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 40,555 complaints for BMW
Incident date: Mar 2, 2022
There are issues with steering possible lane assist. I took it to Honda to be accessed, initially the rep tried to tell me there was nothing wrong/ didn’t understand the issues I was having. Then I was told it was a small hose that was constantly triggering lane assist feature and that they needed to take the dash apart and install this part they claim they special ordered. I left my car at th... Read more
Incident date: Jan 4, 2023
Power steering went out while driving. Nearly cause me to crash. Apparently this is an issue with these vehicles but my vin is not part of the recall?
Incident date: Oct 1, 2021
The contact owns a 2010 Mercedes-Benz R350. The contact stated while driving 5 MPH, the vehicle made a squishing an abnormal knocking sound. The contact stated that as the speed increased to 15-20 MPH, the issue ceased. The contact stated that upon driving for an extended period, the brake pedal became stiff. The brake warning light was illuminated. The contact later received notification of NHTSA... Read more
Incident date: Oct 1, 2021
Many Jeep vehicles have gas blow back during refueling. This problem has existed for a number of years and Jeep has issued recalls. Please read the following: If each Jeep user spills .1 gallon during refueling and they refuel the Jeep 12 times per year they spill 1.2 gallons per year. This is a very low estimate. If there are 100,000 Jeeps experiencing this problem that is 120,000 gallons of gas... Read more
Incident date: Jan 12, 2021
Gear shifting and transmission problems are on going and intermittent. computer system confused to witch location shifter is in. Sent to dealer for system up date witch only lasted one week before problems returned. error code p0810
Incident date: Dec 13, 2022
The contact owns a 2014 Ford Focus. The contact stated that on numerous occasions while the accelerator pedal was depressed, the engine hesitated to respond then the vehicle stalled. The contact was able to restart the vehicle. The contact stated that while accelerating the vehicle inadvertently decelerated. The transmission fault warning light and an unknown warning light were illuminated. The ve... Read more
Incident date: Dec 27, 2022
No safety devices worked during accident that cause by another vehicle driver who ran red light. Neither air bags deployed, nor safety belt worked properly during an accident. Due to these mal functions of safety devices, my wife on the passenger seat hit the dashboard badly. She was wearing the seat belt properly which was released later by the ER personal at the accident location to transfer to ... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Jan 2, 2023
While driving the check engine light came on moments later the steering wheel stiffened up then released mid turn when I turn the steering wheel the tires didn’t respond I hit a curb
Incident date: Jan 2, 2023
Windshield was hit by a TINY piece of gravel or road debris - so small we didn’t even see it. It left a ding in the windshield about the size of a pencil point - maybe a couple of millimeters in diameter. Before we could even pull off the road, the grass has cracked about three inches. Within about ten minutes the crack spread another three inches. Within a couple of hours, the crack had travele... Read more
Incident date: Jan 2, 2023
Engine caught fire on drivers side.
Fire
Incident date: Jan 11, 2023
2015 FORD EDGE. CONSUMER WRITES IN REGARD TO THE DEFECTIVE FLEXPLATE. THE CONSUMER REPAIRED THE VEHICLE AT THE OWNERS EXPENSE BUT REQUESTING TO BE REIMBURSED FOR ALL REPAIRS AND ATTORNEY FEES.
Incident date: Jan 11, 2023
Issue with auto start-stop. Upon being stopped at a light, the auto start did not reengage and upon starting back up again the radio defaulted to an AM station and would not allow us to change anything.
Incident date: Dec 15, 2022
The contact owned a 2013 Chevrolet Equinox. The contact stated that while driving approximately 45 MPH down an inclined road, the front driver-side air bag was erroneously deployed causing the driver to lose control of the vehicle and crash down an embankment. During the crash, the driver sustained a concussion and left arm, neck, and rib injuries which required medical treatment. A police report ... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Jan 10, 2023
While using “Autopilot” and “Traffic Aware Cruise Control” the vehicle will heavily apply the brakes when there are no forward obstructions or incidents. This causes issues for vehicles behind me and is very unsettling, as there never appears to be a reason for the dramatic reduction in speed.
Incident date: Sep 21, 2022
While stopped at a traffic light on a busy street, the transmission shifted by itself from drive into neutral. The vehicle would not move forward and it would not let us shift it back into drive. I finally suggested to my wife that we turn the car off and see if that would help. After doing do , we were able to regain control of the car and shift it back to drive. We had another incident when ... Read more
Incident date: Sep 21, 2022
The contact owns a 2023 BMX IX. The contact stated that while driving the vehicle at approximately 5 MPH while attempting to pull into a parking space the vehicle suddenly experienced unintended acceleration and accelerated forward crashing into the rear of a second vehicle. The second vehicle then crashed into a third vehicle. The contact indicated that the during the incident the vehicle was bei... Read more
Crash
3 injured
Incident date: Jan 6, 2023
The door latches don't spring back into a position that allows the door to be closed again, once it has been opened. I have to stick my finger in the latch hole in the door while pulling out the latch handle to put the latch back into the position where the door will close. So far, this problem has effected three of the four doors in my sedan.
