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 41,082 complaints for BMW
Incident date: Jul 29, 2024
3 hours into a 4 hour drive, stopped for rest room. Got back into vehicle, started backing up and couldn't turn the wheel - almost hit a CAR. I had just spent the last 3 hours on an interstate, thankfully I didn't happen a moment sooner. Steering fault illuminated on dash - towed 100+ miles to local garage - FAILED PART IS STEERING RACK MODULATOR AT A COST OF $3200 AND ALMOST 2 LIVES. AUTO ONLY H... Read more
Incident date: Jul 29, 2024
Car experiences intermittent electrical system failure. Upon failure, drivers will experiance random and rapid clicking, clanking, and electrical systems discharging like lights, screens, and alarm. After restarting the car, users will find, all warning lights displayed with a few blinking: transmission, parking brake, traction control, a few more. Headlights will randomly turn on, as well as the ... Read more
Incident date: Jul 29, 2024
The horn on my vehicle stopped working. I have no idea when it stopped working but when I tried to use it after a vehicle went throw a stop sign I realized it wasn’t working. Talked to my dealership and they said ‘it’s a known problem with the horn.’
Incident date: Jul 29, 2024
On [XXX] at approximately 5:30p, I was driving normal highway speed when I saw what I thought was exhaust trailing behind. There were NO dash warning lights, engine temperature showing normal range, car was performing normally. I pulled over to shoulder, turned off car, released the hood latch. My husband tried to open hood but it was too hot. We then realized it was smoke coming from under hood, ... Read more
Fire
Incident date: Jul 29, 2024
On [XXX] at approximately 5:30p, I was driving normal highway speed when I saw what I thought was exhaust trailing behind. There were NO dash warning lights, engine temperature showing normal range, car was performing normally. I pulled over to shoulder, turned off car, released the hood latch. My husband tried to open hood but it was too hot. We then realized it was smoke coming from under hood, ... Read more
Fire
Incident date: May 21, 2024
My 2019 Pacifica Hybrid started showing a message around 07/19 “Service Charing Station” followed by Service Park brakes, Service Parking system and was not able to start or control anything in the car. After 15 to 30 minutes it started working and no errors. On Friday, 07/26, car stopped all of a sudden (luckily my family was in the parking lot) and showed a different message “Stop Safely. ... Read more
Incident date: Jul 26, 2024
a grinding sound occurs while turning the vehicle. after checking there appears to be a power steering recall for the same power steering motor - just for other years but not for the 2014 model. apparently once the unit fails the vehicle will be steerable but it will be more difficult. if this is a common problem, as it appears to be, a recall would be welcome.
Incident date: Jul 26, 2024
The driver was driving uphill when his RAM ProMaster suddenly lost power and rolled back down the hill, hitting a tree and stopping. During this time, the driver had absolutely no control over the vehicle, and the brakes didn’t work at all. The driver attempted to steer the vehicle, pumped the brakes, turned the key, and pulled the emergency brake, but nothing worked. Internal and external camer... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Jul 25, 2024
Stalls or Stops while driving. Increased RPM when gearing down and lunging with zero fuel pedal applied. Lunging/delayed forward motion from stop with acceleration. Electrical system random issues including unable to hold a charge, parasitic battery drain.
Incident date: Jul 21, 2024
The Eyesight system will malfunction and turn off at random times. The Automatic Emergency Braking and Forward Collision Warning will activate when there is nothing in front of my car causing it to brake abruptly. I have almost been in numerous collisions due to the random safety systems malfunctioning.
