop on a traffic light and I had the vehicle on "Drive" with the brake pressed. When the traffic light turned green I proceeded normally switching from... Read more
Incident date: Nov 29, 2024
I bought this car a few weeks ago and drove only 300 miles so far. I was pulling out of my neighborhood onto the Main Street, when I turned then started to accelerate I received an error saying engine control error and my car came to a screeching halt. The accelerator stopped working and the car made some loud grinding noises and no functions were working.luckily nobody was behind me. I turned off... Read more
Incident date: Nov 30, 2024
While driving on the freeway at approximately 65 MPH using adaptive cruise control (ACC) the steering column display changed from MPH to kilometers per hour (KPH). See attached photo and description. The change of cruise control setting distracted the driver and caused confusion since the ACC speed setting changed from 65 MPH to 104 KPH. It took a minute for the driver to realize the units of mea... Read more
Incident date: Nov 30, 2024
Had a recall repaired yet it still randomly my brake lamps still don’t function correctly