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 29,025 complaints for RAM
Incident date: Feb 9, 2024
The contact owns a 2023 Honda HR-V. The contact stated while driving 65 MPH with the rear windshield defroster engaged, the rear windshield exploded. The contact did not sustain any injuries and was able to continue driving. The vehicle was taken to the dealer to be diagnosed. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was appro... Read more
Incident date: May 24, 2024
The contact owns a 2013 Ford Explorer. The contact stated while driving 55 MPH, the vehicle experienced a loss of power steering assist. The traction control warning light was illuminated, and the "Service Power Steering Now" message was displayed. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired by an independent mechanic or dealer. The contact related the failure to NHTSA Campaign Number: 14V286000 (St... Read more
Incident date: Jun 16, 2023
The contact owned a 2020 Chevrolet Colorado. The contact stated that while driving at 50 MPH, the contact's wife advised the contact to pull the vehicle over because black smoke was exiting the rear vents. Simultaneously, the contact noticed white smoke exiting the front vents. The contact drove the vehicle to the shoulder of the road. The contact stated that when the brake pedal was depressed,... Read more
Fire
1 injured
Incident date: Mar 28, 2024
The contact owns a 2008 Mitsubishi Eclipse. The contact stated that while driving at 60 MPH, for unknown reasons, he veered off the road, traveled over a hill, and crashed into a dirt pile. The steering wheel air bag failed to deploy. The contact had previously unplugged, the passenger seat air bag. The air bag and check engine warning lights were illuminated. After the crash, the curtain and driv... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Mar 28, 2024
The contact owns a 2008 Mitsubishi Eclipse. The contact stated that while driving at 60 MPH, for unknown reasons, he veered off the road, traveled over a hill, and crashed into a dirt pile. The steering wheel air bag failed to deploy. The contact had previously unplugged, the passenger seat air bag. The air bag and check engine warning lights were illuminated. After the crash, the curtain and driv... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: May 1, 2024
The contact owns a 2011 Buick Lacrosse. The contact stated while the vehicle was parked, the contact became aware of a failure with the defrost system. The contact stated that the windows failed to defrost properly, causing a visibility hazard while driving. The dealer was contacted; however, the vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approx... Read more
Incident date: May 18, 2024
The transmission down shifts by itself while driving down the road . You have to stop an change the gears to park then start again.I has happened 3 or 4 times .most of the time when you stop at a light or stop sign and take off when it drops to a lower gear it makes a sudden jerk. Some times tyhe transmission slams in to gear rather hard, I am going to be out of warranty if some one does not fix t... Read more
Incident date: May 18, 2024
ABS light keeps going on and off. Had it repaired/replaced once under warranty, no longer under warranty. Nearly skid off the road on a rainy day when someone braked hard in front of me. This ABS issue is very dangerous. In my opinion, I shouldn't have to keep paying to repair this since it constantly fails.
Incident date: May 18, 2024
The CMBS suddenly engaged the brakes when there was no other vehicle on the road no less in front of the vehicle. The brakes very forcefully engaged causing the vehicle to slam to a stop. The light has come on previously on occasion with no cause but the brakes have never been engaged till now.
1 injured
Incident date: Apr 11, 2024
The CMBS suddenly engaged the brakes when there was no other vehicle on the road no less in front of the vehicle. The brakes very forcefully engaged causing the vehicle to slam to a stop. The light has come on previously on occasion with no cause but the brakes have never been engaged till now.
