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.

2,245,377 Total Complaints

140,173 Reported Crashes

56,794 Reported Fires

8,580 Reported 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

How to Read NHTSA Consumer Complaints › How NHTSA Investigations Work › Used Car: 7 Recall Checks to Run First › The Takata Airbag Recall: Full Story › OBD-II Codes Explained › All Articles ›

Clear

Showing 33,654 complaints for MERCEDES-BENZ

Incident date: Apr 10, 2023

While driving reduced power light came on. On Highway speed reduced to a crawl.

Incident date: Apr 10, 2023

When driving during rain, the ABS light came on due to wet conditions and reduced my driving speed ability, and created difficulty for traffic and for my family on the highway. This of which made me have to pull off to the side of the road and try to travel 40 minutes to a safe destination at a very slow speed while my vehicle was difficult to drive. Once parked overnight at a hotel it was okay t... Read more

Incident date: Jul 3, 2009

The accident happened on 12/28/22. At 8:50 am, I was picking up a friend and was leaving the parking lot. My friend got in and and then opened the door to lock it again . My foot was on the gas pedal trying to leave the parking lot. The car jumped and went to the opposite side. I turned the steering wheel to keep it from hitting an object but could not get any control on the car. The car kept acce... Read more

Crash

Incident date: Nov 8, 2022

Rattling noise when accelerating

Crash 1 injured

Incident date: Nov 8, 2022

Rattling noise when accelerating

Crash 1 injured

Incident date: Nov 8, 2022

I was driving home on april 13, 2023 when the power seemed to leave my car & steering & brakes felt like they weren't working right like I had no control. The battery & oil change lights came on. I was scared & didn't know what to do but then a min or so later I was able to get enough control to direct it into a parking lot across from my house & turned off the engine. When I turned the car back o... Read more

Incident date: May 1, 2023

On multiple occasions the Radio has went to max volume for approximately 2-3 seconds then shuts off and goes through a reset. This situation can cause the driver to be suddenly distracted put the driver and others at risk of an accident.

Incident date: Apr 27, 2023

Less than 2 minutes into my drive the car decided to disable lane keep assistance and warnings for no reason. As you can see in the photo linked below the vehicles in the oncoming lane are lagging and look kind of like a ghost car while the rest of the screen is totally fine. Well all I did was switch from the middle lane to the left lane like I do everyday with my indicator on, on my way to McDon... Read more

Incident date: Apr 27, 2023

while driving on a 2 lane road that curved to the right, the Collision Mitigation Braking System (CMBS) activated for no apparent reason. The brakes engaged hard for a short period of time. Fortunately there was no vehicle behind me that could have rear ended me. I would say this is a serious safety issue under the right conditions .

Incident date: Dec 9, 2022

I was driving the van a day after I bought it with only 42 miles on it, was going to make a turn onto a busy road and the car made a horrible noise and suddenly stopped. After a minute the 03A "fix" came on warning me to pull over safely but the car had stopped on it's own and would not restart, it was dead. Had I been on the highway when it happened it could have ended very badly.

Incident date: Dec 9, 2022

I have owned my sonata since I bought it in 2016, brand new. Started having issues with having to get more frequent oil changes in 2021, of course after my warranty out. It ‘s supposed to make 5,000 m between changes for synthetic/hm oil, but when it first started the car would be not wanting to run right, jumping, engine seemed to be running rougher, which would happen right around or close to ... Read more

Incident date: May 11, 2023

3 days ago my motorcycle stayed with maximum acceleration where I had to jump off the motorcycle and let it fall to the ground the motorcycle have minor damage on body

Crash

Incident date: May 11, 2023

3 days ago my motorcycle stayed with maximum acceleration where I had to jump off the motorcycle and let it fall to the ground the motorcycle have minor damage on body

Crash

Incident date: May 11, 2023

The contact owns a 2015 Ford Fusion. The contact stated while driving 35-40 MPH, the brake pedal was depressed but failed to respond. There was no warning light illuminated. The contact continuously pumped the brake pedal until the brakes responded. The contact stated that the failure occurred several times while driving. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic, where it was diagnosed tha... Read more

Incident date: May 7, 2023

Left rear tail lamp not illuminating. Investigation: Verified connection to find wire cut and corroded, wire was touching a plastic bracket on the vehicle because the trim that covers the harness had a foam on it and that was pushing the tail lamp harness onto the bracket causing it to rub. Then with time water made it's way in and corroded/cut the wire.

