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 125,830 complaints for HONDA
Incident date: Aug 31, 2026
When I was at the set of lights my vehicle put itself in park and refused to go back in drive. The dashboard started to flash "shift to park" cars were honking at us people we screaming because we weren't driving when the light turned green. But my car refused to go back into drive. I had to shut it off and turn it back on. I had all my kids (5) in the car. I brought it to the dealership and t... Read more
Incident date: May 13, 2024
The contact owns a 2020 Honda Pilot. The contact stated while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle hesitated while accelerating and was shaking violently. The contact associated the failure with the transmission. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and offered a goodwill repair; however, the contact had not agreed to the terms. The vehicle was taken to the dealer and the dealer co... Read more
Incident date: Aug 31, 2026
On 8.31.26, while driving my 2005 Honda Element Mileage: Approximately 125,000), the front passenger-side airbag spontaneously deployed without warning.There was absolutely no vehicle collision, physical impact, pothole, undercarriage strike, or jarring event to trigger a deployment. Approximately 10 hours prior to the spontaneous deployment, the airbag warning light illuminated on the instrument ... Read more
Incident date: Sep 1, 2024
The contact owns a 2020 Honda Odyssey. The contact stated that while driving approximately 60 MPH, the rear hatch tailgate door opened unintendedly. The vehicle was previously taken to the local mechanic who diagnosed the vehicle with electronic tailgate door control module failure, which was caused by water intrusion from the roof drainage system. The control module was replaced but the failure r... Read more
Incident date: Jan 1, 2023
2017 Honda Civic Ex-L (Paint Code NH830M - Lunar Silver Metallic) Paint is coming off in patches throughout the entirety of the vehicle's body, exposing bare metal to the harsh environmental elements. Paint primer appears to have weak adhesion to the metal as both primer and paint is being removed in chunks. Car owner has reported this issue to North Carolina Honda Dealership, where owner was then... Read more
Incident date: Aug 1, 2026
Seat Weight Sensor Recall. The air bag sensor light is on but dealership will not fix since the car is built in [XXX]. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
Incident date: Jul 17, 2025
The vehicle comes equipped with “Auto off/on” at stoplights the vehicle will turn itself off to preserve fuel and is supposed to turn back on. Instead the vehicle dies in the middle of the road. I have to turn vehicle back to off and hope it starts back up. When it does finally start, it’s a slow start, it struggles. There’s been two incidents where it had to be jumped in the middle of th... Read more
Incident date: Apr 16, 2026
Car went into limp mode and was struggling to accelerate, went and got it diagnosed and was notified that my spark plugs needed to be replaced. Car began running fine but a few months went by and the issue came back. I was told I needed my spark plugs changed again. After the third time, I went and had my car diagnosed again and was told I needed a battery for the car because it was drained. Then ... Read more
Incident date: Apr 16, 2026
Car went into limp mode and was struggling to accelerate, went and got it diagnosed and was notified that my spark plugs needed to be replaced. Car began running fine but a few months went by and the issue came back. I was told I needed my spark plugs changed again. After the third time, I went and had my car diagnosed again and was told I needed a battery for the car because it was drained. Then ... Read more
Incident date: Apr 16, 2026
Car went into limp mode and was struggling to accelerate, went and got it diagnosed and was notified that my spark plugs needed to be replaced. Car began running fine but a few months went by and the issue came back. I was told I needed my spark plugs changed again. After the third time, I went and had my car diagnosed again and was told I needed a battery for the car because it was drained. Then ... Read more
Incident date: Aug 1, 2026
Safety mitigation compoments failure that started as intermitent issues and now is consistent. Warning lights come on for Adaptive cruise control failure, Forward collision failure, Lane departure warning failure, high beam failure, lane keep assist failure and others all link back to the DTC U3000-49 internal multipurpose camera unit failure. This compenet failure puts all oppcpants and other ... Read more
Incident date: Aug 1, 2026
