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 60,583 complaints for KIA
Incident date: Jul 21, 2025
I was driving down a residential road at about 40 mph. There was no car or other obstacle in front of me, but my car suddenly slammed on the brakes. It brought the car to an abrupt stop for no reason. If a car had been behind me, they would have slammed into me. It was so abrupt, I felt like I had whiplash. It was terrifying. I had taken the car into the dealership to due to the brake pin re... Read more
Incident date: Aug 12, 2025
At approximately 37,000 miles, the CV axles on my 2023 Ford Maverick Hybrid required replacement due to premature wear. Now, at around 62,200 miles, the vehicle is experiencing excessive vibration and shaking during acceleration, particularly noticeable at moderate to high speeds. This issue appears to be related to the powertrain or suspension system and may indicate a recurring or unresolved pro... Read more
Incident date: May 25, 2025
I was driving down [XXX] in LaPuente and every light on my dash lit up and I attempted to Exit freeway and my brakes would not work so I waited for car to slow down and luckily I was near by the Puente hills Chevrolet dealer. Also my steering wheel was very lose and it felt that I couldn’t steer well. I pulled into dealership and had to push my brakes all the way to the floor board just for Tah... Read more
Incident date: Aug 11, 2025
Failure of the: pump break booster actuator Had it towed to Toyota and they said it’s a $3,500 repair
Incident date: Jul 2, 1967
My car has been sending several warnings including: Brake System: Electric Parking Brake System Problem, Brake System Problem, Brake Hold System Problem, Adaptive Cruise Control System Problem, Collision Mitigation Braking System Problem, Road Departure Mitigation System Problem, Supplemental Restraint System Problem, and Power Steering Reduction Problem. My car is not even 100,000 miles yet. I ... Read more
Incident date: May 1, 2025
If car is idling for over 1 minute, all lights on dash come on. When all lights on, car wont wont go over mph, car will randomly sputter in highway when going over 1rpm and will stall randomly. Reported on reddit by multiple people and when I went in to get it diagnosed it was the fuel injector issue
Incident date: Jul 14, 2025
The carrier bearing failed and caused the engine to lock up while driving, thankfully we weren't on a busy road and were able to coast off the road. There was no prior light that appeared. We are just thankful it wasn't our 16 year old, newly licensed driver for whom we purchased the vehicle, driving. It has not been looked over by the dealership yet as they have failed to return any phone calls. ... Read more
Incident date: Jul 23, 2025
Parking lights stay on, change brake light switch but the hole that the switch goes in is not aligned with the brake stopper to turn off the stop brakes, therefore it remains on. Battery needs to be unplugged to keep from draining. The mechanism to stop the lights from remaining on is somehow shifted to no longer turn off the brake lights.
Incident date: Jul 31, 2025
Power train incident - • transmission holding gears, jerking between shifts, gear shifted into S mode on its own and stuck there, unresponsive acceleration, locked up steering/inability to turn the steering wheel and total loss of drive power. • happened while merging onto a highway in one of two split lanes for highway access. A merging semi truck in the other merging lane almost ran into ... Read more
Incident date: Jul 31, 2025
I got into a car accident that a ton of front end damage (the car was totaled) and none of the airbags deployed. I was alone in the car and wearing my seatbelt. I looked and found no noted recalls for the airbags in my specific car.
Crash
4 injured
Incident date: Jul 31, 2025
Cam phasers failed, car becomes inoperable. This was a known issue that was brought in under warranty and was not fixed. Car had to be brought in for major repairs because it was not addressed under warranty.
Incident date: Jul 14, 2025
The climate control screen is difficult to see, especially in sunlight. This makes it unsafe to change things like fan speed while driving. Interestingly all other screens are very bright but this one screen is not bright and dealer says no adjustment available.
Incident date: May 30, 2025
Brake master cylinder ECU failed. Illuminated warning lights for BRAKE, FRONT END COLLISION AVOIDANCE, ABS, and ELECTRONIC STABILITY CONTROL. Took the vehicle to dealership and was told about the part failure. They advised that there was no ETA on parts that are on backorder. The codes were removed and the warning lights went off, but came back on the next day. I was told that the vehicle was driv... Read more
Incident date: Aug 10, 2025
Engine failure. Definitely a safety issue, check engine light flashing, limited engine power. Wouldn’t accelerate. Dealer inspected, there is a nationwide recall and class action lawsuits and they won’t replace even though it’s under warranty. False information saying maintenance neglect on my part. That is FALSE. Known failure and oil consumption. Rod bearing failure.
