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 39,107 complaints for PONTIAC
Incident date: Nov 22, 2021
Power steering has been going out all of a sudden. The steering wheel locks up and is difficult to turn. My safety and the safety of others around me was put at risk because I cannot easily turn the wheel and respond to a situation quickly if I needed to. I basically have to drive in a straight line and not turn. Turning the car on and off seems to help for a little while but the problem still con... Read more
Incident date: Nov 22, 2021
Power steering has been going out all of a sudden. The steering wheel locks up and is difficult to turn. My safety and the safety of others around me was put at risk because I cannot easily turn the wheel and respond to a situation quickly if I needed to. I basically have to drive in a straight line and not turn. Turning the car on and off seems to help for a little while but the problem still con... Read more
Incident date: Nov 11, 2021
The contact's friend owed a 2008 Pontiac Torrent. The contact stated while the owner was driving at an unknown speed when he fell asleep and rear-ended a semi-truck. The contact was seated at the front passenger side and the air bag did not deploy but the front driver side air bag did deploy. The contact stated the driver had a laceration on his right arm and she had lacerations on the top right f... Read more
Crash
2 injured
Incident date: Nov 15, 2021
NHTSA # 14V400, Mfg. Campaign # N140350 Was informed about this recall and called the number given to me by Pontiac (South County Buick GMC 2202 National City Blvd. National City CA 91950, (619) 477-4462) but all I got was endless automated messages. The one real person I talked to was rude and sounded like she was about to quit her job and gave me a number to call which was the same as the one I... Read more
Incident date: Feb 22, 2021
The electrical power steering randomly went out on my car causing it to lock up my steering wheel making it very hard to turn and putting me at major risk of multiple wrecks while driving and making turns. There is a recall for this issue for my car. However, my car’s vin number doesn’t fall under the recall. How can I have my car fixed if it’s having the exact same issue as the recall?
Incident date: Nov 1, 2021
Evap code for gas tank cap leaking
Incident date: Oct 26, 2021
While driving the power steering ceased / seized up - car filled with grey smoke that smelled like burning rubber. Had vehicle towed, told it was steering pump - every year before and after the 2007 had a steering recall ??
Incident date: Oct 25, 2021
My Solstice had recall # 14092 & 14133 for service airbag to passenger seat completed on 4/27/2018. As of 10/25/2019 the service airbag light is once again on and indicates that the passenger airbag is off. The recall part has malfunctioned. Please contact with another recall to fix this problem. My Solstice has 25,600 miles.
Incident date: Oct 29, 2021
All rear lights do not work. I have had the bulbs and fuses replaced the only lights that work are the side markers. Front headlights, I have had the bulbs, fuses, and all components replaced or checked to determine why front passenger headlight was working intermittently and now longer works at all high or low beams, driver side front only high beam works. I was informed there was a recall on ... Read more
Incident date: Oct 22, 2021
THE STEERING IS VERY BAD AFTER SERVICING THE VEHICLE AND SEVERAL ALIGNMENTS WHICH IS A RECALL ON THE KELLEY BLUE BOOK PAGE ALSO THE ELECTRICAL SYSTEM IS MALFUNCTIONING. WINDOWS WONT GO UP OR DOWN DOOR LOCKS UNLOCK AND LOCK AUTOMATICALLY, LIGHTS GO OFF AND ON HEADLIGHTS AND BRAKE LIGHTS AND GM SAID THAT YOUR RECALLS ARE INCORRECT!!!! I KNOW THAT THESE RECALLS ARE INDEED NEEDED SEVERELY. PLEASE HELP... Read more
Incident date: Oct 22, 2021
THE STEERING IS VERY BAD AFTER SERVICING THE VEHICLE AND SEVERAL ALIGNMENTS WHICH IS A RECALL ON THE KELLEY BLUE BOOK PAGE ALSO THE ELECTRICAL SYSTEM IS MALFUNCTIONING. WINDOWS WONT GO UP OR DOWN DOOR LOCKS UNLOCK AND LOCK AUTOMATICALLY, LIGHTS GO OFF AND ON HEADLIGHTS AND BRAKE LIGHTS AND GM SAID THAT YOUR RECALLS ARE INCORRECT!!!! I KNOW THAT THESE RECALLS ARE INDEED NEEDED SEVERELY. PLEASE HELP... Read more
Incident date: Oct 22, 2021
THE STEERING IS VERY BAD AFTER SERVICING THE VEHICLE AND SEVERAL ALIGNMENTS WHICH IS A RECALL ON THE KELLEY BLUE BOOK PAGE ALSO THE ELECTRICAL SYSTEM IS MALFUNCTIONING. WINDOWS WONT GO UP OR DOWN DOOR LOCKS UNLOCK AND LOCK AUTOMATICALLY, LIGHTS GO OFF AND ON HEADLIGHTS AND BRAKE LIGHTS AND GM SAID THAT YOUR RECALLS ARE INCORRECT!!!! I KNOW THAT THESE RECALLS ARE INDEED NEEDED SEVERELY. PLEASE HELP... Read more
Incident date: Oct 8, 2021
While driving my steering wheel will lock up n my car will reduce speed no warning lights to check engine lights on ..my saftey and my childs safety were at risk while driving her to school on a busy street
Incident date: Sep 24, 2021