Safety mitigation compoments failure that started as intermitent issues and now is consistent. Warning lights come on for Adaptive cruise control failure, Forward collision failure, Lane departure warning failure, high beam failure, lane keep assist failure and others all link back to the DTC U3000-49 internal multipurpose camera unit failure. This compenet failure puts all oppcpants and other ... Read more
Incident date: Aug 1, 2026
Safety mitigation compoments failure that started as intermitent issues and now is consistent. Warning lights come on for Adaptive cruise control failure, Forward collision failure, Lane departure warning failure, high beam failure, lane keep assist failure and others all link back to the DTC U3000-49 internal multipurpose camera unit failure. This compenet failure puts all oppcpants and other ... Read more
Incident date: Aug 31, 2026
When at a red light or stop sign the vehicle will idle and turn off. The vehicle doesn’t want to restart. It takes a bit to get started again then it progresses.While parked I turned the car off for 5 minutes and it would not start up again. Tried the jump cables to make sure it wasn’t the battery had to have a tow truck come they were able to get the car jumped and started. Took the battery t... Read more
Incident date: Jul 23, 2026
My vehicle is currently sitting at a Honda dealership with a broken crankshaft counterweight and seized bearing. The engine needs to be replaced but Honda has refused to conduct the dealership warranty and blame shift it to a cracked oil pan that had happened in November of last year that was quickly addressed. Since then I have gone to [XXX] and back to [XXX] showing the vehicle was fine and oper... Read more
Incident date: Jul 23, 2026
My vehicle is currently sitting at a Honda dealership with a broken crankshaft counterweight and seized bearing. The engine needs to be replaced but Honda has refused to conduct the dealership warranty and blame shift it to a cracked oil pan that had happened in November of last year that was quickly addressed. Since then I have gone to [XXX] and back to [XXX] showing the vehicle was fine and oper... Read more
Incident date: Aug 12, 2026
ALL THE SAFETY DASHBOARD LIGHTS ARE ON, WHAT IS THE PROBLEM? I NEED THIS SITUATION TO BE FIXED ASAP, IT DOESNT EVEN LET ME DRIVE, IT LOSES POWER AND THE BATTERY IS BRAND NEW.
Incident date: Aug 12, 2026
ALL THE SAFETY DASHBOARD LIGHTS ARE ON, WHAT IS THE PROBLEM? I NEED THIS SITUATION TO BE FIXED ASAP, IT DOESNT EVEN LET ME DRIVE, IT LOSES POWER AND THE BATTERY IS BRAND NEW.
Incident date: Aug 12, 2026
ALL THE SAFETY DASHBOARD LIGHTS ARE ON, WHAT IS THE PROBLEM? I NEED THIS SITUATION TO BE FIXED ASAP, IT DOESNT EVEN LET ME DRIVE, IT LOSES POWER AND THE BATTERY IS BRAND NEW.
Incident date: Aug 24, 2026
For several weeks, my 2025 Honda Odyssey, with approximately 30,000 miles, had been jerking while being driven. An independent mechanic believed the problem might be transmission-related. I brought the vehicle to an authorized Honda dealership, reported the jerking and specifically stated that I suspected a transmission problem. The dealership recommended and performed a transmission-fluid service... Read more
Incident date: Aug 23, 2026
The Multipurpose Camera Unit/Millimeter Wave Radar Internal Electronic system has failed (confirmed by Honda service center). When I start my car, I now get several warnings that multiple systems are out, including but not limited to the automatic emergency breaking, forward collision warning, and many other safety features. Upon searching the web, it seems this is a common issue in many Honda veh... Read more
Incident date: Aug 23, 2026
The Multipurpose Camera Unit/Millimeter Wave Radar Internal Electronic system has failed (confirmed by Honda service center). When I start my car, I now get several warnings that multiple systems are out, including but not limited to the automatic emergency breaking, forward collision warning, and many other safety features. Upon searching the web, it seems this is a common issue in many Honda veh... Read more
Incident date: Aug 23, 2026
The Multipurpose Camera Unit/Millimeter Wave Radar Internal Electronic system has failed (confirmed by Honda service center). When I start my car, I now get several warnings that multiple systems are out, including but not limited to the automatic emergency breaking, forward collision warning, and many other safety features. Upon searching the web, it seems this is a common issue in many Honda veh... Read more
Incident date: Aug 31, 2026
Dash lights on for Brake system malfunction. Emergency parking brake light on as well as TPS system. Lights around Park, Neutral and drive not illuminated. Battery and alternator are in good standing.