Incident date: Aug 8, 2025
GM may be installing recalled engines into other vehicles through warranty replacements, avoiding recall accountability. I purchased a 2021 GMC Yukon built before recall N252494002. Before my ownership, the original engine failed and was replaced under warranty at 24,339 miles on 9/16/2024. The dealer verbally told me it was new, but it had salvage yard markings and no serial number—indicating ... Read more
Incident date: May 10, 2025
On [XXX], my 2015 Hyundai Sonata experienced a sudden and complete loss of power while driving at highway speed on [XXX] in Sarasota, FL. There were no warning lights, error messages, or abnormal performance indicators prior to the failure. Within minutes of losing power, smoke began to enter the cabin, followed by visible flames from the engine compartment. I pulled over, exited the vehicle, and ... Read more
Fire
Incident date: Jul 31, 2025
Vehicle began running roughly. CEL came on. Began to misfire. Limped it off the FWY under limited power. Had vehicle towed to dealership. Was diagnosed as having bad fuel injectors. Was told by service writer that Hyundai Santa Cruz trucks have been experiencing a lot of injector failures. Looking at the various Hyundai Santa Cruz forums, it appears that this has been a very common issue and has o... Read more
Incident date: Aug 11, 2025
Loss of some power. No haul power.
Incident date: Aug 11, 2025
There has been a safety recall issued since January 16, 2025. Today's date is August 11, 2025. To this date there is still no remedy available. I own two Jeeps with this same recall as part of my business. I am losing close to $3,000 in revenue per month between the two. I'm quickly approaching lost revenue of $21k. Is there a time requirement for manufacturers to address their safety recalls... Read more
KIA
CARNIVAL HYBRID
(2025) — LANE DEPARTURE: ASSIST
Aug 11, 2025
Incident date: Aug 11, 2025
We came from a 2020 Telluride which had the steering assist and it was awesome. It worked great and kept the vehicle centered in the lane. I bought this vehicle about two weeks ago and we put over 4000 miles this week on the pro4x with the pilot 1.1. This thing is all over the road and it hugs the right line then with any curve even the slightest, it acts like a ping pong ball putting the line to ... Read more
Incident date: Apr 16, 2025
The contact owns a 2016 Ford Explorer. The contact stated while driving at various speeds, the driver's side exterior A-pillar trim was hanging off the windshield, obstructing the contact's view while driving. The contact stated that condensation was entering the vehicle through the driver's side exterior A-pillar trim, also obstructed her view while driving. The contact later received notificatio... Read more
Incident date: Apr 16, 2024
The ACC, LKAS, Collision Mitigation, High beam, lane departure warnings light errors are on. This happened 2 years ago and Honda wanted me to pay $1,200 to replace all sensors of this car. Of course I just left it. It's not worth the hassel. However, for a car bought brand new in 2019 to have these systems fail in 2023, and for this to be a main component advertised for consumers to buy vehicles, ... Read more
Incident date: Jul 28, 2025
The contact owns a 2013 Ford Edge. The contact stated that while driving through a mountainous area, the brake pedal became firm. There was no warning light illuminated. The contact depressed the brake pedal and was forced to pump the brake pedal and depress the brake pedal to the floorboard to stop the vehicle. The contact initially contacted an independent mechanic and was informed that the mode... Read more
Incident date: Apr 14, 2025
* High pressure fuel pump quick disconnect fuel line fitting leaking fuel. * Raw fuel leaking poses a risk of fire and danger to the vehicle occupants. Raw fuel leaking in a closed in area as it did in my garage could have lead to an explosion due ignition of the fuel vapors. * My vehicle was repaired by a KIA dealership. The dealership noted that they've seen this issue several times in the pas... Read more
Incident date: Aug 11, 2025
Motor uses 6 guarts of oil in 3000 miles. No leaks. The dealer has done the oil consumption test. And it failed every time. Kia denied claim to replace engine. They stated that it passed the bearing test. This is crap.