The contact owns a 2006 Pontiac G6. The contact stated that the vehicle was parked in the garage and when her husband went into the garage the next day, he smelled a strong gasoline odor. The contact stated that the odor was coming from underneath the driver’s seat. There were no warning lights illuminated. The dealer and the manufacturer were notified of the failure and advised the contact to t... Read more
Incident date: Sep 26, 2021
The contact owns a 2006 Pontiac Torrent. The contact stated while driving at various speeds, the power steering failed to operate as designed, the brakes seized, and the vehicle lost motive power with several unknown warning lights illuminated. The contact poured water onto the onboard computer, located on top of the engine to restart the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic a... Read more
Incident date: Sep 11, 2021
Power steering stopped working and message came on dash
Incident date: Sep 7, 2021
The shifter is not going into the correct gear. This year vehicle has had (2) different recalls for this issue.
Incident date: Aug 23, 2021
The contact owned a 2009 Pontiac G6. The contact stated while driving at 30-35 mph, the contact was in the right turn lane when making a turn a vehicle in front of them was making a left turn but did not see the contact which caused the contact to crash into the front passenger side of the vehicle. The contact did not have time to stop. The contact was concerned that no air bags deployed. There wa... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Aug 25, 2021
The contact owns a 2009 PONTIAC G8. The contact stated that at start-up, the airbag default warning light was illuminated on the instrument panel. The contact proceeded to drive and noticed that the light was no longer on the instrument panel. Neither the dealer nor the manufacturer was notified of the failure. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 56,000... Read more
Incident date: Apr 20, 2021
Taking off to a slow roll without giving it any gas and turning right or left, the steering wheel is extremely difficult to turn. There is absolutely no power steering. It lasts as long until you you give it gas and then the power steering will start working again. While at a steady maintained speed on flat level ground and while at a steady maintained speed going up hill rpm between 2,000-2,500 ,... Read more
Incident date: Apr 20, 2021
Taking off to a slow roll without giving it any gas and turning right or left, the steering wheel is extremely difficult to turn. There is absolutely no power steering. It lasts as long until you you give it gas and then the power steering will start working again. While at a steady maintained speed on flat level ground and while at a steady maintained speed going up hill rpm between 2,000-2,500 ,... Read more
Incident date: Aug 23, 2021
Driving the vehical down the road the steering gets hard and wont come back right away and also does it in turns and makes it hard to turn and almost hit someone its has the electronic power steering module
PONTIAC
GRAND PRIX
(2008) — UNKNOWN OR OTHER
Aug 21, 2021
Incident date: Aug 21, 2021
Car cuts off without notice while driving . Starts back up but eventually shuts off again . Also when put in reverse it shuts off
Incident date: Aug 19, 2021
The electrical harness going to the drivers door doesn't function properly in any way shape or form. My locks blow a fuse every time you hit the button my trunk pop works with my key fob but not the actual button. My passenger window only goes down if you open the door completely but then only goes up with the pass. Switch and my car radio stays on even if I shut the car off take the keys out and ... Read more
Incident date: Aug 19, 2021
The electrical harness going to the drivers door doesn't function properly in any way shape or form. My locks blow a fuse every time you hit the button my trunk pop works with my key fob but not the actual button. My passenger window only goes down if you open the door completely but then only goes up with the pass. Switch and my car radio stays on even if I shut the car off take the keys out and ... Read more
Incident date: Aug 19, 2021
The electrical harness going to the drivers door doesn't function properly in any way shape or form. My locks blow a fuse every time you hit the button my trunk pop works with my key fob but not the actual button. My passenger window only goes down if you open the door completely but then only goes up with the pass. Switch and my car radio stays on even if I shut the car off take the keys out and ... Read more
Incident date: Mar 1, 2020
The contact owns a 2009 Pontiac G6. The contact stated that a friend had alerted him that his brake lights remained illuminated while driving. The contact also stated that the brake lights would go out upon the depression of the brake pedal without warning. The contact then placed some dielectric grease on the brake wiring harness which repaired the brake light connection. The contact also stated ... Read more
Incident date: Mar 1, 2020
