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 78,021 complaints for HYUNDAI
Incident date: Oct 1, 2025
Pulled into driveway and put car in park. I had to close gate and lock it up and when returning to the car to turn off I was standing outside the car and it started rolling backwards. I tried to jump in the car to stop it and it was picking up speed. Driveway has a slight incline but nothing like the speed was on the car. I was in between the car door and the car seat running with the car. I ... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Apr 7, 2026
Three power window regulators have failed on my 2016 Hyundai Tucson within a six-month period. The front driver and front passenger windows both failed first and required replacement. The rear driver-side window has now also failed and is currently stuck in the open position. When the failures occur, the window will move up slightly but then drop back down or will not stay closed, indicating a fa... Read more
Incident date: Apr 7, 2026
Engine failed at high speeds on interstate. When my Truck shut off the steering and braking system went out and getting to shoulder of interstate was difficult with others around me. Express lanes were limited on emergency shoulder therefore my truck was partially on the high speed driving lane. 911 was called out to block freeway lane. Check engine light blinked right when truck shut down.
Incident date: Apr 7, 2026
Engine failed at high speeds on interstate. When my Truck shut off the steering and braking system went out and getting to shoulder of interstate was difficult with others around me. Express lanes were limited on emergency shoulder therefore my truck was partially on the high speed driving lane. 911 was called out to block freeway lane. Check engine light blinked right when truck shut down.
Incident date: Jan 8, 2026
While driving on a sunny day on a 35mph road, my dashboard reported “Check Electrical Vehicle System”. A red battery symbol appeared and my cruise control disengaged with a message “requirements not met”. When I got home I read my 12 volt battery monitor that reported the battery was 11.99v and only had a 60% state of charge. Just prior to this short drive from home, my battery was 12.77v ... Read more
Incident date: Jan 8, 2026
I recently purchased my vehicle with under 30k miles in July of 2026. Not long after my purchase my car began roughly idling with a blinking check engine light, and soon after the engine began misfiring. This also cause loss of power when attempting to accelerate creating dangerous conditions in high traffic/fast paced areas. After lots of research I found several reports of owners with cylinder f... Read more
Incident date: Jan 5, 2026
[XXX] - I have called the Dealer numerous times and even Stelatis for 2 years and I keep getting the SORRY there are no parts to fix your vehicle. PLEASE help me with this non stop run around. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
Incident date: Jan 5, 2026
The transmission in this specific car model for not only me, but others as well always have problems and go out at any time. Dealership won’t help with me having my warranty go out even tho it’s a notorious problem. Typically costs over 10k in in repairs of replacing the transmission that will eventually go out again.
Incident date: Jan 5, 2026
The transmission in this specific car model for not only me, but others as well always have problems and go out at any time. Dealership won’t help with me having my warranty go out even tho it’s a notorious problem. Typically costs over 10k in in repairs of replacing the transmission that will eventually go out again.
Incident date: Apr 7, 2026
On or around March 12 2026 The drivers front tire air suspension and compressor both went out causing tire to drop which meant it was rubbing the finder well it has been taken to a dealership and confirmed No warning lamps or warnings visible to me appeared on the truck just noticed the change in how it was driving and noticed the significant drop in tire
Incident date: Mar 20, 2026
My infant daughter became stuck in the rear seat due to a seat belt malfunction in my Nissan Ariya Evolve+. The seat belt buckle would not release even after repeated attempts to press the release button. We tried multiple times to unbuckle it normally, but it remained stuck and would not open. This created a serious safety situation, as my child was trapped and unable to be freed. Due to the em... Read more
Incident date: Mar 20, 2026
Front driver side door lock would not lock or unlock with the key fab or door lock button of door panel. Dealership diagnosis problem as a failed actuator. This can result in safety concern if your unable to lock or unlock the door in an emergency. Also a security concerns for thief if door isn't locking properly.
Incident date: Feb 28, 2026
Complete engine failure at 1838 miles. Need complete engine replacement. Estimated time unknown for replacement parts.
