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 21,483 complaints for CADILLAC
Incident date: Oct 7, 2022
Was simply driving my normally and out of no where there was a loud pop and driving the car all I heard was a loud grinding noise as I stepped on the gas, and the car would not shift into reverse. No lights or warnings had ever popped up into the dash. Also very strong burning and metal smell came from the car. I have taken the car to an independent repair shop and was determined the rear differen... Read more
Incident date: Oct 14, 2022
POWER TRAIN | DIFFERENTIAL | REAR AXLE BLOWN | ROLL PINS FRACTURED YES = INSPECTION AVAILABLE YES = Safety of family and friends lives were at risk at any moment the differential decides to cease up. LOCAL CADILLAC DEALERSHIP INSPECTED + INDEPENDENT MECHANIC INSPECTED NO WARNING LAMPS PRIOR TO DIFFERENTIAL MALFUNCTIONING + ROARING NOISE AFTER MALFUNCTION SERVICE ENGINE + SERVICE STABILTRAC ... Read more
Incident date: Oct 14, 2022
My moonroof spontaneously exploded almost causing me to have an accident with a 16 wheeler truck. NO external objects hit the moonroof.
Crash
Incident date: Sep 1, 2022
The rear hatch door of my SRX has been not functioning properly. It opens and closes with erratic function. Regularly I've hit the button to open it and it has begun to close on me with shear force trying to crush my body while loading groceries. It has hit me in the head and the back causing pain. This is very dangerous because it isn't falling suddenly its closing with force. If I try to push i... Read more
Incident date: Aug 1, 2022
It’s one problem but it’s a big problem and for the life of me it seems as if I can’t get through to someone. My headlights are so dim that I can’t drive at night it’s already know that this is a manufacturer problem I know its known that it is. Listen I’m a disabled veteran on a fixed income I need help with this problem can you help me?
Incident date: Oct 13, 2022
Side view mirrors do not open when you start driving the car. They can only be manually opened by a small button on the door which is hard to find. It is easy to start driving the car with no side view mirrors and not realize you have no mirrors until they are needed.
Incident date: Oct 13, 2022
Side view mirrors do not open when you start driving the car. They can only be manually opened by a small button on the door which is hard to find. It is easy to start driving the car with no side view mirrors and not realize you have no mirrors until they are needed.
Incident date: Aug 1, 2022
I only had my 2022 Cadillac Escalade for 3 months and noticed black oil drippings in my garage. Took it to Cadillac dealership for inspection I was told it was a seal leaking. Within a month I noticed the same issue black oil drippings in the garage, but I also started to smell a burning smell. Call the dealership again to let them know I had the same issue again from a month earlier, the oil drip... Read more
Incident date: Sep 10, 2022
The side view mirrors will randomly tilt to the sky or ground. Whatever it tilts to also becomes the saved position. The dealership has replaced the seat memory module, battery cables, fuse block and driver mirror. The dealership was unable to correct the issue and says there is nothing else they can do. The problem seems to occur wen the vehicle has been driving for 2 or more hours then goes away... Read more
Incident date: Oct 5, 2022
While driving the vehicle with auto stop engaged, the auto stop was malfunctioning. When I get to a red light or stop sign vehicle would engage auto stop, once I let my feet off the gas pedal and accelerate, the vehicle would jerk out of gear then slip /drag then engage with a loud hit as if someone rear-ended me. The problem was duplicated and confirmed by the dealership. There has been no outsi... Read more
Incident date: Sep 9, 2022
I was driving the vehicle heading to the interstate, and my speed was about 15 MPH, as I merge onto the highway and accelerated I felt the transmission shudder, and lag with a humming noise. It felt like the transmission mission was slipping and shaking with no acceleration power. I had to keep hitting the gas pedal to try and make the transmission engage. Very Dangerous! The transmission would ... Read more
Incident date: Oct 8, 2022
The head lights aren’t working properly ,it’s so damped that I can’t see at night time, Dealer said there is no thing we can do . I can’t put my family at risk of crash or hitting something that I didn’t see because of the light was very low. Please help.