Incident date: Jun 15, 2024
At 54,000 miles on my car my car was shaking and not wanting to go past 20miles an hour. My check engine light came on. Safety was at risk, there was no warning that my car was having trouble. It was driving fine one minute and ttem all of a sudden check engine light came on. Feel that the cvt engines in Nissan are not safe
Incident date: Jun 15, 2024
Transmission is beginning to fail. I'm afraid it's gonna go out while driving Just purchased car about 2 months ago and started noticing the transmission issue
Incident date: Jun 15, 2024
I exited the freeway and pulled straight in to a gas station, as I was coming to a stop I felt a powerful thud in my chest, heard an explosion or gun shot sound, and lost my vision for a split second. As it returned I fully expected to see my airbag had deployed in my chest, however my steering wheel was in tact. My entire chest felt like I had been punched. I looked into the mirror and noticed my... Read more
Fire
1 injured
Incident date: Jul 2, 2024
The contact owns a 2019 Ford Expedition. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the vehicle shuddered and hesitated upon depression of the accelerator pedal. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was initially taken to an independent mechanic; however, the mechanic could not duplicate the failure. The vehicle was then taken to another independent mechanic where a so... Read more
Incident date: Jul 24, 2024
The contact owns a 2023 Fisker Ocean. The contact received notifications of NHTSA Campaign Numbers: 24V404000 (Electrical System) and 24V405000 (Electrical System) and 24V499000 (Electrical System); however, the parts to do the recall repairs were not yet available. The contact stated that the messages "Brake System Malfunction", "Charge Port Door Open" and other unknown messages were displayed. A... Read more
Incident date: Jul 24, 2024
The contact owns a 2014 GMC Acadia. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V334000 (Air Bags) however, the part to do the recall repair was unavailable. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was not made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failure. VIN tool confirms parts no... Read more
Incident date: Jul 24, 2024
The contact owns a 2022 Ford F-350 SD. The contact stated that while hauling a trailer, the brakes failed to operate as needed. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer, who updated and replaced the Auxiliary Power Interface Module (APIM) several times. The vehicle was repaired, but the failure recurred. Additionally, the radio turned on without driver interaction. The contact stated that the For... Read more
Incident date: Feb 2, 2023
EGR valve failed. When switched from Battery to gas car stalled and we were stuck. Dealer said it needs a new EGR valve. But it was on back order. This was a year ago and Chevy still claims the part is on back order! Now the car is ready to renew registration. But it cannot pass inspection because it must have been driven on gas for many miles for the inspection to work! The part is obviously no l... Read more
Incident date: Jul 23, 2024
The contact owns a 2015 Ford Focus. The contact stated while driving from a complete stop, the vehicle shuddered, hesitated to respond, and the transmission was slipping. The contact stated that the failure persisted while driving, and the vehicle jolted while shifting to first and second gear. The contact stated that the failure recurred increasingly while driving 30-65 MPH. The contact stated th... Read more
Incident date: Jul 23, 2024
The contact owns a 2012 Ford F-350. The contact stated that on several occasions while driving at various speeds, while driving over a small bump in the roadway, the vehicle began violently shaking. The vehicle was brought to a complete stop, and the shaking stopped. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The manufacturer was notified of the fa... Read more
Incident date: Jun 2, 2024
I purchased 2017 Lincoln MKC new almost immediately had electrical issues with it that has stayed throughout the vehicles life. At about 55,000 miles my car started acting up like it was misfiring. I took it to Lincoln and twice they said they couldn’t feel anything. I left the car over night because it mainly happened in morning starting up and going a certain speed. Lincoln called me and... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Jun 2, 2024
The clips on the roof rails are not sealed and it allows water to leak into the car through the roof. This was an issue with previous RAV4 vehicles and is continuing on with the Highlander design. The water enters the vehicle anytime it rains or the vehicle is washed.
Incident date: Jul 24, 2024
The vehicle warning lights are on, for example the brake lights and turn signal, when these are working. The seat belt alarm goes off when seat belts are on. Vehicle has turned off when in an idled state. I have gone in to get these issues fixed and they came back.
Incident date: Jul 25, 2024
My truck has shut down unexpectedly, on 2 separate occasions, as I was driving at slow speeds. I then had to come to a complete stop and restart it.
