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 96,425 complaints for NISSAN
Incident date: Mar 5, 2024
My engine starting making like a clunking sound I always have took my car for service at the dealership i own the 2015 subaru wrx premium i haven’t move the car after the noise due to scare I might mess something with the engine
Incident date: Jan 1, 2024
The contact owns a 2014 Hyundai Elantra. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V651000 (Service Brakes, Hydraulic) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The dealer was made aware of the issue and confirmed that parts were not yet available. The... Read more
Incident date: Jan 1, 2024
The contact owns a 2017 Tesla Model S. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V838000 (Electrical System) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The contact stated that he had opened several service tickets with the manufacturer for the recall repair. The manufacturer informed the contact twice that the update for the recall remedy software version ... Read more
Incident date: Mar 1, 2024
Transmission. Available for inspection No it has not been reproduced or confirmed by anyone No it has not been inspected Check engine around 8 months ago
Incident date: Feb 11, 2023
This is an updated video related to an issue I previously reported. I’m becoming increasingly concerned by the idea that Tesla’s recommended remediation is to replace the car’s MCU. However, the MCU in my car was upgraded to a newer version in July 2021. There are serious safety concerns with the need to perform a “soft reset” while the vehicle is operational (as seen in the video). Plea... Read more
Incident date: Feb 27, 2024
The contact owns a 2016 Dodge Journey. The contact stated that while reversing, the rearview camera image was completely black. There was no warning light illuminated. The contact stated that the failure had been recurring. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic, where the cause of the failure could not be determined. The rearview camera was replaced; however, the failure persisted. The ... Read more
Incident date: Feb 23, 2024
The contact owns a 2017 Ford Escape. The contact stated while driving at an undisclosed speed, there was an abnormal sound coming from under the hood of the vehicle. No warning light was illuminated. The contact took the vehicle to a local mechanic and the contact was informed that the water pump was leaking, and that the bearing in the water pump was inoperable causing the abnormal sound. The mec... Read more
Incident date: Feb 23, 2024
The contact owns a 2017 Ford Escape. The contact stated while driving at an undisclosed speed, there was an abnormal sound coming from under the hood of the vehicle. No warning light was illuminated. The contact took the vehicle to a local mechanic and the contact was informed that the water pump was leaking, and that the bearing in the water pump was inoperable causing the abnormal sound. The mec... Read more
Incident date: Mar 9, 2022
The contact owns a 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee. The contact stated while his wife was driving at approximately 80–85 MPH, the vehicle stalled. The driver was able to veer safely off the road. There were no warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was towed to the local dealer, where it was repaired under NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V411000 (Engine and Engine Cooling). The vehicle was repaired. After re... Read more
Incident date: Mar 9, 2022
See attached document for complaint
Incident date: Mar 5, 2024
Gauge cluster stopped working, no speedometer, mileage, turn signal indicators etc. all black. Extreme safety risk. 4WD will not engage, possibly associated.
Incident date: Feb 27, 2023
The contact owns a 2018 Ford F-150. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed and attempting to accelerate, he observed that the RPM increased quickly however, the vehicle failed to respond. The contact stated that the vehicle then started jerking. The vehicle returned to normal functionality, but the failure became a regular occurrence. No warning lights were illuminated. The ... Read more
Incident date: Mar 4, 2024
The contact owns a 2020 Toyota Rav4. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V865000 (Air Bags) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failure. Parts distribution dis... Read more
Incident date: Mar 4, 2024
I was driving on a busy two lane road. The vehicle instantly decelerated and made a large thump while driving at 55mph. The vehicle information system said there was a drivetrain malfunction, and all power was instantly gone. We were able to quickly pull off onto a small section off the road, but not in a safe manner, almost going into the ditch, in which I strongly was anticipating was going to b... Read more
Incident date: Jan 3, 2023
The contact owns a 2016 Kia Soul. The contact stated while driving 70 MPH, the vehicle stalled. The contact was able to veer to the side of the road. The vehicle was towed to the residence. The contact received an unknown recall notice for piston rings and engine rod bearing failure. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, where it was determined that the engine needed to be replaced. The vehicle was... Read more
Incident date: Aug 24, 2023
What component or system failed or malfunctioned, and is it available for inspection upon request? GPS, it intermittently does not work and so difficult to inspect upon request How was your safety or the safety of others put at risk? Directions not available on GPS system leading to incorrect turns, potential accidents and other dangers of relying on a map system Has the problem been reproduced or... Read more
Incident date: Aug 24, 2023
The contact owns a 2011 BMW 328XI. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V707000 (Engine and Engine Cooling) however, the part to recall repair was not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failure. VIN tool confir... Read more
Incident date: Jan 1, 2024