Incident date: Jan 10, 2023
The contact owns a 2017 Ford Fusion. The contact stated while driving 35 MPH, the temperature gauge showed that the engine was overheating. The message “Engine Overheating – Stop Vehicle” was displayed. The vehicle was towed to the dealer to be diagnosed; however, no failure was found. The contact stated that the coolant reservoir was empty. The contact stated that coolant was added; however... Read more
Incident date: Jan 4, 2023
The contact owns a 2019 Honda Odyssey. The contact stated that the driver's side third-row seat belt had detached; however, the buckle was still intact. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired by an independent mechanic or dealer. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 40,000.
Incident date: Jan 5, 2023
Car has been at dealer 3 times for Wi-Fi issue. Mechanic took car home for longer drive to check. No found issues. Brought in for small noise that comes and goes. They Came back saying $10000 for cam shaft and lifters they are assuming.
Incident date: Aug 9, 2022
Fuel pump supply / drive train malfunction. Vehicle was driven in freeway and has sudden message pop up on display screen and abruptly shut down. Unable to exit the freeway lanes. Stuck on the inbound lanes of freeway. Unable to re start vehicle to exit freeway. Took vehicle to local repair shop for inspection/repair to be made to fuel pump supply , only to have the same problem return in matter... Read more
Incident date: Apr 22, 2022
First Failure 3/22- Vehicle makes clanking/rattling of metal sound when going over bumps. Sound is felt near driver caliper and rattles. Can be felt in steering. 4/22 Vehicle is taken to BMW for inspection; needed to come back as they couldn't figure it out. 5/22 Vehicle sound is replicated by BMW dealer service center. I have not received any warning messages or lights prior. Current lights... Read more
Incident date: Apr 22, 2022
First Failure 3/22- Vehicle makes clanking/rattling of metal sound when going over bumps. Sound is felt near driver caliper and rattles. Can be felt in steering. 4/22 Vehicle is taken to BMW for inspection; needed to come back as they couldn't figure it out. 5/22 Vehicle sound is replicated by BMW dealer service center. I have not received any warning messages or lights prior. Current lights... Read more
Incident date: Apr 22, 2022
First Failure 3/22- Vehicle makes clanking/rattling of metal sound when going over bumps. Sound is felt near driver caliper and rattles. Can be felt in steering. 4/22 Vehicle is taken to BMW for inspection; needed to come back as they couldn't figure it out. 5/22 Vehicle sound is replicated by BMW dealer service center. I have not received any warning messages or lights prior. Current lights... Read more
Incident date: Dec 30, 2022
I parked my car in the garage and secured everything and when I turned the ignition off and cluster message appeared "secure vehicle against rolling". The car is parked on a level surface and parking brake engaged.
Incident date: Nov 30, 2022
Timing chain malfunction and power train malfunction
Incident date: Nov 30, 2022
Timing chain malfunction and power train malfunction
Incident date: Jan 6, 2023
The contact owns a 2011 BMW 328I. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V119000 (Engine and Engine Cooling) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The local dealer was contacted. 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 ... Read more
Incident date: Dec 30, 2022
The contact owns a 2013 BMW X5. The contact stated while driving 45 MPH, the front drive shaft failed to operate as designed, rendering the vehicle undrivable. The contact stated that during the failure, the driveshaft detached, and caused damage to the vehicle. The vehicle was towed to the local dealer, and the front drive shaft and hydraulic steering lines were replaced. The manufacturer was not... Read more
Incident date: Nov 1, 2022
The contact owns a 2015 BMW X5. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 21V907000 (Fuel System, Diesel) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The contact stated that the check engine warning light was illuminated with an abnormal knocking sound coming from the engine. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where the failure was linked to the recall; howe... Read more
Incident date: Dec 6, 2022
This vehicle was involved in a collision, none of the safety features worked. The front end collision warning did not go off. The automatic emergency braking did not engage. The Car jolted forward after the collision and did not stop, potentially risking another collision. The SOS or emergency collision BMW assist was not activated, there was no call from anyone from BMW after the accident. No w... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Dec 6, 2022
This vehicle was involved in a collision, none of the safety features worked. The front end collision warning did not go off. The automatic emergency braking did not engage. The Car jolted forward after the collision and did not stop, potentially risking another collision. The SOS or emergency collision BMW assist was not activated, there was no call from anyone from BMW after the accident. No w... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Dec 6, 2022
This vehicle was involved in a collision, none of the safety features worked. The front end collision warning did not go off. The automatic emergency braking did not engage. The Car jolted forward after the collision and did not stop, potentially risking another collision. The SOS or emergency collision BMW assist was not activated, there was no call from anyone from BMW after the accident. No w... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Jan 3, 2023
While driving at approximately 45 mph on Florida Highway 10 with no other cars around the sunroof suddenly shattered. There was a loud “pop” and the sound of glass hitting the top of the car. The sunroof and shade were closed at the time and most of the glass ended up in the street. There is considerable paint damage to the roof of the vehicle from the glass hitting it after shattering.