Incident date: May 10, 2023

The contact owns a 2015 Nissan Sentra. The contact stated that while at a stop sign, the accelerator pedal was depressed; however, the vehicle failed to accelerate. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic, who informed the contact that the transmission needed to be replaced. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 60,000.

Incident date: May 7, 2023

I recently had to repair a part of my engine with the code P052E. It specifically was "The Valve for Crankcase Ventilation. It stated it was malfunctioned and that the actuator is blocked. It could have caused my engine to fail and my car to stop at any moment putting myself and others at risk. There is a large amounts of consumers with the same vehicle that complained about the same issue. It was... Read more

Incident date: Mar 7, 2023

Was losing power while driving, oil consumption issues (had to add oil every 1000 miles). Engine started knocking and went into limp mode, had it towed to dealership where they said they fixed it ($1100). Less then a week later while driving on the highway lost lower, went into limp mode (89 mph to 15 mph in seconds) and was almost hit by a semi truck. Car has been sitting at the dealership since ... Read more

Incident date: Apr 15, 2023

I was in an accident on March 18 around 10 pm eastern time. I was t-boned and the side air bag never deployed. I have also since had issues with my powertrain light coming on and the vehicle loosing power.

Crash

Incident date: Apr 18, 2023

My car randomly caught on fire, it was parked in my apartment garage for a week while I was out of town. I came back to use my car and my car remote wasn’t unlocking the car so i unlocked it manually. When I opened the car it wreaked of smoke, the windows were covered in soot, the visors were bubbled up, the passenger seat had a chunk missing. It was investigated by a car shop for My insurance a... Read more

Fire

Incident date: Nov 28, 2022

The steering wheel gets stuck/locks up and takes more than normal steering force to maneuver. It occurs at higher speeds, and makes steering feel choppy. It feels unsafe.

Incident date: Nov 28, 2022

The contact owns a 2018 Ford Ecosport. The contact stated while driving at various speeds, the vehicle began to jerk and stalled. There was no warning light illuminated. The contact veered to the side of the road. The contact restarted the vehicle and continued driving; however, the failure recurred several times while driving, and the vehicle failed to restart. The vehicle was towed to the dealer... Read more

Incident date: Mar 6, 2023

Today I loaded my son in his car seat, then put my purse in the front passenger sear, and walked to the driver side to get in and found my doors locked. My car was not turned on. Since buying the car in august I have never had this issue. Inside the car was my purse which held my key and cell phone. My son was stuck in a hot car for nearly 20 minute panicking while I asked a stranger to call the p... Read more

1 injured

Incident date: Apr 28, 2023

The contact owns a 2014 Ford Escape. The contact stated while driving approximately 30 MPH, a message indicating that the coolant level was low was displayed. The check engine warning light was illuminated. The contact stated that she had been adding coolant to the vehicle weekly; however, the failure persisted. Additionally, the contact stated that the vehicle failed to start after several attemp... Read more

Incident date: Apr 11, 2023

The contact owns a 2021 Honda Ridgeline. The contact stated that the back over prevention camera was distorted. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, who informed the contact that the back over prevention camera needed to be replaced; however, the part to repair the vehicle was on backorder. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 20,000.