Component or System Failed or Malfunctioned: The ABS harness connecting to the ABS module is the primary culprit. Specifically, the top part of the harness is not adequately sealed, which has led to water ingress and subsequent wire shorting. Availability for Inspection: No, the ABS harness is available for inspection upon request. Safety Risk: The malfunctioning ABS harness poses a significant ... Read more
NISSAN
PATHFINDER
(2024) — ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING
Mar 4, 2024
Incident date: Dec 19, 2023
The contact owns a 2013 Ford Escape. The contact stated when he started the vehicle in the morning, the vehicle was idling roughly, and clouds of white smoke was coming from the exhaust pipe. The contact stated that once the vehicle had warmed up, the smoke would stop. The contact stated no warning light was illuminated. The contact stated that additionally, he would lose forward momentum and he s... Read more
Incident date: Mar 4, 2024
As a result of service on this vehicle that was provided by Nissan of McKinney in McKinney, Texas the vehicle was intentionally returned to the owner after servicing in an unsafe condition. The service included removal of a trailer hitch receiver and electrical harness that had been installed earlier. After the service and the electrical harness removal, the vehicle was left with exposed electri... Read more
Incident date: Mar 4, 2024
The windshield wiper did not shut off anymore Ever 20 seconds it went back and forth once. After searching the internet I found 100s of links related to the same issue with Ford vehicles and the Multifunction switch mounted on the steering wheel. I consider this a safety issue because people try to fix the wiping issue while driving. Also being on the road it could cause damage to the winds... Read more
Incident date: Mar 4, 2024
The engine is malfunctioning. Yes, the vehicle is available for inspection upon request. The engine could fail, loss of power, if while passing a vehicle on 2 lane highway a major loss of coolant, overheating due to loss of coolant. Result could be major damage to engine and or fire or both resulting in an accident . The problem has been confirmed by both a Ford dealership and an independent serv... Read more
Incident date: Mar 4, 2024
FRAME IS SEVERELY RUSTED THROUGH. NEEDS TO REPLACED, TRUCK HAS BEEN GARAGE KEPT. WITH LESS THE 100,000 MILES ON IT.
Incident date: Mar 4, 2024
We had the frame flex issue and the work was completed by the shop.
Incident date: Mar 4, 2024
Check engine light will appear. Vehicle is blowing number two cylinder along with spark plug every two weeks. It is going through large amounts of antifreeze. Drives as if it is bogged down and shifts very hard and loud. While driving is shakes from front end. I have brought vehicle to a master mechanic and has started that the head gasket will eventually break or could catch fire. This is a on go... Read more
Incident date: Feb 24, 2024
My car had been sitting across the street from my house for about 3 weeks after i had gotten it back from the body shop. It had been hit on the drivers side by a drunk driver when parked in front of my house. He took out six cars in a row. Heard a loud noise about 2 am - looked out the window and saw nothing. But then the fire trucks showed up after someone called them when they heard the ban... Read more
Fire
Incident date: Mar 2, 2024
I have joined the millions of disappointed Hyundai customers who have faulty engines in their cars. Hyundai is refusing to replace my engine or provide any assistance because there is no formal recall for my vehicle. In May of 2023, my engine failed after starting to have oil consumption issues and Hyundai diagnosed it as failure due to maintenance neglect. When I opened a case with Hyundai, I g... Read more
Incident date: Mar 1, 2024
"Engine Maintenance Required" message appears on dashboard for this model car is most likely need to replace coolant bypass valve. When researching what could be the problem, people of social media, car forums, etc. were all experiencing the same issue with the car. Coolant leaking in the engine can cause a combustion, overheating or stall in vehicle.
Incident date: Mar 2, 2024
The Airbag lights were lit, the person sitting with seatbelt on (flashing) and the person sitting with an inflated airbag in front of them. I ran an OBD2 scan on SRS and got code B1656. Driver seat belt buckle Left Hand. I Investigated the latch and found one wire was snapped off and a couple of inches shorter that the wire that was still connected. I have included 2 pictures of the back end of t... Read more
Incident date: Mar 2, 2024
Steering wheel repeatedly locks while turning followed by loss of power steering. Also accompanied by warning messages such as "Service ESC", "Park Assist Off", "Steering Assist is Reduced Drive with Care", as well as the stability control and stability control off lights. Began in October 2023. Brought in to dealership 4 times in 5 months (waiting on loaner availability to bring in for a 5th t... Read more
Incident date: Mar 2, 2024
I was driving today 3/2/24 and speed was about 40-50 and suddenly/randomly the vehicle would do a jerk once it got to about 50 and the rpm’s would jump up between 2-3 and quickly drop back down to normal. I was not pressing the gas hard or a lot just lightly and also the jerking would happen if I was going down in speed from like 60-50 it would randomly jerk again and rpm’s would increase and ... Read more
Incident date: Mar 1, 2024
I am writing to bring a critical safety concern to your attention regarding my 2017 Kia Optima LX. The steering wheel of my vehicle frequently loses power, necessitating a restart of the engine for it to function properly again. This issue occurs randomly, but consistently takes place during steering wheel turns. On one alarming occasion while navigating a winding canyon road, the steering lost p... Read more
Incident date: Mar 1, 2024
As I was turning my car back on after I stalled, I noticed that it felt very sluggish. As I was approaching the highway I was unable to accelerate to match the speed of the other cars. It was a very dangerous situation. My car has under 5000kms. There were no lights on the dash that warned me this was going to happen.
