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: Jun 16, 2022
I have 2 complaints. #1 The transmission shifts extremely hard in and out of gear 1. This issue a known issue, but GM has no resolution. There is a bulletin. The problem is, my car is no shifting poorly in all gears and causing a serious safety issue at all speeds and gears. It won't go into gear causing safety concerns. I have reported the transmission issue multiple times while under warranty an... Read more
Incident date: Jun 16, 2022
I have 2 complaints. #1 The transmission shifts extremely hard in and out of gear 1. This issue a known issue, but GM has no resolution. There is a bulletin. The problem is, my car is no shifting poorly in all gears and causing a serious safety issue at all speeds and gears. It won't go into gear causing safety concerns. I have reported the transmission issue multiple times while under warranty an... Read more
Incident date: Jun 12, 2022
235 40 80 run flat Both front and rear passenger tires no damage to rim less that 10k miles
Incident date: Jun 16, 2019
The contact owns a 2011 Cadillac SRX. The contact stated while driving approximately 3 MPH, there was a failure with the transmission and loss of power steering assist. The contact stated that the vehicle stalled and was towed to an independent mechanic and diagnosed. The contact also stated that the rear axle and suspension warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufa... Read more
Incident date: Jun 16, 2019
The contact owns a 2011 Cadillac SRX. The contact stated while driving approximately 3 MPH, there was a failure with the transmission and loss of power steering assist. The contact stated that the vehicle stalled and was towed to an independent mechanic and diagnosed. The contact also stated that the rear axle and suspension warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufa... Read more
Incident date: Jun 16, 2019
The contact owns a 2011 Cadillac SRX. The contact stated while driving approximately 3 MPH, there was a failure with the transmission and loss of power steering assist. The contact stated that the vehicle stalled and was towed to an independent mechanic and diagnosed. The contact also stated that the rear axle and suspension warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufa... Read more
CADILLAC
ESCALADE ESV
(2020) - STRUCTURE:BODY
Jun 23, 2022
Incident date: Nov 2, 2020
The contact owns a 2020 Cadillac Escalade ESV. The contact stated that while he was approaching the vehicle, the side step was extended. The vehicle was taken to the dealer for diagnosis and the actuator was replaced. The failure continued and the contact took the vehicle back to the dealer and the actuator was replaced again however, the failure continued. The manufacturer was not contacted. The ... Read more
Incident date: Jun 1, 2022
frame rotted where the control arm conects to the frame causing the control arm to break away from the frome. i lost steering fortunetly iwas coming to a stop. The dealer Colonial Cadillac Woburn Ma. confirmed the damage. it was inspected by a tecnition at the dealership. No there was no warning, i bought an etended warenty when the origanel one ran out. ty are not covering this? there resan... Read more
Incident date: Jun 7, 2022
The contact owns a 2012 Cadillac CTS. The contact stated that upon taking the vehicle to the dealer for servicing, he was informed that the front passenger's side air bag had failed. The air bag warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 126,273.
Incident date: May 24, 2022
The recall that was done on the 2014-2015 CTS-V should have been a recall on ALL models of CTS because all of the models in the timeframe received the dsame flawed rear differential. My 2015 CTS Luxury has only 80k miles on it and the differential has chunks of metal in its oil. It is the exactaame differential as is in the CTS-V. At any time my rear end will lock up once the dofferential fully ea... Read more
Incident date: Jun 1, 2022
All three seatbelts in the third row don't lock. I just got this car with only 100k miles on it and when installing my kids' car seats I found that none of them have the needed safety feature. They don't lock when pulled quickly or when pulled all the way out. Cadillac won't cover the repair.
Incident date: Dec 30, 2021
The SRX is known to have issues with the headlight assemblies. I even received a letter from Cadillac that informed me that moisture may get into the assemblies, which causes them to fail. The moisture shorts out the assembly which greatly dims the bulb. On one particular night in Michigan, I had to drive with my high beams on just to be able to see the road. I had just replaced the bulbs so t... Read more
Incident date: Jun 21, 2022
The contact owns a 2017 Cadillac XT5. The contact stated that the rear passenger's side brake line was fractured. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was diagnosed that the rear passenger's side brake line needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 66,000.