Incident date: Aug 31, 2026
Dash lights on for Brake system malfunction. Emergency parking brake light on as well as TPS system. Lights around Park, Neutral and drive not illuminated. Battery and alternator are in good standing.
Incident date: Aug 31, 2026
warning lights and problems
Incident date: Aug 31, 2026
warning lights and problems
Incident date: Aug 31, 2026
warning lights and problems
Incident date: Feb 26, 2026
Head gasket needed to be replaced. Coolant leaking into cylinders, sudden loss of motive power / engine misfires while driving. Driving on the highway, and trying to accelerate, there is a hesitation and vibration and also when letting off the gas.
Incident date: Aug 12, 2026
I own a 2019 Honda HR-V, VIN [XXX]. My vehicle required replacement of the fuel pump motor associated with Honda’s fuel-pump recall. On XXX, I had the fuel pump replaced at Firestone Complete Auto Care because the recall repair had not been performed on my vehicle. The fuel pump cost $969.77, and the total repair cost was approximately $1,200 including labor. I subsequently submitted a reimbur... Read more
Incident date: Aug 20, 2026
Car began making loud rattling noise which proceeded to a larger grinding noise in the engine. Car sudden wouldn’t accelerate and had to be shut off. It wouldn’t restart and once it did get jumped produced an intensely loud grinding rattling noise. Car had to be towed to Honda which upon diagnosis was found to have metal shards in the oil pan and diagnosis to replace entire engine. Honda is de... Read more
Incident date: Aug 29, 2026
All of a sudden for no reason, error messages starting showing up on the dashboard. Such as: blind spot info system problem, lane keeping assist problem, transmission system problem, and others. The car runs fine. I took it to my local shop and they put a new battery in. At first the lights went out but then they came back. So I took it to the Honda dealership. They ran diagnostics and tell me the... Read more
Incident date: Jul 15, 2026
Truck fails to restart after the auto idle shut off. The battery goes dead and I cannot restart. This has happened several times so I now turn the Idle Off feature off. However, since it does not stay off permanently, if I forget to turn if off the truck may fail to restart. It has left me stuck at intersections unable to restart on several occasions.
Incident date: Jan 24, 2026
In January 2026, at approximately 80,000 miles, the CVT in my 2022 Honda HR-V AWD experienced a major internal failure. The failure presents a safety concern because loss of CVT function can cause loss of acceleration/motive power during highway driving, merging, lane changes, or intersection crossings. The problem was confirmed by an authorized Honda dealer. Honda's HDS diagnostic system initi... Read more
Incident date: Jan 24, 2026
In January 2026, at approximately 80,000 miles, the CVT in my 2022 Honda HR-V AWD experienced a major internal failure. The failure presents a safety concern because loss of CVT function can cause loss of acceleration/motive power during highway driving, merging, lane changes, or intersection crossings. The problem was confirmed by an authorized Honda dealer. Honda's HDS diagnostic system initi... Read more
Incident date: Aug 14, 2026
The contact owns a 2025 Honda CR-V. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the brakes independently activated, and the vehicle stopped. The driver's and steering wheel air bags unexpectedly deployed. In addition, the contact stated that there was no impact to the vehicle. The vehicle was towed to the residence. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired by an independent mec... Read more
Incident date: Aug 14, 2026
The contact owns a 2025 Honda CR-V. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the brakes independently activated, and the vehicle stopped. The driver's and steering wheel air bags unexpectedly deployed. In addition, the contact stated that there was no impact to the vehicle. The vehicle was towed to the residence. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired by an independent mec... Read more
Incident date: Aug 28, 2026
On XXX i got an error on my vehicle's infotainment system saying "OTA update error code TT04. Update Unavailable, see your dealer". I went to my dealer at AutoNation Honda O'Hare Service Center, address [XXX]. The vehicle's software was updated and the system reset was performed on XXX. The error code didnt go away. It still shows the error and warning everytime I start the car. INFORMATION REDACT... Read more
Incident date: Aug 13, 2026