Incident date: Jul 16, 2024
Sync screen has gone black on radio causing all blind spots to be invisible while parking a large vehicle. I was told by ford tech support this is a recall in certain year ford explorers but not in the F series trucks! I looked up the issue on many of ford forums and it is an unresolved issue. If the rear camera is a recall the image projecting device “SYNC Radio” which is a brain to tru... Read more
Incident date: Jul 8, 2024
The contact’s father owns a 2017 Buick Enclave. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V334000 (Air Bags) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The local dealer was contacted. The contact called another local dealer, Bob Weaver Chevrolet Buick GMC (2174 W Market St., Pottsville, PA 17901), who declined to provide a loaner vehicle. The vehicle was... Read more
Incident date: Jul 22, 2024
The power steering on my vehicle malfunctioned, never giving me a warning as stated in the owner manual with a yellow steering light. As I was coming down a hill, the red steering light came on accompanied with a loud beep, and I lost power steering, nearly causing an accident. I had a mechanic look at it and the DTC codes he received were B200FF0 and B200F2 The dealership and independent serv... Read more
Incident date: Dec 1, 2023
I urgently need your assistance regarding a critical and unsafe situation concerning the PCM/ECU. Recently, while driving, my car began to shudder as if it was on the verge of stalling. To add to the alarming situation, every warning light on the dashboard illuminated. The speedometer and thermostat suddenly stopped functioning, leaving me without crucial information about the vehicle's speed an... Read more
Incident date: Dec 1, 2023
I have a 2014 Silverado high-country. The truck has approximately 110k miles. I was told by chevy the frame is rusted through and unsafe to work on. They know these trucks had problems with the rust coating and only put out a bulletin to have them recoated. The problem is rust is rust. Once the metal was exposed there is no going back. My truck would other wise last another 50-70k miles.
Incident date: Jul 21, 2024
This car exhibits rumbling when goinin to a decreasing downward motion as if its trying to change gear but cant. coming home from a doctors appointment last month it was raining an coming up to the top of a very small hill and just as i hit the top at the point the shocks start to lift up I almost lost control. This is not the first time its happened. It usually happens in a decelerating turn. but... Read more
Incident date: Jul 23, 2024
The contact owns a 2023 Ram 1500. The contact stated while driving 55 MPH on the highway, the "Push to Start" message was displayed on the instrument panel. The contact stated that the Forward Collision Avoidance: Automatic Emergency Braking warning light illuminated, and the vehicle lost motive power and stalled. The vehicle was not drivable and was towed to a dealer. The dealer diagnosed the veh... Read more
Incident date: Jul 5, 2024
I was driving on the highway when my vehicle suddenly lost power and simultaneously the service throttle control and service electronic stability control messages came up as well as the check engine light came on. This also happened last November and the dealer said they fixed the issue (high pressure fuel pump) but it has now happened again. I was concerned for my safety as well as my passenge... Read more
Incident date: Jul 19, 2024
I was driving on the highway when my vehicle suddenly lost power and simultaneously the service throttle control and service electronic stability control messages came up as well as the check engine light came on. This also happened last November and the dealer said they fixed the issue (high pressure fuel pump) but it has now happened again. I was concerned for my safety as well as my passenge... Read more
Incident date: Jul 22, 2024
When the Power switch is depressed the vehicle takes a certain amount of time before the READY to drive light is illuminated and the vehicle can be shifted into drive out reverse mode. However, if the gear shifter is moved into either drive or reverse prior to the light illuminating the vehicle will enter Neutral mode instead of remaining in Park. If the vehicle is stopped on any incline the vehic... Read more
Incident date: Jul 22, 2024
I have a start/stop error message on my dash and my car stalls when I am braking sometimes the car turns off completely. my car is available for inspection anytime. It is a safety concern for me and anyone who might be following me as my car will just completely shut off in traffic.
Incident date: Jul 22, 2024
Welds on condenser are leaking freon. I had a shop evacuate a/c. I keep getting told my truck vin does not have a recall for condenser even though i am seeing recall info for condenser.
Incident date: Jul 22, 2024
The 2022 Suburban lost all power and came to a dead stop in the travel lane of a busy major highway. The vehicle becoming disabled in the middle of flowing travel resulted in a rear end crash from a vehicle traveling approximately 60 MPH.