Incident date: May 4, 2023

I was driving down the road when out of nowhere my sunroof started raining glass in the inside of my car!! There was no Crack or stone that hit it nothing!! There needs to be a recall on this had I known this was an issue I never would have bought a vehicle with a sunroof gad I known!! The Ford dealership said they hadn't heard about anything like this happening but where I was suppose to have it ... Read more

Incident date: Mar 2, 2023

Electric fire drivers side rear inside, parked in driveway, hadn't been started for 24 hours, no inspection, not sure who to contact, disconnected battery and extinquised fire with water, major melting on inside and paint on outside, lucky we saw what was happening when we did close to fuel tank could have caused explosion

Fire

Incident date: Mar 2, 2023

Windshield cracked and split to the middle unexpectedly

Incident date: May 2, 2023

The contact owns a 2019 Tesla Model S. The contact stated while driving 76 MPH with the adaptive cruise control activated, the vehicle experienced phantom braking and decelerated to 45 MPH. The contact stated that the cruise control function then activated and operated as designed and the vehicle then regained speed and accelerated to the desired speed. The failure occurred twice within 20 miles. ... Read more

Incident date: May 2, 2023

Fuel leaks from drivers side fuel tank. I see fuel tracks down side of tank, so conclude fuel is leaking from top of tank or from fuel pump. Fuel components are plastic, and now 17 years old, so they are probably cracked from age. I have strong smell of fuel in my garage, and puddle of fuel under drivers side tank. This is a safety hazard and must be fixed. I am aware of a number of other C6 Cor... Read more

Incident date: May 8, 2023

Mossy Nissan El Cajon, didn't report an accident that the car was involved in prior to the sale of the car to me. This car sustained front end damage. Resulting in a repair to the frame/sway bar. Thus effecting the steering and suspension of the car. This car was repaired and paid for by an insurance company. However, Nissan didn't disclose this information, so that the end result was the sale of ... Read more

Crash

Incident date: May 8, 2023

Another case of Fords failure in manufacturing with its eco boost engine. Failed head gasket and coolant leakage causing engine failure from there know issue.

Incident date: May 8, 2023

There has been numerous safety recalls for this Jeep on the airbag. The airbag warning light came on and now the horn does not work.

Incident date: May 8, 2023

My son's 2015, BMW 328i was taken to BMW in Canton, Ohio due to "fluttering" in gas pedal and "possible transmission slipping and variations in transmission while driving. The check engine light was on and was diagnosed at dealership that the Mass Flow Sensor was malfunctioning. The wires to the Mass Flow Sensor were corroded and needed fixed before sensor could be assessed. The wires were fixed ... Read more

Crash

Incident date: Jan 7, 2023

Rear brake gets rocks stuck, a lot of people are complaining for this, Acura is not taking actions to correct this, This can be dangerous if the brakes fails for having a rock stuck in the calipers

Incident date: May 5, 2023

Car steering felt stuck and slid off the road which resulted in crashing into a tree. Tesla features did not help stay in the lane or break in an emergency.

Crash

Incident date: May 4, 2023

I was researching recalls on my 2021 Honda Pilot and came across NHTSA Campaign number 20V725000. When i inspected my tires I can confirm that they are the ones in question as they are the Continental CrossContact LX Sport tires with tire size 245/50 R20 102H and DOT serial number of A376. When I brought the vehicle into the dealership over the weekend they were dismissive and stated they only hav... Read more

Incident date: May 1, 2023

Unknown. I purchased a used 2009 mini cooper in 2013. The airbag light went on for the passenger front side shortly after. I took it to be looked at and was told it would cost around 1,000 to be replaced. I couldn't afford that and felt that since it was never in an accident it must be defective. I contacted Mini cooper via email and phone calls and was told that since there wasn't any recalls, th... Read more

Incident date: May 6, 2023

There is a strong odor of gasoline in the cabin of the vehicle when driving. The gasoline smell is also strong in the front of the car. I cannot park the vehicle in the garage due to the smell. I am afraid of a fire. I contacted Nissan who said they were aware of this issue and said they were investigating, but have no solution. Even though they have been aware of this issue since the 2022 model... Read more

