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: Oct 17, 2024
The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving approximately 65 MPH, the braking system erroneously activated, causing the vehicle to abruptly decelerate. The contact stated that the failure was due to a failure with the computer reading the speed limit as 45 MPH instead of 65 MPH. The cause of the failure was not yet determined. The manufacturer and local dealer were not ... Read more
Incident date: Oct 1, 2024
I started my vehicle in the morning to let it warm up. I come back out to get myself and my son in the vehicle to go to work and take him to school. My dash upon entry had a check engine light on, and the message it displayed was "engine power reduced." I put my car into reverse, having no choice but to drive it and the traction control went out. My father in law pulled the code and it said someth... Read more
Incident date: Oct 17, 2024
I was on the road and I hit a bump on the freeway only going between 55 and 65 mph and the Truck immediately started to whobble out of control I almost hit the car next to me because I could not control it . It was a life and death experience I could never shake off . I spoke to the dealer and they claimed they had never heard of such thing and acted like they didn’t believe me. What ever is wro... Read more
Incident date: Aug 15, 2024
When driving on highway my car is losing control. This is non-stop every time I hit a bump in the road. The vehicle becomes uncontrollable.
Incident date: Jun 1, 2024
Vehicle speeds up and breaks uncontrollably. When stopped it displays several codes on the dashboard 1) power steering fail, increased effort, driving permitted, 2) GRA/ACC fault driving permitted 3) faulty windshield wipers No fault codes are found with a code reader.
Incident date: Oct 17, 2024
On September 7th, 2024 around 7:35 PM, my tesla model S 2016 Suddenly accelerated, smashed in the siding of my house breaking the the siding of the wall and was totaled. All of this happened while my mom was trying to park the car in the garage the car suddenly took off without her pressing the accelerator. I have tesla to send an engeneer to collect the data of the car in which they said they di... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Oct 3, 2024
While driving the PU with my camper in tow, the ABS and Service electronic bakes system warning were displayed on my dash. Then they went out. This process repeated several times over the next 3-4 minutes. Then the warning lights came on and stayed on. It remained that way until I parked on the side of the road and turned off the vehicle. I checked the undercarriage for any signs of any visible da... Read more
Incident date: Jan 1, 2023
ABS/traction control warning lights and alarm intermittently on and off during driving, speed control does not work during the alarm cycle. ABS not working when warning comes on
Incident date: May 16, 2024
It's clear that my abs module is bad but it consists of three components. Mopar online doesn't have any components available to fix the problem. And the Dealer is selling the components separately and telling you which one they will sell you first and also at a higher price than what's available to you online
Incident date: Jun 17, 2024
My issue began 1 month after buying the vehicle. Regardless if I'm on the highway or back road no transition from one lane to another needs to be initiated , my whole dash will light up red and the car will come to a complete stop , at this time I just hold on and brace myself .Im a RN w/2 kids I went back to the dealer they said they checked it out but on my own I found out the car was in 2 acci... Read more
Incident date: Nov 23, 2023
The contact owns a 2024 Honda CR-V. The contact stated while driving in stop-and-go traffic, the vehicle unintentionally accelerated while the brake pedal was being depressed. No warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was taken to an auto repair shop where it was diagnosed however the failure was unidentifiable. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. T... Read more
Incident date: Oct 7, 2024
Steering wheel clock spring is not working. Controls wipers, turn signals, speed control, voice commands, lane aware and allows to toggle thru control settings do not work. Ford doesn’t have part available or an ETA. This part covers vehicles from 2013 thru 2024 so currently vehicles coming down assembly line are using. My car is unusable like this. Aftermarket part is also unavailable. Please... Read more
Incident date: Oct 17, 2024
Everytime I start my car in the cold I get all these warning messages on my dash, in this case it just let me choose 2 options but I also get Auto idle stop problem, mitagation problem etc. I took it to the dealer they dont know what could be the proble. There are no recallas on this and people on forums are saying it can be a module. This is dangerous.
Incident date: Jul 25, 2024
Sporadically, when in snow mode, the car refuses to accelerate at all. Moderate pressing of the gas pedal or completely flooring it, the car will not respond and accelerate. The only way to fix this is to change it out of snow mode. This does not happen 100% of the time when in snow mode. It is sporadic. This has happened multiple times to me and it always seems to occur when in the middle of maki... Read more
Incident date: May 16, 2023
I was backing out of an outdoor shopping center slot located at the end by the curb. I had to attempt this three times due to traffic and another car that was also trying to back out. On my third attempt, I hit the curb with my passenger rear wheel. When I changed gear to move forward, the ID4 jerked violently three times. At this point my hands were on the wheel and my feet were not on either the... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Oct 13, 2024
Electronic throttle body failure My car lost power going 50 mph in road construction The car had a recall and extended warranty on it from 2014-2024, i was not notified Check engine light, drive shaft light, and service advance trac appeared a few weeks before the failure
Incident date: Oct 7, 2024
* I was pulling into a parking space at a slow speed. When I applied the brake the car accelerated causing the car to scrape the car next to the space. The car then stopped. * The acceleration was out of my control and the brakes did not stop it. Fortunately there was no person in front of me. * The Tow truck operator who came to get the car experienced the same issue when pulling into the bay at... Read more
Crash
FORD
BRONCO SPORT
(2021) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Oct 16, 2024
Incident date: Oct 9, 2024
The contact owns a 2022 Chevrolet Silverado 1500. The contact stated that while starting the vehicle, the vehicle unintended accelerated. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 16,000.
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 6, 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 10, 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: Oct 16, 2024
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
Incident date: Jul 23, 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
FORD
MUSTANG MACH E
(2023) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Oct 15, 2024
Incident date: Oct 13, 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: Oct 11, 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 11, 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
CHEVROLET
SILVERADO 1500
(2019) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Oct 15, 2024
Incident date: Jun 8, 2023
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
Incident date: Oct 14, 2024
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
Incident date: Dec 20, 2023
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: Jan 14, 2020
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
VOLKSWAGEN
ID.4
(2021) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Oct 14, 2024
Incident date: Oct 7, 2024
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: Sep 30, 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 8, 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 13, 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: Dec 5, 2023
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: Jul 3, 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 13, 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: Aug 15, 2024
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
MICHELIN
DEFENDER 2
(9999) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Oct 13, 2024
Incident date: Oct 11, 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
MERCEDES-BENZ
REDUNDANT EQE 350 4MATIC
(2023) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Oct 12, 2024
Incident date: Oct 8, 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)
Incident date: Sep 23, 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
CASTLE ROCK
RADIAL
(9999) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Oct 11, 2024
Incident date: Sep 13, 2024
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
DODGE
GRAND CARAVAN
(2014) - VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Oct 11, 2024
Incident date: Oct 8, 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: Oct 10, 2016
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
Incident date: Sep 21, 2024
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: Oct 11, 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