Crash
3 injured
Incident date: Jul 18, 2024
In February of 2022, while driving home from work the car suddenly lost power to the engine along with the ability to brake and stop the car. This happened during rush hour traffic on a 65 mph speed major road in DE. Fortunately we were able to get off an exit without colliding into vehicles that were coming to a stop. We had to let the car drift to a stop and had to almost stand on the brake t... Read more
Incident date: Mar 14, 2024
On first occastions while driving at 60+ MPH on a busy highway, the vehicle beeped for a few seconds and the dashboard went blank, engine died, no brakes, no power steering. It was only a miracle that saved me from being hit at a high speed by other drivers. The dealer charged the battery and updated the SW. Approximately 5 weeks later, on the second occasion after driving 300 miles out of to... Read more
Incident date: Jul 21, 2024
Possible ABS malfunctioningg/ sensitivity. This is the 3rd incident that occurred and I had this vehicle for less than a month. ABS kicks in while slowing down to stop at a stop sign; the car/ steering wheel shakes vigorously. It disengage my brakes causing the vehicle to take a longer distance to stop. This is concerning as half of the vehicle was in the middle of a busy street and my family safe... Read more
Incident date: Jul 19, 2024
The incident occurred on [XXX] at [XXX] PST in Sammamish WA, where my car (2024 Tesla Model Y) incorrectly enabled Automatic Emergency Braking , and unexpectedly applied brakes when I was traveling at 45 mph on an empty road. The sudden braking reduced the speed of my car to less than 15 mph in a span of 2 seconds and eventually brought the car to a halt . I strongly believe this was done in error... Read more
Incident date: Jul 19, 2024
I started noticing a funny noise when turning to the right and when accelerating. Took it to Community Auto Repair on 7/19/24. Below are their notes from inspection (I have attached the 1st pg of the Inspection report stating this) Test Drive - Noise Inspection NOTES Drive shaft carrier bearing is totally destroyed. Greg (owner) said that he had never seen one as bad as that before! He told me ... Read more
Incident date: Jul 20, 2024
I parked my car in the driveway, turned off the engine and exited the vehicle. Before I closed the driver's side door, the front right headrest went off like the vehicle was in an accident. The corresponding air bag did not deploy. I inspected the headrest noticing pieces of plastic had broken off and others were bent. I attempted to reset the headset following the recommended procedure. Because o... Read more
Incident date: Jul 12, 2024
Cannot remove key after car is off and in parked and engine lights keeps coming on and off throwing off a code making it hard for car to start sometimes
Incident date: Jul 12, 2024
On July 12, 2024 I was driving down the highway when my sunroof suddenly shattered. It sounded like an explosion or a gun went off. I nearly crashed my vehicle. There were no vehicles in front of me however there were vehicles behind me. I looked back into my rear view mirror and saw vehicles veering out of the way as parts of sunroof glass flew. Thankfully I was able to pull over safely. No injur... Read more
Incident date: Jul 16, 2024
The contact owns a 2020 Tiffin Allegro Red RV constructed on a 2020 Freightliner XC Modular Chassis. The contact stated that the instrument cluster display had started to delaminate. The contact stated that the delamination was on the left side of the display screen and was moving across the display and was causing a bubble on the instrument cluster. The contact stated that some of the instrument ... Read more
Incident date: Jul 16, 2024
ABS Module defective and Jeep can not provide one because of being on backorder for more than a year.
Incident date: May 20, 2024
In March of 2023, my 2019 Chevy Tahoe began having episodes where while driving there would be no gas power. The needle on the speedometer would start dropping to zero and the truck would sound like it was in neutral without notice putting everyon in the vehicle and outside of the vehicle at risk. My kids travel long distance for their AAA sports. Then all of a sudden there would be a loud noise... Read more
BMW
R 1200 GS
(2013) - POWER TRAIN:AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION:LEVER AND LINKAGE:FLOOR SHIFT
Jul 19, 2024
Incident date: Jul 9, 2024
The contact owned a 2022 Toyota Tacoma. The contact stated that while her son was driving at an undisclosed speed, upon reaching his destination, shifting the vehicle into the park position, and exiting, the vehicle began to roll away. The driver was unable to stop the vehicle, and as a result, the vehicle rolled off the roadway, coming to a complete stop at the bottom of a 25-foot embankment. The... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Jul 19, 2022
The paint on Pearl white Kia Sorrento 2019 is beginning to chip and peel