The contact owns a 2009 Pontiac G6. The contact stated that a friend had alerted him that his brake lights remained illuminated while driving. The contact also stated that the brake lights would go out upon the depression of the brake pedal without warning. The contact then placed some dielectric grease on the brake wiring harness which repaired the brake light connection. The contact also stated ... Read more
Incident date: Mar 1, 2020
The contact owns a 2009 Pontiac G6. The contact stated that a friend had alerted him that his brake lights remained illuminated while driving. The contact also stated that the brake lights would go out upon the depression of the brake pedal without warning. The contact then placed some dielectric grease on the brake wiring harness which repaired the brake light connection. The contact also stated ... Read more
PONTIAC
GRAND PRIX
(2007) — STEERING
Aug 17, 2021
Incident date: Aug 16, 2021
steering wheel refusing to lock. therefore safety issue as car locks will not lock as a result. no messages or warning lights or behaviors. this happened once a year ago. and was able to lock steering by moving wheel and moving key in ignition.
Incident date: Aug 14, 2021
The contact owns a 2009 Pontiac G8. The contact stated that the airbag warning light was illuminated on the instrument panel. The contact had taken the vehicle to a dealer and was informed that the front passenger’s side airbag sensor was defective and needed to be replaced. Upon investigation, the contact linked the failure to NHTSA Campaign Number: 11V534000 (Air Bags) however, the vehicle was... Read more
Incident date: Aug 9, 2021
Steering wheel rattle, steering moving back & forth, locks on startup and and audible chime is heard. I believe it has something to do with the original recall repair on the steering. Feels unsafe.
Incident date: Aug 8, 2008
The Alloy wheels are pitted and the metal is peeling off. The hood does not line up with the fenders and the trunk does not line up with the fenders. I contacted GM and they wouldn't honor any warranty after it expired and wouldn't good will any of the issues. It is a 2007 with 8,376 miles. The car is not safe due to the body parts rattling and shaking and the wheels are so pitted that
Incident date: Aug 8, 2008
The Alloy wheels are pitted and the metal is peeling off. The hood does not line up with the fenders and the trunk does not line up with the fenders. I contacted GM and they wouldn't honor any warranty after it expired and wouldn't good will any of the issues. It is a 2007 with 8,376 miles. The car is not safe due to the body parts rattling and shaking and the wheels are so pitted that
Incident date: Jul 26, 2021
1. Loss of power assisted steering making it hard to control car. But I turn off car and turn back on, it works. 2. Steering column knuckle or u-joints are making a loud clunking noise when turning steering wheel. 3. BCM or Body Control Mudule is either bad or needs cleaning because cruise control nor traction controls work. I checked fuses and they are ok.
Incident date: Jul 26, 2021
1. Loss of power assisted steering making it hard to control car. But I turn off car and turn back on, it works. 2. Steering column knuckle or u-joints are making a loud clunking noise when turning steering wheel. 3. BCM or Body Control Mudule is either bad or needs cleaning because cruise control nor traction controls work. I checked fuses and they are ok.
Incident date: Jul 26, 2021
1. Loss of power assisted steering making it hard to control car. But I turn off car and turn back on, it works. 2. Steering column knuckle or u-joints are making a loud clunking noise when turning steering wheel. 3. BCM or Body Control Mudule is either bad or needs cleaning because cruise control nor traction controls work. I checked fuses and they are ok.
Incident date: Aug 2, 2021
Over the years I've received multiple info cards from dealerships concerning this recall. I return their request for having recall work scheduled. The dealerships then return my call usually in a few days saying they are unable to aquire parts for recall work. So far no dealership has been able to do the install due to parts shortage. Where do I go from here?
Incident date: Feb 20, 2020
Something is draining battery. I have a brand new battery in it and battery was checked out at battery warehouse. I run car and about an hour the car is dead. I had problems with this car since I bought it from Koons in Westminster Md. I even paid for warranty but every time I took it back it didn’t cover it. This happened a lot I got a lemon and they refused to take it back. I put soo much... Read more
Incident date: Jul 22, 2021
The power steering has gone out 3 times in the last 3 years. I took my car into an auto repair shop each time as it stopped working and wouldn't come back on. Each time they replaced my rack and pinion. The replacements were on 10-02-2019….....10-06-2020......and July 22, 2021. I shouldn't have to replace the rack and pinion 3 times in less than 3 years.