1 injured
Incident date: May 28, 2024
The contact owns a 2019 GMC Yukon. The contact stated while driving at various speeds and depressing the accelerator pedal, the vehicle hesitated to respond and jolted while responding. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer and an independent mechanic; however, the failure could not be duplicated. The contact stated while driving 65 MPH, the vehicle decelerate... Read more
Incident date: Nov 1, 2022
On April 19th, I picked up dinner and when I went to leave the parking lot, my vehicle turned on, but did not allow me to move out of park, nor shift into any other gear. I turned the vehicle on and off about ten times to see whether that might allow me to shift into another gear, but to no avail. It was later in the evening, so when I called the Ford customer service line I received an after hour... Read more
Incident date: Mar 15, 2024
The problem started after sitting and talking on a phone with car running while waiting for groceries. About a week later, I started having on and off electrical system issues. and all the lights came on the dashboard with ABS as the main one. If I locked my trunk over and over it would go away. During this time, I got locked in my car and out of my car. The key would not work properly. The trunk ... Read more
Incident date: Feb 18, 2024
Abs and traction control randomly quit working.
Incident date: May 15, 2023
The car was bought at matt blatt kia in July 2023 certified pre-owned with 164 safety inspection check. 2 weeks ago the check engine light came on and it was code p0420. Kia told me to call ford and they told me I have to pay for the diagnostics and the repair. The car was smoking under the hood and didn't drive safely. It's at a shop and was told the catalytic converter needs to be replaced and i... Read more
Incident date: May 24, 2024
Abs light comes on and disables the cruise controls. Says abs brake failure and I have researched this and found it is a common problem. 6 speed Transmission is turning on check engine light and says gear 5 and gear 6 has improper ratio. Shifts hard into gear5 and won't downshift for passing gear.
Incident date: May 24, 2024
During routine vehicle operation when entering an interstate highway, , the vehicle developed a loud knocking sound from engine bay along with high RPM abnormal shifting. Vehicle was stopped as soon as possible in the safety lane when it stalled and shut off. No warning lights were present during the time of failure. Vehicle was towed to home of residence.
Incident date: May 24, 2024
During routine vehicle operation when entering an interstate highway, , the vehicle developed a loud knocking sound from engine bay along with high RPM abnormal shifting. Vehicle was stopped as soon as possible in the safety lane when it stalled and shut off. No warning lights were present during the time of failure. Vehicle was towed to home of residence.
Incident date: Jun 22, 2023
This is a complaint about the ridiculous amount of time this has gone on!
Incident date: May 25, 2024
Upon acceleration from stop, and even while driving at speeds between 30 & 40 mph, the vehicle shifts from Drive to Neutral and displays "Shift to P..." on the display. This occurs repeatedly. You have to stop the vehicle and shift to Park then back to Drive. But it keeps occurring, over and over. It first occurred when I pulled out into traffic, the vehicle shifted to N and I had absolutely N... Read more
Incident date: May 25, 2024
When I brake, the SUV feels like it accelerates/surges forward rather than slowing down. I need to apply the brakes hard to then stop the vehicle. I never know when it will happen but it happens very often.
Incident date: May 25, 2024
The Auto Dimming headlights are very sporadic. They go to high sometime while approaching other auto’s and won’t dim sometimes. This has been a issue on this model.