Incident date: Jul 1, 2021

This morning, I had the software upgrade patch applied to my 2020 Kia Sorento that was supposed to fix the potential theft issue. After that service appointment, I started a 2 hour road trip. We stopped for gas and when we went into the store, I noticed that my car was not sounding the horn when I hit the key FOB twice like normal. I went back to the car and saw that the car was in fact not lock... Read more

Incident date: Jan 15, 2017

The contact owns a 2003 Honda Element. The contact stated that after parking and turning off the vehicle, the vehicle would roll forward or backward. The contact stated that he restarted the vehicle and shifted into park(P), and the vehicle responded as needed. The contact stated that the failure occurred intermittently. Additionally, the contact stated that while driving and unintendedly striking... Read more

Incident date: May 5, 2023

I bought this vehicle and there was a complete break down malfunction due to the ABS module system! This lack of due diligence caused both myself and my 7 year old to unwillingly enter a vehicle that put our lives at risk and a near death experience that still traumatizes my daughter until this day who refuses to enter any vehicle! This is an unfortunate mistake on your end and there is no where ... Read more

2 injured

Incident date: Apr 26, 2023

The contact owns a 1997 Infiniti QX4. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 11V244000 (Steering, Suspension). The contact stated while driving at 35 MPH and other various speeds over bumps in the roadway, the vehicle was shaking abnormally with the steering wheel becoming difficult to turn to the left or to the right. Additionally, the contact heard abnormal metal on metal gr... Read more

Incident date: Sep 25, 2022

The contact owned a 2003 Toyota Tacoma. The contact stated that while driving up the driveway at 5 MPH and turning into the garage, the accelerator pedal was depressed but went down to the floorboard and became stuck. The contact lost control of the vehicle, and the vehicle crashed into the fence gate and the corner of the neighbor's residence. The air bags did not deploy. There was no injury sust... Read more

Crash

Incident date: Apr 28, 2023

The contact owns a 1996 Honda Accord. The contact stated that the SRS air bag warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was diagnosed that the SRS unit needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 100,100.

Incident date: Jan 25, 2023

The contact owns a 2007 Kia Rio. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the air bag warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic, where it was determined that the occupant classification system (OCS) seat sensor needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure but confirmed that there was no r... Read more

Incident date: May 4, 2023

Parking brake system malfunction. Flashing brake light and the parking exclamation point light on. When I try to release the emergency parking brake it continues to light up on the dashboard as well as yellow flashing light on the physical brake similar problem with 2016 model. Seen multiple people with similar problem but no solution Restarting the car multiple times makes the light go away event... Read more

Incident date: May 4, 2023

This vehicle will slip in and out 4 wheel drive on its own. This can occur when driving and I’m concerned it will create a dangerous situation, especially if driving at high speeds. When this issue is occurring, making tight turns (parking, neighborhood driving) becomes very dangerous as the wheels become locked and you have to press the accelerator down creating a lot of power and the vehicle... Read more

Incident date: Mar 2, 2023

Vehicle was involved in a crash. Vehicle was hit head on by a pick-up truck. The air bags deployed in the pick-up truck due to the severity of the crash/impact, but the air bags in our vehicle failed to deploy. Driver of truck injured at scene but declined treatment. Passenger in our vehicle felt pain an hour after accident and went to ER and diagnosed with blunt force trauma injuries from the... Read more

Crash 2 injured

Incident date: Mar 2, 2023

The contact owns a 2008 Pontiac G5. The contact stated that while making a right turn in an intersection the vehicle failed to accelerate causing a crash with a second vehicle. During the crash, the air bags did not deploy. The driver sustained a shoulder and back injury and the passenger sustained a left torso injury which required medical treatment. A police report was taken at the scene and the... Read more

Crash 2 injured

Previous 1 2 3 4 5 ... 124 125 126 ... 673 674 Next

Vehicle Safety

Consumer Safety

Infrastructure

Public Health

Consumer Safety Complaints

What is a NHTSA consumer complaint?

How to interpret what you read

If you've experienced a defect

Read more from our blog