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.
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
Showing 35,035 complaints for SUBARU
Incident date: May 16, 2023
The contact owns a 2022 Hyundai Tucson. The contact stated while driving 40-50 MPH, the transmission was shifting hard, and was upshifting and downshifting independently. There was no warning light illuminated. The contact stated that the failure had recurred several times while driving. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, where it was test-driven, but the failure could not be duplicated. Additio... Read more
Incident date: Nov 4, 2023
There is an has been an issue with my electrical system says I purchased this car in 2017. Myself believe that the issues have not been documented until 2020. When my racy begins to run out, my engine light has been coming on and I’ve been getting the same code P1101 I took my vehicle to GMC and they told me that the engine light came on because the tape came loose. I brought this vehicle and th... Read more
Incident date: Dec 3, 2023
The indicator light 'Service Safety Restraint System' beeps and comes on about every 5 minutes when driving. Sometimes it doesn't come on at all. There is no rhyme or reason for why it happens.
Incident date: Aug 1, 2023
The contact owns a 2013 Ford Taurus. The contact stated while attempting to pull out of a parking space, the steering wheel seized. The traction control warning light was illuminated, and the message "Steering Rack Assembly" was displayed. The contact stated that she turned off and restarted the vehicle, and the steering wheel operated as needed. The contact stated that the failure recurred severa... Read more
Incident date: Apr 1, 2023
There was no incident. I’m complaining because Hyundai has yet to do anything to address the recall Sep 22,2023 Manufacturer Recall Number251 NHTSA Recall Number23V651000. Why aren’t you insisting that Hyundai starts repairing vehicles affected by a recall issued last September. And the last time my car was recalled for a different recall I had to wait 2 months to get an appointment with my de... Read more
Incident date: Apr 1, 2023
WHILE I was driving the rear window just made a noise and the I heard shattering glasses. When I look thru the rear mirror I saw that the glass was all shatter. I stop when I park I look for any holes that indicate that someone throw something but there was no sign of it. I moved to a safe place and the windshield started to fall.
Incident date: Nov 16, 2023
The power sunshade came loose and dropped one side of the sunshade to the drivers side because it came loose
Incident date: Jul 1, 2023
Screen used for backup camera and radio was intermittently non-responsive. Issue has been seen/confirmed at the dealership. Safety concern is the failure/inaccessibility to the safety/visibility feature associated with the reverse camera. (Issue was intermittent upon ignition and remain non functional until vehicle would be powered off and back on again.)
Incident date: Jul 1, 2023
Screen used for backup camera and radio was intermittently non-responsive. Issue has been seen/confirmed at the dealership. Safety concern is the failure/inaccessibility to the safety/visibility feature associated with the reverse camera. (Issue was intermittent upon ignition and remain non functional until vehicle would be powered off and back on again.)
Incident date: Aug 28, 2023
November 2022, 2005 audi allroad 2.7T diagnosed fire/melting of lightbulb of the passenger side headlight due to electrical issues. Was unable to repair the headlight at that time. November 2023, owner of vehicle finds open recalls associated with this make/model. Since the recalls were dated back to 2006 or 08, so the VIN tools only show up to 15 years. I made an recall repair appointment wit... Read more
Fire
Incident date: Aug 28, 2023
The driver door is making popping noises when opening and closing. I read this could be the door weld issue.
Incident date: Aug 28, 2023
Check engine light came on. Display stated that the engine will run at reduced power which meant we had to Limp home at 15 MPH which put us in a dangerous situation. I read the code and it was P2122. Throttle/Pedal Position Sensor/Switch “D” Circuit Low Input. This indicates that there is a problem with the accelerator pedal. I replaced the pedal myself at a cost of $114.00. I eventually found... Read more
Incident date: Dec 1, 2023
I have a 2015 Kia optima GDI, I never had any issues with this vehicle and I kept with my oil changes, but one day in November I was driving on the highway doing about 65 my car shut off in the middle of the highway, I only had the car for 2.5 years. I took it to advance auto got the battery and alternator checked which said that I had a bad alternator, and a code of p1326. The alternator was chan... Read more
Incident date: Dec 3, 2023
The dashboard instrument cluster of my 2019 RAM 1500 Gen 5, Longhorn model, is completely inoperable (went blank). This poses a safety issue to the driver as it provides important safety readings like velocity, fuel levels, RPMs, engine temperature, and distance traveled, etc. Roadways have a designated maximum speed. Meeting the speed limit is difficult if you can't read your speedometer. You ... Read more
Incident date: Nov 1, 2022
About three weeks after we bought the SUV, a small rock hit the windshield while we were driving on the freeway, causing a quarter-sized crack. We had it repaired. A week later, two more tiny chips appeared on the windshield. We didn't even notice anything hitting the windshield, and we only drove it on city roads with normal road conditions. The windshield seems to have very soft glass and gets c... Read more
Incident date: Nov 1, 2022
Lifter Failure: I was traveling to a State Park in Northern Michigan when my engine starting running very rough with major power loss. My check engine light activated, and I pulled over as soon as I could. It was dangerous because I was pulling a camper and I had to drive well under the speed limit. The Certified Chevy Dealership discovered a collapsed lifter and Cam damage. They considered this ... Read more
Incident date: Nov 1, 2022
Steering wheel sticks when temperature is cooler and driving on highway. No warning lights come on and no accidents.