Incident date: Feb 12, 2024
While idling stopped at a red light the engine suddenly shut down/stalled and the electrical system simultaneously went haywire. Specifically the dashboard alert system rapidly cycled through/flashed warning alerts for the forward collision system, then “out of fuel” then a failure with the antilock brake system. At the same time the computer touch screen went black and indicated “system res... Read more
Incident date: Feb 12, 2024
While idling stopped at a red light the engine suddenly shut down/stalled and the electrical system simultaneously went haywire. Specifically the dashboard alert system rapidly cycled through/flashed warning alerts for the forward collision system, then “out of fuel” then a failure with the antilock brake system. At the same time the computer touch screen went black and indicated “system res... Read more
Incident date: May 24, 2024
My back glass shattered while driving to work. Nothing struck it, it just exploded and was in a million pieces held together by the tint on the back window or so it seemed. I did call the state highway patrol but they said since it wasn’t an accident they couldn’t do a report. I thought at first it was a gun shot it was so loud when it popped. Called insurance, they referred to Safelite for re... Read more
Incident date: May 25, 2024
Today 05/25/2024 noticed a slight camber on the right rear wheel. Jacked up the car and removed the right rear to take a closer look and realized the rear axle/subframe was splitting in half along the weld point. If I hadn't caught this today and my daughter was driving it I'm confident she or others would have been killed or severely injured since most of her driving is highway related. The part ... Read more
Incident date: May 24, 2024
The contact 2018 Honda CR-V. The contact stated that while driving at approximately 60 MPH, the vehicle inadvertently decelerated to 10 MPH and stalled. The vehicle had restarted, and the contact was able to continue driving. There were no warning lights illuminated. The contact stated that the temperature gauge was lower than normal. After receiving an unstated repair, the vehicle was slightly de... Read more
Incident date: May 23, 2024
The contact owns a 2018 Honda CR-V. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V858000 (Fuel System, Gasoline); 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 manufac... Read more
Incident date: Nov 1, 2023
The contact owns a 2016 GMC Sierra 2500. The contact stated that while stopped at a stop sign, an alert of "50% fuel range remaining" message appeared on the instrument panel. The contact stated afterwards while attempting to make a right turn the vehicle stalled and failed to restart. The contact had the vehicle towed to an independent mechanic who advised contact the fuel pump needed to be repla... Read more
Incident date: Mar 26, 2024
This is a report on a previous safety recall that has failed to fix the problem. The recall is GM Program # N172130462 for sudden-onset reduced propulsion. The recall repair was performed on this vehicle at 91,064 miles. However, since the recall, a reduced propulsion condition has recurred multiple times. Subsequent to the most recent episode, the vehicle has been in the dealer's repair shop for... Read more
Incident date: Feb 23, 2021
It did the exact same thing it did in April! Driving in traffic this time. The jerking, and not wanting to excelerate... then jumps from drive to neutral doing 70 mph! On hwy 59! THIS IS A SAFETY CONCERN AT THIS POINT! MAKE FORD FIX THIS
Incident date: Apr 28, 2024
The contact owns a 2018 Chevrolet Malibu. The contact stated while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle lost motive power and failed to restart. The contact stated while restarting the vehicle, the contact heard a rattling sound. The vehicle was driven to the shoulder of the road. The vehicle was towed to the residence and then towed to the dealer but was unofficially diagnosed with fail... Read more
Incident date: Jan 15, 2024
death wobble incident in my Ram 3500. Incident occurred while pulling a 35' foot Living Quarters horse trailer weighing over 26,000 pounds on the interstate. Have major vibration, shaking, and thumping sound in truck which gets worse the faster I accelerate. Chrysler needs to issue a recall on this issue get it resolved. See that this has already been report to NHTSA. February 24, 2024 NHTSA ID ... Read more
Incident date: Jan 15, 2024
death wobble incident in my Ram 3500. Incident occurred while pulling a 35' foot Living Quarters horse trailer weighing over 26,000 pounds on the interstate. Have major vibration, shaking, and thumping sound in truck which gets worse the faster I accelerate. Chrysler needs to issue a recall on this issue get it resolved. See that this has already been report to NHTSA. February 24, 2024 NHTSA ID ... Read more
Incident date: May 3, 2024
engine failure misfire, oil consumption
Incident date: May 3, 2024
While leaving the driveway for work, without any warning the rear windshield shattered. Extremely loud almost like a gunshot. I was driving approximately 10 miles an hour. Upon research by my husband it appears there are several complaints of this happening to this make and model.
Incident date: Jun 12, 2021
The contact owns a 2017 Forest River Salem Cruise Lite RV. The contact stated due to water buildup in the roof, the ceiling was leaking during rainy weather. The contact stated that the leak had caused mold to build up on the front side of the camper. The contact stated that the roof slider had previously been repaired with tape due to water leaking and mildew. The vehicle was not diagnosed or rep... Read more
Incident date: Jan 24, 2024
Reduced braking efficiency, loss of speedometer, loss of cruise control, brake light stays on when not depressing the pedal, electric power steering assist not functioning. Check engine light on, abs light on, traction control light on.