Incident date: Jun 12, 2022
I was making a left turn and I heard a loud popping noise. I pulled the vehicle into a parking lot. After stopping it would not move. When I put the car in gear I would hear a loud grinding noise coming from the back wheel base. I had the vehicle towed to a repair shop. I was told that the roll pins that connect the axel to the rear differential had come out. I am unable to have the car repai... Read more
Incident date: Jun 7, 2022
I am having an electrical short that is shutting down everything while I'm driving or stopped, it makes driving it Dangerous and Scary. It looks like the recall from 2014 that describes everything I'm experiencing. Recall 14515 that talks about a Chassis Control Module that controls a lot of things including the fuel pump and more electrical components to list. I have a vehicle that is Dangerou... Read more
Incident date: Jun 7, 2022
I am having an electrical short that is shutting down everything while I'm driving or stopped, it makes driving it Dangerous and Scary. It looks like the recall from 2014 that describes everything I'm experiencing. Recall 14515 that talks about a Chassis Control Module that controls a lot of things including the fuel pump and more electrical components to list. I have a vehicle that is Dangerou... Read more
Incident date: Jun 6, 2022
Purchase the vehicle less than a month ago, drove it for the first time at night and the headlight visibility was horrible.it was so horrible it scared the s*** out of me!! I had to pull over and wait till day light. I was afraid I was gone get hit or I was gone hit some one.what a scary situation. I am so disappointed in GMC and Cadillac!! People lives are in DANGER!!!! Please HELP!!!!
Incident date: Jun 13, 2022
The contact owns a 2014 Cadillac SRX. The vehicle had previously been serviced at the dealer under NHTSA Campaign Number: 21V473000 (Suspension) however, there was an abnormal sound coming from the vehicle after the recall repair was performed. The vehicle was taken back to the dealer and diagnosed with strut failure. The vehicle was then taken to an independent mechanic who diagnosed that the fro... Read more
Incident date: Jun 6, 2022
The contact owns a 2015 Cadillac SRX. The contact stated while driving 30 MPH, his wife noticed that the vehicle was jerking. The contact noticed that tread on both rear tires was worn. The vehicle was taken to the dealer and the dealer stated the vehicle was already repaired under the NHTSA Campaign Number: 21V473000 (Suspension). The manufacturer was contacted and stated that the dealer needed t... Read more
Incident date: May 16, 2022
The screen on the CUE system cracked, spider web cracked. Under no particular conditions. I got in it one day and it was like that. The car is parked in a garage unless driven. I asked the dealership about this and if there was a recall. The dealership said they have had a lot of complaints about this, but no recall. It is expensive to get fixed, and from what i've been reading online, they replac... Read more
Incident date: Apr 1, 2022
The component that failed on my vehicle is the rear differential. My safety was put at risk by my vehicle hesitating on the highway where I lost speed and was almost rear ended. At that point I had to pull over onto a shoulder with grass to wait on the side of the highway for a tow. My vehicle has been with the dealer for the past 2 months. No warning lights or signals.
Incident date: Apr 29, 2022
The hard fuel rail line has begun to leak and no GM dealers carries parts to resolve problem. The 1999 STS Cadillac is in good working condition but because of the leak, it is unsafe to drive.
Incident date: May 10, 2022
Service rear axle message is displayed on the driver information center. The code indicates AWD has been turned off which can put my safety and or safety of others at risk. Service Bulletin (PI0703B) was issued for numerous 2010 Cadillac SRX, unfortunately the recall wasn't issued for my vehicle (VIN). The service bulletin was for DTC c0407 with symptom code 64, the exact same code that was found ... Read more
Incident date: May 10, 2022
Service rear axle message is displayed on the driver information center. The code indicates AWD has been turned off which can put my safety and or safety of others at risk. Service Bulletin (PI0703B) was issued for numerous 2010 Cadillac SRX, unfortunately the recall wasn't issued for my vehicle (VIN). The service bulletin was for DTC c0407 with symptom code 64, the exact same code that was found ... Read more
Incident date: May 10, 2022
Service rear axle message is displayed on the driver information center. The code indicates AWD has been turned off which can put my safety and or safety of others at risk. Service Bulletin (PI0703B) was issued for numerous 2010 Cadillac SRX, unfortunately the recall wasn't issued for my vehicle (VIN). The service bulletin was for DTC c0407 with symptom code 64, the exact same code that was found ... Read more
Incident date: Jun 8, 2022
I just bought the vehicle. Headlights low beam are extremely dim. New bulbs installed and headlight brightness dim output remained the same. Research shows that several SRX owners are having same issue. Recall needs to be issued.