Incident date: Jan 5, 2023
When parking or starting the car a warning message is issued indicate that I should secure the vehicle against rolling and the transmission is flagged as the problem. I did some research online and found out this is a very common problem with the BMW X1. A small spring breaks in the shifter linkage. https://f48.bimmerpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1840937. BMW is charging upwards of $3000 to mak... Read more
Incident date: Mar 2, 2022
The contact owns a 2009 BMW 328I. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V119000 (Engine and Engine Cooling) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The local dealer was contacted. 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 ... Read more
Incident date: Jan 2, 2023
I was driving down the highway, doing the speed limit, when my moonroof suddenly exploded. Luckily, the shade was drawn. But, if it had been open, I could have been seriously injured. There was no projectile, nothing fell and hit the window. On inspection of the roof after I safely made it home, the glass was bowing upward. Prior to the incident, the appearance of the glass was completely normal -... Read more
Incident date: Jan 5, 2023
This car has factory HID Xenon projector headlights. Over time the reflector bowls burned and melted from the heat of the light bulbs, causing some wire insulation to melt, and a brown film to cover all surfaces inside the headlight assembly. The brown coating makes the headlights dangerously dim. From various online searches, it appears this is a common failing of these headlights. BMW has not re... Read more
Incident date: Oct 28, 2022
It took them 6 weeks to replace the battery component that was part of the recall. My car was unable to be driven during this timeframe. Under my state lemon laws I am eligible for a car buyback from BMW as it was out of service over 30 days. I registered a request for this through BMW corporate and it was denied by them.
Incident date: Dec 5, 2022
While at complete stop engine shut off with no warning lights on dash board. BMW dealer related they do not know what is wrong with engine.
Incident date: Jul 4, 2022
The contact owns a 2008 BMW X5. The contact received notification of the NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V119000 (Engine and Engine Cooling) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The contact stated that she started to notice a burning odor throughout the vehicle. No warning lights were illuminated. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of tim... Read more
Incident date: Dec 3, 2022
The contact owns a 2022 BMW IX. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V541000 (Electrical System) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The contact stated the battery power capacity had decreased. Additionally, the contact noticed a burning odor inside the vehicle. There was no warning light illuminated. The local dealer was contacted. The vehicl... Read more
Incident date: Jan 3, 2023
My 2003 BMW X5 was parked outside of my house, turned off and not driven for hours and burst into flames consuming the whole dashboard, fire department said that fire was due to some electrical problem with car, very scary please help could of killed my family the incident was recorded on home surveillance footage, but I cannot upload because of size
Fire
Incident date: Jan 3, 2023
My 2003 BMW X5 was parked outside of my house, turned off and not driven for hours and burst into flames consuming the whole dashboard, fire department said that fire was due to some electrical problem with car, very scary please help could of killed my family the incident was recorded on home surveillance footage, but I cannot upload because of size
Fire
Incident date: Mar 2, 2022
BMW has Recall: #22V-119:407 - POSITIVE CRANKCASE VENTILATION (PCV) VALVE HEATER still open with no remedy in sight. It has been months if not a year already (or longer) and I am waiting, together with thousands of BMW owners to get this issue fixed. It is totally unacceptable that a company as BMW leaves their customers hanging and allowing them to drive unsafe cars due to their laziness to fix t... Read more
Incident date: Dec 30, 2022
Vehicle brakes malfunctioned.
Crash
2 injured
Incident date: Mar 10, 2022
My serpentine belt broke causing my car to shut down. Apparently only BMW’s have a terrible design that the belt gets sucked into the engine and then the engine is gone. No other cars have this design. There are thousands of this model vehicle that are dead cars being sold online. This seems to be a problem
Incident date: Dec 17, 2022
I purchased the used BMW from a very reputable dealership May 2021. Last week, I was driving the car and all of the dashboard lights went on suddenly. The car began to buck and I pulled over immediately. I had the car towed to the local BMW dealership. The service department informed me, the serpentine belt broke, wrapped around the crankshaft, and grinded into pieces. The pieced of the belt were ... Read more
Incident date: Dec 17, 2022
I purchased the used BMW from a very reputable dealership May 2021. Last week, I was driving the car and all of the dashboard lights went on suddenly. The car began to buck and I pulled over immediately. I had the car towed to the local BMW dealership. The service department informed me, the serpentine belt broke, wrapped around the crankshaft, and grinded into pieces. The pieced of the belt were ... Read more
Incident date: Dec 30, 2022
The high pressure fuel pump failed. I still have the vehicle but it does work. It cannot be driven with a bad high pressure fuel pump. To repair it is over $2000.00.