Incident date: Oct 8, 2022
Water is getting inside of the car’s shell and interiors. The carpets and ceiling gets wet and drips. Mold is visible and inhaling causes allergic and breathing issues. Water is a major issue on the interior of the windshield and other windows. I can hear water traveling inside the roof when I drive. This is causing electrical problems. My trunk is not working to open. My sunroof is also not wor... Read more
Incident date: Sep 13, 2022
Cue screen spiderd Causing you to not control radio at times I’m driving and my radio is on 12 and the volume and can out of nowhere jump up to like 60 you cannot turn it down even if you hold the button on the steering wheel This has happened multiple times I’ve had at the dealership they have seen the video and they’re telling me it’s possibly an electrical issue but it needs to be fixed... Read more
Incident date: Sep 15, 2022
The contact owns a 2023 Cadillac XT5. The contact stated that upon purchase of the vehicle, she was informed that the full camera system had yet to be installed and that the part would become available in the 4th quarter of 2022. The contact also stated that while driving at various spends, the lane departure warning feature activated with no other vehicles nearby. The contact also stated that the... Read more
Incident date: Sep 15, 2022
The contact owns a 2023 Cadillac XT5. The contact stated that upon purchase of the vehicle, she was informed that the full camera system had yet to be installed and that the part would become available in the 4th quarter of 2022. The contact also stated that while driving at various spends, the lane departure warning feature activated with no other vehicles nearby. The contact also stated that the... Read more
Incident date: Jul 13, 2022
The contact owns a 2015 Cadillac SRX. The contact stated while driving 30 MPH, the vehicle started to sway and was drifting, requiring her to make constant adjustments to stay in the lane. The contact stated that the rear tires had worn along the side wall and she had replaced the rear tires four times. The contact stated that each set of tires had worn out in the exact same manner, along the enti... Read more
Incident date: Jan 31, 2022
Torque converter shudders and jerks abruptly. There’s trouble slowing down at times and it has a difficult time shifting up or shifting down i gears.
Incident date: Oct 2, 2022
Heated seat when turned on caught on fire, burned me & the seat has burned leather. No warnings or lamps came on. It is available for inspection upon request.
Fire
1 injured
Incident date: Oct 2, 2022
Heated seat when turned on caught on fire, burned me & the seat has burned leather. No warnings or lamps came on. It is available for inspection upon request.
Fire
1 injured
Incident date: Oct 2, 2022
When the car was put in Reverse Gear, the car was still moving forward and not moving backwards. I tried it multiple times, but it was still moving forward. There was a car in front of my car and since the car was expected to go backwards, this issue put the safety at risk as I could hit the car in front. This issue does not happen every time I do reverse. I bought the car on 1st October and... Read more
Incident date: Sep 1, 2021
The contact owns a 2018 Cadillac XT5. The contact stated that after coming to a complete stop, the vehicle lost motive power. After restarting the vehicle, the vehicle would operate as needed. The failure occurred on multiple occasions. The cause of the failure was not yet determined. The local dealer and manufacturer were not yet notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 40,000.
Incident date: Sep 29, 2022
The low beam headlights are too bright. I get flashed constantly, and then some drivers leave their bright lights on, blinding me, and creating a dangerous driving situation. Almost crashed last night due to being blinded by oncoming vehicle.
Incident date: May 1, 2022
The contact owns a 2022 Cadillac CT5. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the Service Restraint System message was displayed. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was diagnosed that the driver's side air bag sensor needed to be replaced; however, the replacement part was on backorder. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. T... Read more
Incident date: Aug 17, 2022
The car makes a knocking noise from the engine and in order to drive, you have to hold in the traction control button. I was told that the connecting rod broke and has to be repaired & I believe that should be a recall with the engine.
Incident date: Aug 17, 2022
The car makes a knocking noise from the engine and in order to drive, you have to hold in the traction control button. I was told that the connecting rod broke and has to be repaired & I believe that should be a recall with the engine.