Incident date: Jun 4, 2022
While waiting for the car in front of me in the valet line, I put my 2013 Cadillac ATS in park. When it was my turn, I attempted to put the car back in drive to move forward, but the shifter was locked in the park position. I had my foot on the brake and when I took it off the car began rolling forward, even though the shifter was in the park position. The screen above the steering wheel as well a... Read more
Incident date: Jun 1, 2022
Rear brake lights remains on while moving and when the car is parked.
Incident date: Jun 1, 2022
Rear brake lights remains on while moving and when the car is parked.
CADILLAC
ESCALADE ESV
(2021) - ENGINE
Jun 7, 2022
Incident date: Mar 13, 2022
Bought one of only 4 available in the entire USA. Flew to Atlanta to drive it back to CA 11 weeks ago. Since then it’s been at dealership 5 times for a total of 9 weeks for an electrical ghost they can’t fix! Cost us over $60,000 in income this month and paying approx $1500 month insurance while it sits there in a workshop with no resolution. Now working with GM and the BBB. Summary below... Read more
Incident date: May 31, 2022
Failed sunroof drains caused flooding, which further cost damage (complete loss) to the lift gate module and pump. Problem has been confirmed by the dealer service department.
Incident date: Jun 4, 2022
We had our vehicle recalled for links in the rear suspension some weeks ago. Saturday 6/4/22 we were going south on hwy 19 south of Tavares Florida at 45 to 50 MPH in a light rain. We went thru a light puddle in the road twitched. Didn't feel like anything I had experienced before. A couple of blocks further on the back of the car veered back and forth significantly and I thought i had ... Read more
Incident date: Jun 4, 2022
We had our vehicle recalled for links in the rear suspension some weeks ago. Saturday 6/4/22 we were going south on hwy 19 south of Tavares Florida at 45 to 50 MPH in a light rain. We went thru a light puddle in the road twitched. Didn't feel like anything I had experienced before. A couple of blocks further on the back of the car veered back and forth significantly and I thought i had ... Read more
Incident date: Jul 6, 2020
The headlights are so dim it’s a very bad safety issue. I’ve replaced them 3 times , still same problem. Everybody I have talked to has the same problem with theirs. Something has got to be done. I’m going to call the head of Cadillac if it doesn’t get resolved. My guesses keep blowing and it’s also wearing the tires out to quick
Incident date: Jul 6, 2020
The headlights are so dim it’s a very bad safety issue. I’ve replaced them 3 times , still same problem. Everybody I have talked to has the same problem with theirs. Something has got to be done. I’m going to call the head of Cadillac if it doesn’t get resolved. My guesses keep blowing and it’s also wearing the tires out to quick
Incident date: Jul 6, 2020
The headlights are so dim it’s a very bad safety issue. I’ve replaced them 3 times , still same problem. Everybody I have talked to has the same problem with theirs. Something has got to be done. I’m going to call the head of Cadillac if it doesn’t get resolved. My guesses keep blowing and it’s also wearing the tires out to quick
CADILLAC
ESCALADE NA
(2021) - SERVICE BRAKES
Jun 2, 2022
Incident date: Jun 1, 2022
4/24/2022 Vehicle locks in neutral in major roads as your driving And motor seized I have several videos last night as of 5/01/2022 vehicle locked into park as I was going 50 miles with oncoming traffic I was in fear of danger thank god was able to pull off into side ditch
CADILLAC
ESCALADE NA
(2021) - ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Jun 2, 2022
Incident date: Jun 1, 2022
4/24/2022 Vehicle locks in neutral in major roads as your driving And motor seized I have several videos last night as of 5/01/2022 vehicle locked into park as I was going 50 miles with oncoming traffic I was in fear of danger thank god was able to pull off into side ditch
CADILLAC
ESCALADE NA
(2021) - ENGINE
Jun 2, 2022
Incident date: Jun 1, 2022
4/24/2022 Vehicle locks in neutral in major roads as your driving And motor seized I have several videos last night as of 5/01/2022 vehicle locked into park as I was going 50 miles with oncoming traffic I was in fear of danger thank god was able to pull off into side ditch
Incident date: Jan 16, 2020
The contact owns a 2015 Cadillac Escalade. The contact stated while driving at an undisclosed speed with the vehicle in 4WD, he heard an abnormal grinding sound. The contact shifted to AWD and heard the grinding sound as well. The vehicle was taken to an unknown dealer and the contact was informed that the front differential needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired however, the failure pers... Read more
Incident date: Jun 2, 2022
Transmission shudder noticed between 42 to 48 mph. It appears the transmission is shaking, it seems to be continually shifting between gears in the 42 to 48 mph range.