Incident date: Jun 1, 2021
A month ago my passenger air bag light came on indicating there is an issue with the Passenger Air Bag system. This occurs even when there is no one in the passenger seat. This completely disables the airbag system in my car for my passengers and I can no longer reliably transport other passengers for fear of getting into an accident and the air bag not deploying. These parts are not normal mecha... Read more
Incident date: Jun 1, 2021
A month ago my passenger air bag light came on indicating there is an issue with the Passenger Air Bag system. This occurs even when there is no one in the passenger seat. This completely disables the airbag system in my car for my passengers and I can no longer reliably transport other passengers for fear of getting into an accident and the air bag not deploying. These parts are not normal mecha... Read more
Incident date: Jul 16, 2021
The contact owns a 2008 Pontiac G8. The contact stated that after turning off the vehicle, the ignition key could not be removed from the ignition switch. The cause of the failure was not yet determined. The local dealer was notified of the failure. The manufacturer was not yet contacted. The failure mileage was approximately 120,000.
PONTIAC
TRANS SPORT
(1997) — SEATS
Jul 15, 2021
Incident date: Jul 4, 2021
Sliding door on passenger side locked up trapping passenger inside. Door cannot be opened manually or electronically. A loud buzzing noise then a thud was heard prior. Can't open door any way now scary.
PONTIAC
TRANS SPORT
(1997) — STRUCTURE:BODY
Jul 15, 2021
Incident date: Jul 4, 2021
Sliding door on passenger side locked up trapping passenger inside. Door cannot be opened manually or electronically. A loud buzzing noise then a thud was heard prior. Can't open door any way now scary.
PONTIAC
GRAND PRIX
(2006) — STEERING
Jul 12, 2021
Incident date: Jul 10, 2021
got cutoff on a busy highway going 70mph and they slammed their brakes. i had 6 car lengths between us and immediately started braking but we were just skidding. I had the choice of hitting the vehicle or swerving left towards the median. I chose the latter. The steering locked up, the abs did NOT kick in and the airbags did NOT deploy. we hit a median at 70mph and no airbags?! I was point of impa... Read more
Crash
3 injured
PONTIAC
GRAND PRIX
(2006) — AIR BAGS
Jul 12, 2021
Incident date: Jul 10, 2021
got cutoff on a busy highway going 70mph and they slammed their brakes. i had 6 car lengths between us and immediately started braking but we were just skidding. I had the choice of hitting the vehicle or swerving left towards the median. I chose the latter. The steering locked up, the abs did NOT kick in and the airbags did NOT deploy. we hit a median at 70mph and no airbags?! I was point of impa... Read more
Crash
3 injured
PONTIAC
GRAND PRIX
(2006) — SERVICE BRAKES
Jul 12, 2021
Incident date: Jul 10, 2021
got cutoff on a busy highway going 70mph and they slammed their brakes. i had 6 car lengths between us and immediately started braking but we were just skidding. I had the choice of hitting the vehicle or swerving left towards the median. I chose the latter. The steering locked up, the abs did NOT kick in and the airbags did NOT deploy. we hit a median at 70mph and no airbags?! I was point of impa... Read more
Crash
3 injured
Incident date: Jul 2, 2021
Passenger Presence System Issue Started Solstice in garage and backed out on to driveway (PPS indicates passenger air bag off. This is Correct) Stop car on driveway and put transmission in park. Passenger enters vehicle sits down and buckles belt. (PPS indicates passenger air bag off This is incorrect) Back out of driveway and put in Drive. PPS still indicates no passenger This is incorrect. Stop... Read more
PONTIAC
GRAND PRIX
(2007) — ENGINE
Jul 5, 2021
Incident date: Jun 15, 2021
The TRANSMISSION NEEDS TO BE RECALLED ITS GOING TO CAUSE A DEADLY ACCIDENT WHILE IN DRIVE LEAVING A STOP LIGHT A CAR NEARLY SLAMMED INTO ME FROM BEHIND WHEN LIGHT CHANGED CAR HAD NO POWER TO GO. ON HIGHWAY IT DOES A SUDDEN HARD JERK WITH LOSS OF POWER SHIFTING INTO NXT GEAR.