Incident date: Feb 28, 2026
I have two of these car seats same car seats one for my car and one for my husband‘s car. Anytime I try to get my car seat to position to the 2 or 3 it slides right back to 1, I have tried getting it to lock into place so many times but no matter what I do it slides right back to the 1 position.
Incident date: Apr 2, 2026
While driving on the highway in traffic, I was applying the brakes (slowly and smoothly) and moving with the flow of traffic when the SBS system activated the brakes harshly and slammed me to a stop without reason. In addition to throwing me forward against my seatbelt, it also resulted in the car behind me rear-ending me. I did not hit the car ahead of me, since I was far enough behind them BEFOR... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Apr 7, 2026
My on Thursday, April 2, my 2024 Hyunda Ioniq 5 displayed the "Check Electrical System" message displayed. I had just started the car. I started to lose propulsion on a busy street [XXX] ). I managed to get the car to [XXX] and had to pull over. I had the car towed to the Luther Hyundai, [XXX] . On Monday, April 6, the dealer informed me the ICCU failed. The ICCU and a fuse were replaced. I p... Read more
Incident date: Apr 6, 2026
Recently, my sun roof shade has started to sag and no longer retracts correctly. This is causing a loss of visibility out of the rear and side windows. It also is causing a distraction as it has lost it's tension. Additionally I have contacted two separate Ford dealerships, only for them to tell me that I have to bring the vehicle in and pay hundreds of dollars to "diagnose" that the shade is brok... Read more
Incident date: Mar 30, 2026
My car is AWD. Occasionally when I am driving my car will feel like its stalling and an error message appears on the dash saying there’s an error with the AWD system and only front wheel driving is working
Incident date: Dec 23, 2025
1- transmission issue, it’ll occasionally slip from 1-2 gear and engine rpm’s will shoot up making it when you release the gas pedal it’ll kick into second gear it’ll also do minor kicks into other gears (8l90 transmission) 2- breaks issue, unsure of what the problem is but at very low speeds like parking or going in slow traffic the break pedal will get really hard making you have to pre... Read more
Incident date: Dec 23, 2025
The contact owns a 2019 Ford EcoSport. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V905000 (Engine and Engine Cooling); however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The local dealer was made aware of the issue and confirmed that parts were not yet available. Recently, the contact stated there was an abnormal, tapping sound coming from the engine. There was no ... Read more
Incident date: Feb 19, 2026
Air bag light stays on and seatbelt light comes on even when nothing is in seat.
Incident date: Feb 19, 2026
On this Car the AC drain hose causes unnecessary expedited rust of the subframe as it drips on the subframe where the steering rack and pinion are. this causes that part of the subframe to rust abnormally faster than normal due to the water. The hose whould have been redirected away from the subframe to prevent safety issues.
Incident date: Feb 19, 2026
The contact owns a 2017 Ford Edge. The contact stated that the rear-view camera displayed a distorted image while in reverse(R). The contact then received notifications of NHTSA Campaign Numbers: 25V544000 (SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC) and 25V572000 (BACK OVER PREVENTION); however, parts to do the recall repairs were not yet available. The local dealer was contacted and confirmed that parts were not... Read more
Incident date: Apr 5, 2026
This is the third time that my jeep has completely shut off with no warning and in the middle of traffic. I am unable to turn on any hazard lights. The power goes completely out, and I am unable to put the car in neutral or anything to be safe. I have reported this issue in the past. The dealership is unable to figure out what is wrong and I keep trying to get this resolved before it turns out tra... Read more
Incident date: Apr 5, 2026
I’m reporting a serious safety issue with my 2018 Audi Q7. Both rear suspension springs failed suddenly while I was driving at highway speeds 70 MPH, with no warning at all. This was extremely dangerous—I almost lost control of the vehicle when it happened. The rear of the car dropped and handling became unstable immediately. There were no prior signs, noises, or issues leading up to the fail... Read more
Incident date: Apr 5, 2026
Driving on the highway with no obstacles or vehicles in proximity, the sunroof spontaneously shattered. If we had the sunroof visor (slide cover) open to let in light, we would have been rained down on by thousands of glass shards while driving at highway speeds. Luckily for us, the cover acted as a barrier from the glass. This part of the sunroof is over both driver and passenger seats. The vehi... Read more