Incident date: Jun 1, 2022
2012 CADILLAC SRX. CONSUMER WRITES IN REGARD TO SERVICE REAR AXLE SAFETY RECALL. THE CONSUMER STATED THE VEHICLE DISPLAYED THE SERVICE REAR AXLE MESSAGE. THE REAR AXLE FAILED AND WAS REPLACED. THE CONSUMER RECEIVED A RECALL NOTICE 212340980 FOR THE REAR AXLE AND SUBMITTED A REIMBUSEMENT CLAIM. THE CLAIM WAS DENIED TWICE. THE MANUFACTURER'S DENIAL LETTER STATED THE REPAIR PERFORMED WAS NOT THE RE... Read more
Incident date: May 24, 2022
2015 Cadillac CTS Luxury, 81k miles, rear differential has metal chunks in its fluid and makes load roaring sound. Dealership mecahnics said that the differential dailing that early is a known issue, and if it had progressed rhe differential would have seized up and the rear tires would have locked up. No parts available anywhere for differential replacement or overhaul.
Incident date: May 10, 2022
Service rear axle message is displayed on the driver information center. The code indicates AWD has been turned off which can put my safety and or safety of others at risk. Service Bulletin (PI0703B) was issued for numerous 2010 Cadillac SRX, unfortunately the recall wasn't issued for my vehicle (VIN). The service bulletin was for DTC c0407 with symptom code 64, the exact same code that was found ... Read more
Incident date: May 27, 2022
Received Recall notice (#N212340980), contacted several dealers and ALL said the same thing: if you did not purchase the car here, then appointments are six weeks out! Finally, went Tremonte Cadillac as they were kind enough to take the car in sooner; brought the car there and within fifteen minutes I was told "you are all set", thanked him and left. On the way home the "Service Rear Axle" messag... Read more
Incident date: May 27, 2022
Received Recall notice (#N212340980), contacted several dealers and ALL said the same thing: if you did not purchase the car here, then appointments are six weeks out! Finally, went Tremonte Cadillac as they were kind enough to take the car in sooner; brought the car there and within fifteen minutes I was told "you are all set", thanked him and left. On the way home the "Service Rear Axle" messag... Read more
Incident date: Jan 13, 2021
Air bag light is on saying the passenger side buckle tensioner not working when there never a accident on this car, Fuel level low illuminates when there is fuel in the tank still, fuel level goes down fast after a short drive when fuel just been put in
Incident date: May 20, 2022
The contact owns a 2019 Cadillac SRX. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, another vehicle cut her off. The contact slammed on the brake pedal however, the vehicle inadvertently accelerated. There were no warning lights illuminated. The contact regained control of the vehicle and turned off and restarted the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer but was not d... Read more
Incident date: May 20, 2022
The contact owns a 2019 Cadillac SRX. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, another vehicle cut her off. The contact slammed on the brake pedal however, the vehicle inadvertently accelerated. There were no warning lights illuminated. The contact regained control of the vehicle and turned off and restarted the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer but was not d... Read more
Incident date: Feb 1, 2022
The head lights are so dim the suv can’t be driven at dark . Replaced bulbs and it was not any better