The engine required a short block replacement at approximately 40,000 miles. There was a severe knocking sound and the dealer diagnosed heavy scoring and abnormal wear present on the front bank cylinder walls. The result was excessive internal engine clearance and cylinder wall damage. Engine cylinder piston block holes were worn beyond spec. After 33 days the vehicle was returned and developed a ... Read more
Incident date: Aug 13, 2026
The engine required a short block replacement at approximately 40,000 miles. There was a severe knocking sound and the dealer diagnosed heavy scoring and abnormal wear present on the front bank cylinder walls. The result was excessive internal engine clearance and cylinder wall damage. Engine cylinder piston block holes were worn beyond spec. After 33 days the vehicle was returned and developed a ... Read more
Incident date: Aug 13, 2026
The engine required a short block replacement at approximately 40,000 miles. There was a severe knocking sound and the dealer diagnosed heavy scoring and abnormal wear present on the front bank cylinder walls. The result was excessive internal engine clearance and cylinder wall damage. Engine cylinder piston block holes were worn beyond spec. After 33 days the vehicle was returned and developed a ... Read more
Incident date: Aug 31, 2026
The drivers side door was struck during a car accident. The drivers side airbag deployed from the drivers seat but did not inflate.
Crash
Incident date: Aug 31, 2018
The contact owns a 2023 Honda Odyssey. The contact stated that the windows were stuck and became inoperable. The contact stated that while driving 65 MPH, the windows only went halfway up before falling. The vehicle was taken to a local dealer, where it was determined that the window tracks were deteriorating on the driver’s and passenger’s sides. The contact stated that a new window motor was... Read more
Incident date: Mar 2, 2026
- The steering system appears to be malfunctioning. The steering wheel becomes sticky or feels like it catches while turning, and there is a clunking and grinding noise when the steering wheel is turned. The vehicle and affected components are available for inspection upon request. - The steering issue creates a potential safety risk because the steering wheel may not turn smoothly or respond as ... Read more
Incident date: Mar 2, 2026
- The steering system appears to be malfunctioning. The steering wheel becomes sticky or feels like it catches while turning, and there is a clunking and grinding noise when the steering wheel is turned. The vehicle and affected components are available for inspection upon request. - The steering issue creates a potential safety risk because the steering wheel may not turn smoothly or respond as ... Read more
Incident date: Mar 2, 2026
- The steering system appears to be malfunctioning. The steering wheel becomes sticky or feels like it catches while turning, and there is a clunking and grinding noise when the steering wheel is turned. The vehicle and affected components are available for inspection upon request. - The steering issue creates a potential safety risk because the steering wheel may not turn smoothly or respond as ... Read more
HONDA
CIVIC TYPE R
(2023) - ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Aug 31, 2026
Incident date: Jul 11, 2026
During a controlled low-speed autocross event (~55 mph entry), I applied the brake pedal firmly to decelerate for an upcoming turn. The vehicle failed to decelerate at anywhere near its rated capability. Despite full, sustained pedal application, the car would not slow adequately, departed the course, and struck a barrier, resulting in a total loss. No injuries occurred. This happened on smooth, d... Read more
Crash
HONDA
CIVIC TYPE R
(2023) - SERVICE BRAKES
Aug 31, 2026
Incident date: Jul 11, 2026
During a controlled low-speed autocross event (~55 mph entry), I applied the brake pedal firmly to decelerate for an upcoming turn. The vehicle failed to decelerate at anywhere near its rated capability. Despite full, sustained pedal application, the car would not slow adequately, departed the course, and struck a barrier, resulting in a total loss. No injuries occurred. This happened on smooth, d... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Jun 11, 2026
The contact owns a 2020 Honda Odyssey. The contact stated that five days after the vehicle was repaired under NHTSA Campaign Number: 26V332000 (Air Bags), while starting the vehicle, five warning lights were displayed. The Lane Assist warning light and the cruise control warning light was illuminated. The dealer was contacted, and the vehicle was diagnosed with a front-facing camera failure. The ... Read more