Incident date: Feb 1, 2026
specifics unknown check engine light came on cpl seconds before it started overheating / leaking coolant and or transmission fluid and overheating. and I'm not sure what. started last year but I don't drive very often so the issue just started last year
Incident date: Feb 1, 2026
specifics unknown check engine light came on cpl seconds before it started overheating / leaking coolant and or transmission fluid and overheating. and I'm not sure what. started last year but I don't drive very often so the issue just started last year
Incident date: Apr 5, 2026
The contact owns a 2022 Hyundai Palisade. The contact works for a ridesharing company and stated that while driving at various speeds, the front driver’s and rear driver’s seat belts unlatch unexpectedly. Upon investigation, the contact discovered NHTSA Campaign Number: 25V607000 (Seat Belts). The contact later received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 26V034000 (Air Bags); however, the ... Read more
Incident date: Apr 5, 2026
I purchased a 2019 Ford EcoSport from CarMax on April 12, 2022. At the time of sale, CarMax provided documentation stating that there were no unrepaired safety recalls on the vehicle. I relied on this representation in making my purchase decision. I later discovered that the vehicle is subject to a serious manufacturer recall involving the engine oil pump, which can fail and cause loss of oil pre... Read more
Incident date: Apr 5, 2026
I purchased a 2019 Ford EcoSport from CarMax on April 12, 2022. At the time of sale, CarMax provided documentation stating that there were no unrepaired safety recalls on the vehicle. I relied on this representation in making my purchase decision. I later discovered that the vehicle is subject to a serious manufacturer recall involving the engine oil pump, which can fail and cause loss of oil pre... Read more
Incident date: Aug 27, 2021
The contact owns a 2021 Chevrolet Tahoe. The contact stated that while driving approximately 45 MPH, the check engine warning light illuminated, and the message “Reduced Acceleration - Drive Safely” was displayed. The vehicle then started shaking abnormally. The contact pulled into a nearby parking lot, turned off the vehicle, and waited for a while before restarting the vehicle. After restart... Read more
Incident date: Jun 20, 2025
The contact owns a 2021 Ford Escape. The contact received notifications of NHTSA Campaign Numbers: 26V123000 (Back Over Prevention), 26V117000 (Visibility), and 25V829000 (Structure); however, the parts to do the recall repairs were not yet available. The dealer was contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The dealer confirmed that parts were not yet available for the recall repairs. ... Read more
Incident date: Jan 1, 2025
The contact owns a 2016 Ford F-150. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the steering wheel seized, and the vehicle lost the power steering assist feature. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic, who replaced the electric power-assisted steering (EPAS) system. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure... Read more
Incident date: Jan 1, 2025
Warranty work has not been completed and I have had this issue for months.
Incident date: Mar 7, 2026
I think recall work was not done, but says it was done (or is not open). Does it say when and where recall work was done? This car has a parasitic battery drain, 3 batteries in 3 years, required 2 jump starts, 1 call to AAA. There is a recall for such an issue, but I do not believe it was fixed and done. It showed NO open recalls, and just last week I had brake work for a recall done.
HYUNDAI
SANTA FE SPORT
(2018) - EXTERIOR LIGHTING
Apr 7, 2026
Incident date: Mar 3, 2026
My driver side front headlight fan is malfunctioning. It stays on and makes a loud noise when the car is parked and off and the lights are still on. This is a known defect and my dealership is asking for 2k to pay for it. I am concerned the light will go out causing safety concerns. (TSB) SA01323 and 09-015/23. This should be recalled as is it not a general wear and tear issue, it is a manufacturi... Read more
HYUNDAI
SANTA FE SPORT
(2018) - SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC
Apr 7, 2026
Incident date: Mar 3, 2026
The contact owns a 2018 Ram 2500. The contact stated that while driving approximately 20 MPH in a snowstorm on icy roads, the contact pressed the brake pedal and the vehicle slid off the road and side swiped into a telephone pole, where it crashed into a ditch and came to a stop. The police were called to the scene, and the vehicle was towed out of a ditch and driven home. No injuries were reporte... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Dec 10, 2025
Coolant leaking into cylinders. Repair shops said it was a known Ford issue with the 1.5 ecoboost engine. Causes the coolant to leak out and the engine to overheat and the overflow tank to leak.