Incident date: Aug 17, 2022
The car makes a knocking noise from the engine and in order to drive, you have to hold in the traction control button. I was told that the connecting rod broke and has to be repaired & I believe that should be a recall with the engine.
CADILLAC
ESCALADE ESV
(2021) - SEAT BELTS
Sep 27, 2022
Incident date: Sep 26, 2022
I have been waiting on the dealers to fix this recall for now 2 months and no solution has been found. I need to list my vehicle on turo website and need this recall to be cleared.
Incident date: Sep 27, 2022
Power Steering locks up when trying to turn under 20 mph. Have found other safety recalls through GM for the same issue on the 2014 ATS and have contacted a dealer but they have stated it is not for my VIN #. Has happened multiple times before and the local dealer said nothing could be done because they could not duplicate. I had called another GM dealer and they sent me a safety recall bulletin p... Read more
CADILLAC
ESCALADE EXT
(2007) - AIR BAGS
Sep 27, 2022
Incident date: Sep 27, 2022
Takata recall. The contact owns a 2007 Cadillac Escalade EXT. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 21V052000 (Air Bags) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The contact stated that several appointments were scheduled with the dealer and the vehicle was taken to the dealer for recall repair; however, after the vehicle had remained at the dealer for... Read more
Incident date: Sep 13, 2022
The contact owns a 2008 Cadillac CTS. The contact stated that while starting the vehicle, he noticed there was a puddle of fuel on the ground coming from the passenger's side fuel line. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was diagnosed with corrosion on the fuel line causing the fuel leak. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileag... Read more
Incident date: Sep 5, 2022
The contact owns a 2017 Cadillac XT5. The contact stated while driving approximately 40 MPH, the vehicle overheated and stalled. The power steering assist was reduced with the drive with care message displayed. The local dealer was not contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic who informed the contact about the thermostat failure, engine... Read more
Incident date: Sep 5, 2022
The contact owns a 2017 Cadillac XT5. The contact stated while driving approximately 40 MPH, the vehicle overheated and stalled. The power steering assist was reduced with the drive with care message displayed. The local dealer was not contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic who informed the contact about the thermostat failure, engine... Read more
Incident date: Aug 10, 2022
Rear backup camera has failed 12 times since car purchase eight weeks ago. Black screen on info center with red circle with slash across the middle over a camera. The failure is intermittent and seems to fail when it is cool outside in the morning.
Incident date: Sep 21, 2022
The contact owns a 2017 Cadillac XT5. The contact stated while driving 60-65 MPH with her granddaughter seated in the rear seat, the vehicle shut off inadvertently in the middle of the road. The message battery low was displayed. The vehicle failed to restart after several attempts. The vehicle was towed from the middle of the road to the side of the road. The vehicle was then towed to an independ... Read more
Incident date: Sep 23, 2022
Rear differential failure confirmed by the dealer at 41,000 miles. Told not to drive it as rear wheels could lock up causing accident. Rear was making load noise 2 days prior to failure with fluid leak upon inspection. Dealer states failure is under warranty but no parts available for 3-6 months.
Incident date: Apr 21, 2021
I was traveling on major roadway 95 south on the eastern part of MD .I had just exited off the highway as i was exiting and braking my brakes went totally out. This could have been a deadly accident for me and others .I had my car towed to the a cadillac dealership for repairs . The dealership replaced the brake modulator.I later discovered that GM has know about this problem with this particular ... Read more
Incident date: Sep 24, 2022
The headlights on this vehicle are extremely dim and it is unsafe to drive at night without running the high beam lights all the time. This is a huge safety issue that needs to be addressed by cadillac and the lawsuit that was brought against them. All vehicles need to be recalled for the headlights immediately.
Incident date: Sep 23, 2014
Headlights extremely dim.Replacement of lights didn’t improve. I can only drive during the day. I can only drive with high beams if I had to drive at night or early morning. GMC made an offer to replace lights with same defective system & wanted a claim & release signed. For me not to be any part of legal proceedings against them.