Incident date: Dec 20, 2023
I purchased a my 2017 Sorento, it had 40,000 miles, it had a knock to it when I would first get started in the morning, took it to get check twice, told nothing was wrong, at 59,700 I took back and it needed a new transmission, then at 98,000 it needs another transmission, so after two transmission, plus changed 6 fuel injectors, all new spark plugs, now the engine is gone. I also have a 2014 Sore... Read more
Incident date: May 5, 2023
The dash lit up with several codes I got out, walked around the vehicle as if someone damaged it would not start. It went into theft mode. Alarms went off, emergency, breaking temperature, control, climate control, side detection error had to have vehicle towed to have all codes cleared with the advanced snap on tool Computer the problem was undiagnosed but side detection error code is still displ... Read more
Incident date: Mar 1, 2024
The exhaust manifold cracked and failed. The failed part was not retained by the Chevrolet dealer repair shop. A safety issue arose as exhaust gases entered the passenger compartment via the vehicle's air circulation system. The failure of the exhaust manifold was confirmed by the dealer and replaced at considerable cost (i.e., $2200). No other parties inspected the failed part. There was a ch... Read more
Incident date: Mar 1, 2024
corolla 2018, has 90k miles, reently, (3rd time already). driving o freeway car reduced speed, and wont go over 40mph, although rpm goes high all the way to 4,000. had to stop aside waitied 3 hours to see whats wrong, after engine was cold, dorove it home slowly on side streets, happened again wont go over 40mph, transmission became slippery and noisy, after couple of weeks, third time happened ... Read more
Incident date: Feb 29, 2024
Randomly the ac line will freeze over and no air flow will come out of the vents although the fans can be heard working. Issues is not a simple thing to be duplicated and have brought it to 3 ford locations and still having the issue. They won’t attempt to repair anything else that could be the issue like the compressor because of fear of ford giving a bad review to the shop and mechanic. Just t... Read more
Incident date: Feb 29, 2024
Engine light on dashboard turned on in beginning of Feb 2024 … bought vehicle to dealer for assessment … was told right side catalytic converter has malfunctioned and will need to be replaced … vehicle has about 66,000 miles and it was a 2016 vehicle … apparently warrantly had expired in Nov 2023 … this does not seem right. Also, there are no right side catalystic converter available na... Read more
Incident date: Feb 29, 2024
The Electronic Power Steering Assit (EPAS) has had a failiure. When the failiure happens it completely locks up the steering without prior warning.When that happens the cars steering cannot be controlled as norrmal, and the driver cannot easily steer the vehicle. The first time this happened I was pulling into a gas station, the EPAS went out and I almost hit pedestrians, a fuel pump and other veh... Read more
Incident date: Feb 29, 2024
Delayed acceleration after making a stop, high RPMs when accelerating after making a stop. All above conditions appears to happen randomly.
Incident date: Feb 28, 2024
Powertrain fault Transmission torque converter clutch is not operating as expected. Transmission not shifting properly. Fixed many times and still same issue, now it needs new transmission.
Incident date: Mar 1, 2024
Freeze plug randomly popped out while driving causing vehicle to stall in the middle of traffic almost causing a major accident and or death. Research indicates there has been numerous complaints by Mini Cooper owners experiencing the same issue of a premature unexplained failure with no action taken from Mini to mitigate this safety issue. I’m lucky to be alive.
Incident date: Mar 1, 2024
Freeze plug randomly popped out while driving causing vehicle to stall in the middle of traffic almost causing a major accident and or death. Research indicates there has been numerous complaints by Mini Cooper owners experiencing the same issue of a premature unexplained failure with no action taken from Mini to mitigate this safety issue. I’m lucky to be alive.
Incident date: Feb 25, 2024
Dear National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, I am writing to express my extreme dissatisfaction and concern regarding the Goodyear Assurance Weather Ready tires, size 235/45R18, installed on my 2019 Kia Optima SX. These tires have proven to be defective, failing to meet the standards of safety and durability promised by Goodyear. I would like Goodyear to refund for the defective tir... Read more
Incident date: Feb 7, 2024
My car started with the Ck engine light coming on, then white smoke from the exhaust randomly, then my temperature gauge randomly going up then back down, my car then losing coolant but not leaking any coolant under my car when parked. Then it started acting like it was gonna stall while at a stop or in park. I thought at first I got bad gas somewhere. These are all things I’ve never experienced... Read more
Incident date: Feb 7, 2024
On going issue since August 2023. Same issues that a class action suit was filed but did not incude the 2020 model. This has happened in Aug 2023, Oct 2023 and now Feb 2024. Low oil pressure Engine power is reduced I have been towed 3 times I have dealt with Castriota Chevrolet, Hudson FL where I purchased the car who would not speak with me I have dealt with Chevrolet of Milford who claims I only... Read more
Incident date: Feb 29, 2024
My 2018 Kia Sportage was burning oil - had to add oil every week. On [XXX] I was driving on the [XXX] and my check engine light came on and the car slowed down. I got to the shoulder this was early in the morning I searched for a dealership and there was one 1 mile away It was 6 am when I arrived to the dealership and had to wait until they opened. And went to DCH Kia and eventually told me it w... Read more