Incident date: Dec 10, 2025
Vehicle: 2023 Tesla Model Y Long Range Complaint: I am reporting a serious safety issue involving a vehicle sold by Tim Dahle Nissan Murray in Murray, Utah. Approximately three weeks ago, I purchased a 2023 Tesla Model Y Long Range from this dealership. After purchase, I discovered that the rear seat belts were not functioning. I have evidence indicating that the dealership was aware of this ... Read more
Incident date: Nov 7, 2025
I was driving late night to a campsite in a very rural part of the Big Island of [XXX] , about 45 minutes from where I live. I was by myself except for my dog, in the passenger seat. I was on a country road with a 30 mph speed limit, going about 25 mph. I engaged the cruise control and it immediately went up to 40-45 mph, far faster than the limit and far faster than was safe given the wet condi... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Nov 7, 2025
I was driving late night to a campsite in a very rural part of the Big Island of [XXX] , about 45 minutes from where I live. I was by myself except for my dog, in the passenger seat. I was on a country road with a 30 mph speed limit, going about 25 mph. I engaged the cruise control and it immediately went up to 40-45 mph, far faster than the limit and far faster than was safe given the wet condi... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Nov 7, 2025
I am reporting a failure in the integrity of Federal Safety Recall completion and documentation at Kia of Daphne. On 2/6/26, I was issued official paperwork stating a recall part was 'Special Ordered.' On 4/3, I attempted to call for FU in part progress. Informed “recall was done and replaced 2/6, and no part was ordered.” Advisor requested I speak to manager, I declined, request they speak t... Read more
Incident date: Apr 7, 2026
On 11/7/25 , we were driving my 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 5 to a friend's home in rural [XXX] , a trip of approximately 160 miles. At around 5:00 PM, we stopped about halfway to our destination to charge the battery. The car would not charge above 47%. While we continued to attempt to charge the battery, the console displayed a Check Electrical System Warning message, and we received the DTC P1AA700 via ... Read more
Incident date: Apr 6, 2026
Just bought a 2020 Alfa Romeo Giulia from Carvana and two days later while driving the check engine light came on along with the electronic throttle light and the auto start/stop light. While driving the vehicle went into complete limp mode in a busy intersection and I had to pull off quickly to avoid being hit by other traffic. Engine codes came up fuel pressure related.
Incident date: Apr 6, 2026
The telematics module aka OnStar, doesn’t not work.
Incident date: Apr 5, 2026
Complaint Summary: I am filing a complaint regarding a potentially defective A/C compressor that is producing abnormal noise and may indicate premature failure. Description of Issue: My vehicle’s A/C compressor produces a loud, rhythmic “chugging” or knocking noise at idle when the A/C system is off. The noise is excessive and not consistent with normal operation. When the A/C is turned on,... Read more
Incident date: Apr 5, 2026
I have reached out multiple times to the dealership to fix my car but it’s been months since the recalls. I have three kids and I all rows in my car are unsafe due to the seatbelts.
Incident date: Apr 5, 2026
I have reached out multiple times to the dealership to fix my car but it’s been months since the recalls. I have three kids and I all rows in my car are unsafe due to the seatbelts.
Incident date: Apr 6, 2026
Engine light turns on every couple months. The Kia either stops accelerating and goes into “limp mode” or gives code for misfiring cylinders. Took to dealership several times, they did nothing but reset battery so light goes off. Unsafe when driving my family around and has turned into an unreliable vehicle. SO frustrating for a new vehicle to have these issues.