Incident date: Sep 11, 2022
The service Stabilitrak system light came on. After consulting the service manual, the suggestion was to switch the car off and restart in a few seconds. That worked for a few weeks. After that the Service Stabilitrak light, the brake light and the parking brake light has remained lit. We have not been able to get an appointment yet to get this checked out because the dealership cannot guarantee... Read more
Incident date: Sep 11, 2022
The service Stabilitrak system light came on. After consulting the service manual, the suggestion was to switch the car off and restart in a few seconds. That worked for a few weeks. After that the Service Stabilitrak light, the brake light and the parking brake light has remained lit. We have not been able to get an appointment yet to get this checked out because the dealership cannot guarantee... Read more
Incident date: Sep 1, 2022
The headlights are too dim to drive at night and with close to zero visibility, this is an extreme hazard. A Google search results in thousands of Cadillac SRX owners with the same issue and have called this car a "death trap" and have stated that they almost hit pedestrians. GM/Cadillac is not taking responsibility and are telling owners that we have to pay $2000 out of pocket for replacing the e... Read more
Incident date: May 1, 2021
The contact owns a 2011 Cadillac SRX. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the vehicle would drift out of the intended lane with the stabilitrak warning light illuminated. The contact also stated that the brake pedal would depress to the floorboard with the ABS warning light illuminated. The contact then received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 21V473000 (Suspension) whi... Read more
Incident date: May 1, 2021
The contact owns a 2011 Cadillac SRX. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the vehicle would drift out of the intended lane with the stabilitrak warning light illuminated. The contact also stated that the brake pedal would depress to the floorboard with the ABS warning light illuminated. The contact then received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 21V473000 (Suspension) whi... Read more
Incident date: Jan 1, 2014
Most owners complain to Cadillac but not to NHTSA Cadillac is aware. Low beam headlights on these vehicles are un safe. Especially in drizzle or darkness. This should be urgent!!!! Head light bulb is so hot, it burns the chrome plating off the inside of the headlight assembly. Once chrome is gone, so is the reflectivity needed to project the light through the magnifier and on to the street. Extrem... Read more
Incident date: Jan 1, 2014
Most owners complain to Cadillac but not to NHTSA Cadillac is aware. Low beam headlights on these vehicles are un safe. Especially in drizzle or darkness. This should be urgent!!!! Head light bulb is so hot, it burns the chrome plating off the inside of the headlight assembly. Once chrome is gone, so is the reflectivity needed to project the light through the magnifier and on to the street. Extrem... Read more
Incident date: Oct 30, 2020
The contact owns a 2012 Cadillac SRX. The contact stated that the brakes were replaced for routine services at a local dealer. The contact then stated that while driving at an unknown speed, she drove over a pothole and while attempt to stop the vehicle, the brakes failed to respond as needed. The contact stated that the brake failure reoccurred after driving over potholes and then depressing the ... Read more
Incident date: Sep 16, 2022
Hello, I wanted to let you all know that I have a 2010 cadillac srx, to which in the past these type of vehicles had had a transmissions issues, thus recalled...Well the vehicle I own, is doing and having the same transmission problem/issues...and Yet it is not under the Recall list...The Cadillac dealership, has my car and is wanting to open up the transmission and inspect it for almost 2 thousan... Read more
Incident date: Sep 16, 2022
Hello, I wanted to let you all know that I have a 2010 cadillac srx, to which in the past these type of vehicles had had a transmissions issues, thus recalled...Well the vehicle I own, is doing and having the same transmission problem/issues...and Yet it is not under the Recall list...The Cadillac dealership, has my car and is wanting to open up the transmission and inspect it for almost 2 thousan... Read more
Incident date: Sep 16, 2022
Hello, I wanted to let you all know that I have a 2010 cadillac srx, to which in the past these type of vehicles had had a transmissions issues, thus recalled...Well the vehicle I own, is doing and having the same transmission problem/issues...and Yet it is not under the Recall list...The Cadillac dealership, has my car and is wanting to open up the transmission and inspect it for almost 2 thousan... Read more