Incident date: Aug 11, 2025
If car is idling for over 1 minute, all lights on dash come on. When all lights on, car wont wont go over mph, car will randomly sputter in highway when going over 1rpm and will stall randomly. Reported on reddit by multiple people and when I went in to get it diagnosed it was the fuel injector issue
Incident date: Jul 5, 2025
The tailgate on my truck is electrically opened & closed. I've been having trouble with the tailgate opening randomly, even while driving. This has happened multiple times and can create a very dangerous situation, especially if i'm hauling something in the bed of the truck and it could possibly fall out if the tailgate were to open. Once i was hauling a bunk bed and the tailgate opened without me... Read more
Incident date: May 14, 2025
Ran into a cemex block with no light pole. The parking lot was dark and cemex block was not marked. Forward collision detection system did not work and airbag ejected some shrapnel cutting my arm and shatter ing my bone in forearm and wrist. I’m lucky it did not hit me in the head or I would be dead today. By the grace of god I’m still alive Amen !
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: May 14, 2024
Took my 2022 VW Taos in for its 20,000 mile service. Upon picking up the vehicle I was told everything looks great and I'm going to want to watch my rear brakes, the pads are worn 50%. I inquired as to wear on the front, near new at 11. I had also asked if they could check on the sluggish or jack rabbit take offs. They said that had been corrected thru a computer update at a previous visit. I said... Read more
Incident date: Jul 28, 2025
My 2022 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid periodically has a sudden shutdown warning identical to vehicles in recall 23V-010 (157), where the engine simply shuts down and a message shows to park safely (it happened to me a bunch of times on a highway and I was lucky enough to have room on the road shoulder. My VIN isn’t listed in the recall 157 that seems to take care of this issue, but the symptoms matc... Read more
Incident date: Jul 28, 2025
My 2022 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid periodically has a sudden shutdown warning identical to vehicles in recall 23V-010 (157), where the engine simply shuts down and a message shows to park safely (it happened to me a bunch of times on a highway and I was lucky enough to have room on the road shoulder. My VIN isn’t listed in the recall 157 that seems to take care of this issue, but the symptoms matc... Read more
Incident date: Aug 6, 2025
Vechicle shuts off during high speeds causing driver to loose control and driver and passengers to be tossed around even while constrained with seat belts
Incident date: Aug 9, 2025
On Aug 8th at 3:32pm (81F and sunny), I stopped at a red light with the auto idle engine feature on. When I lifted my foot off the brake to drive the car, the car shifted into neutral and completely shut down and would not restart immediately. I attempted approximately 8 times to restart the car for 3 minutes before it successfully restarted. This poses a significant safety hazard for myself, my c... Read more
Incident date: Aug 9, 2025
While driving on highways when there is no car in front of me, my car suddenly warns me of collision and applies brakes automatically! This almost caused an accident with the cars behind me. They were about to collide with me from behind because my car was applying brakes automatically without my control. Please help me urgently.
Incident date: Mar 8, 2025
Car revs up at a stop sign, red light, heavy traffic, recently when making right turn. While in heavy traffic, stop and go barely moving, car stopped with foot on brake, traffic not moving, car revved up extremely high, the harder I stepped on the brake the higher it revved up, as cars started to move I took my foot off the brake, car jerked forward fast and I hit another car. No injuries, no maj... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Mar 8, 2025
Beginning of 2025 my drivers side door handle would not open from the outside of the car only the inside . I took it to a certified Cadillac dealer which they had to replace the door handle . Now July 10, 2025 my front passenger side is doing the same thing and I will not have to take my car in to see if they can fix it or it this too will need to be replaced. This causes a hazard of emergency no ... Read more
Incident date: Aug 9, 2025
While accelerating from a complete stop at a red light, immediately after refueling, the vehicle suddenly lost all propulsion power and forced itself into Neutral without any driver input. The dashboard lit up with numerous system warnings at once, including: •Emissions System Problem •Brake System Problem •ABS Problem •Brake Hold System Problem •Electric Parking Brake Problem •Vehicle... Read more
Incident date: Jul 31, 2025
The infotainment screen glitches out and selects options on the screen without human interaction. Whenever it starts doing this screen input disables making the screen extremely distracting while driving. During one of my trip, while I was driving on the highway, the screen started going crazy on it's own. First it cancelled my directions from google maps and kept switching out the screen to diffe... Read more
Incident date: Aug 6, 2025
I have the pearl white paint on this vehicle. It is peeling off the car.