Incident date: Jan 24, 2024
The contact owns a 2019 Dodge Journey. The contact stated that while operating the vehicle, the ABS and check engine warning lights remained illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer who diagnosed that the ABS module was faulty and needed to be replaced; however, the parts needed were no longer available from the manufacturer. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notifie... Read more
Incident date: Jan 24, 2024
The contact owns a 2019 Dodge Journey. The contact stated that while operating the vehicle, the ABS and check engine warning lights remained illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer who diagnosed that the ABS module was faulty and needed to be replaced; however, the parts needed were no longer available from the manufacturer. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notifie... Read more
Incident date: May 23, 2024
The Infotainment system goes black intermittently & frequently- When this occurs, there is no access to any cameras and if it occurs while backing out, the mirrors self-adjust down (for the camera?) and therefore, you are unable to even user your sideview mirrors. I have contacted Nissan Corporate-they deny any issues but the local dealership told me there is a software problem similar to the 202... Read more
Incident date: May 21, 2024
Horn fails to work when the truck is cold. After the steering wheel has been moved during operation, the horn eventually begins to work. I had a vehicle drift into my lane on the highway, and when I went to use the horn, it failed to work. Fortunately, I was able to swerve to avoid the other vehicle hitting the front of my cab. I bought this truck brand new from Freightliner. They state that ... Read more
Incident date: Sep 18, 2023
The contact owns a 2022 Nissan Versa. The contact stated while driving at undisclosed speeds, the vehicle started losing motive power. There was no warning light illuminated. The contact stated that during the failure, the vehicle was turned off, restarted, and operated as needed. The contact stated the failure reoccurred and the vehicle was taken to a local dealer however, the cause of the failur... Read more
Incident date: Mar 15, 2024
The contact owns a 2017 Ford F-150. The contact stated when the vehicle was parked, the contact became aware that the rear driver’s door had failed to close properly. The contact attempted several times to close the door and was able to lock the door and when he attempted to open the door the door would remain locked and would not open. The contact was concerned for the safety of a passenger ins... Read more
Incident date: Mar 15, 2024
The steering wheel does not return to center. Instead, the steering wheel and wheels get stuck at the turning angle and sometimes pull to the left or right. You have to manually return the steering wheel to center.
Incident date: May 21, 2024
The contact owns a 2024 Nissan Versa. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle stalled and went into LIMP Mode. The contact pulled over to the shoulder of the roadway. The contact was turned off and restarted. In addition, the contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed with the accelerator pedal depressed, the vehicle failed to respond as intended.... Read more
Incident date: May 19, 2024
The steering wheel does not return to center when making turns. It is more pronounced during left turns. This is a dangerous condition that could result in the vehicle going left or right of center and striking pedestrians, bicyclists, oncoming traffic, fixed objects. An independent service center confirmed that the issue was a bad torque sensor and bad motor in the steering column. I have sch... Read more
Incident date: Apr 26, 2024
The contact owns a 2020 Chrysler Pacifica. The contact stated that while stopped at a stop light, the vehicle inadvertently lost motive power; however, the vehicle was able to be restarted. After restarting the vehicle, the vehicle returned to normal functionality, but the failure became a regular occurrence. The contact stated that several unknown warning lights were illuminated. The contact also... Read more
Incident date: Apr 26, 2024
The contact owns a 2014 Ford Focus. The contact stated that on several occasions while driving at various speeds, the vehicle hesitated, and the transmission was slipping. The vehicle was taken to a dealer where it was diagnosed and determined that the clutch needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired six times, but the failure persisted. The contact was informed that the manufacturer was not... Read more
Incident date: May 21, 2024
The contact owns a 2018 Ford Explorer. The contact stated that on several occasions the vehicle failed to start. Additionally, while driving at various speeds, the vehicle shut off unintendedly. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer to be diagnosed. The contact was informed that the alternator was faulty and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The contact stated that the A-pil... Read more