Incident date: Aug 9, 2025
I was on a trip to Iowa and noticed a loud ticking noise starting in my engine. There was no warning lights on the dash to indicate any problems. I checked the oil and notice it was not registering on the dip stick. I added over a quart of oil and the noise continued. My truck was just at a dealer 2 weeks prior for an oil change and they noted that everything was good and in proper working order.... Read more
Incident date: Jun 28, 2025
Nissan, the manufacturer, has failed to remedy a safety recall, 24V-700, for my vehicle in a timely manner. A September 19, 2024 submission report states that Recall Number R24B2 will be remedied by November 2024. Now the Nissan website "NISSAN IS CURRENTLY DEVELOPING A REMEDY PLAN THAT IS EXPECTED TO BE AVAILABLE by March 2025". It is now August 2025 and no remedy has been established. This is ... Read more
Incident date: Aug 9, 2025
Constantly Randomly Getting (Service Shifter) Notification and all the lights on the shifter light up on the shifter ... It Resets when i put it in Park and Stop Engine - When i ask the Jeep Dealer about it they say it must be doing it when i bring it in before the can trouble shoot the problem.... they say they cant check the computer code list and see when its happened and why ..... I believe... Read more
Incident date: Aug 9, 2025
While driving with my small children in the vehicle, my 2022 Acura MDX suddenly displayed multiple simultaneous system failures without warning and the steering wheel locked and the car slowed and the brakes didn't work well: •Brake System Problem – warning that braking performance may be reduced •Electric Power Steering Problem – “Do Not Drive” warning •Vehicle Stability Assist Prob... Read more
Incident date: Aug 8, 2025
Blind spot towing mirrors very unsafe cars motorcycles and people disappear behind mirrors especially the right side have had many close calls. Ram needs to go back to old style mirrors.
Incident date: Aug 8, 2025
I was driving down the road and my latched my sky roof panel flew up in the air while I was driving. Thankfully it stayed attached to the latch and I pulled off the road quickly so the entire panel did not fly off into traffic. I was also only driving 35 miles per hour so that helped too.
Incident date: Apr 15, 2025
This scenerio happened and fire resulted with total loss. Fuel system, gasoline: Delivery: Hoses, lines/piping, and fittings Recall date 2018-12-18 Recall no. 18V907000 Kia Motors America (Kia) is recalling certain 2011-2017 Optima, 2012-2017 Sorento and 2011-2018 Sportage vehicles that previously received an engine replacement under recall number 17V-224, warranty, or the Knock Sensor Detection ... Read more
Fire
Incident date: Apr 15, 2025
Back-up camera does not work reliably, even after the most recent software update. It will occasionally stutter, and sometimes show "camera is temporarily unavailable" while backing up.
Incident date: Apr 15, 2025
Out of no where engine light starts flashing and had it checked code P1326 Knock Sensor Detection System. Now need a new engine. This is a common issue for this make and model but somehow my vin isn’t on the recall. This isn’t right
Incident date: Aug 1, 2024
My vehicle we bought from carvana has been jerking/misfiring and now with no warning on freeway it wouldn't give power stalling. There was no warning nothing no lights came up. I drive my kids in this vehicle I've taken it to multiple mechanics they say they couldn't find why it's jerking and it must be a manufacturer issue. I looked online and yes lots of issues with the make and model recall abo... Read more
Incident date: Jul 17, 2025
I pulled up to a red light in a protected left turn lane. My car is set to use regenerative braking and hold/not roll once stopped. I felt my car roll forward a bit, which shouldn't happen when these settings are on. I quickly checked my rearview mirror, assuming someone had hit me from behind to cause me to roll forward. No one was behind me. I hit my brake and the car suddenly accelerated at ful... Read more
Crash