Incident date: Oct 2, 2023
On the morning of April 27, 2022, our 2017 Chevy Volt, with what I believe to be a fully charged high voltage battery (was plugged in to charge the entire previous night) and at least a quarter tank of gas, would not start either the electrical or gasoline drive train. The 12 volt battery showed low voltage, so I purchased and replaced the 12 volt battery. The Volt continued to not start in eith... Read more
Incident date: Nov 29, 2023
-- My 2017 Chevrolet Volt experienced a failure of the Battery Energy Control Module (BECM) in the powertrain system. This failure prevented my vehicle from being driven. The BECM and related battery pack components were replaced under warranty by a Chevrolet dealership. Those parts, to my knowledge, are not available for inspection. -- From a safety perspective, my vehicle was luckily parked whe... Read more
Incident date: Nov 29, 2023
-- My 2017 Chevrolet Volt experienced a failure of the Battery Energy Control Module (BECM) in the powertrain system. This failure prevented my vehicle from being driven. The BECM and related battery pack components were replaced under warranty by a Chevrolet dealership. Those parts, to my knowledge, are not available for inspection. -- From a safety perspective, my vehicle was luckily parked whe... Read more
Incident date: Nov 29, 2023
-- My 2017 Chevrolet Volt experienced a failure of the Battery Energy Control Module (BECM) in the powertrain system. This failure prevented my vehicle from being driven. The BECM and related battery pack components were replaced under warranty by a Chevrolet dealership. Those parts, to my knowledge, are not available for inspection. -- From a safety perspective, my vehicle was luckily parked whe... Read more
Incident date: Nov 6, 2023
For the past 4,000 miles or so, steering wheel has experienced slight jerks or moments of "stickiness" when driving at highway speeds. Incidents occur during all types of temperature and weather conditions. Turning the Lake Keeping Assist system on or off has no impact on steering wheel issues.
Incident date: Nov 6, 2023
The car stalls and cannot propel itself forward. Two dealerships have unsuccessfully attempted to replace and fix the fuel injection pump, sensors and harnesses. The car has been to Palmetto 57 Volkswagen (Miami, FL) and Jim Ellis Volkswagen (Kennesaw, GA) dealer service centers 5 times since the car was purchased on October 7, 2023. Today is December 1, 2023. I've been told three times that the... Read more
Incident date: Nov 6, 2023
The contact owns a 2019 GMC Sierra 1500. The contact stated while driving 45 MPH, the service brakes were inoperable, and the vehicle experienced phantom braking. The vehicle came to a complete stop on the highway. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic however, the failure could not be duplicated. The contact called and made the dealer aware of the failure. The contact stated that the f... Read more
Incident date: Nov 30, 2023
The contact owns a 2018 Jeep Compass. The contact stated that the 4-WD, ABS, Hill Assist, and traction control warning lights were illuminated. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the differential malfunctioned due to a tightening and then releasing that occurred while attempting to steer the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to the dealer who diagnosed and determined that the re... Read more
Incident date: Nov 30, 2023
The contact owns a 2018 Jeep Compass. The contact stated that the 4-WD, ABS, Hill Assist, and traction control warning lights were illuminated. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the differential malfunctioned due to a tightening and then releasing that occurred while attempting to steer the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to the dealer who diagnosed and determined that the re... Read more
Incident date: Nov 30, 2023
I was driving home from a client meeting on the highway and received a check engline light with the message "Propulsion Power is Reduced." After a trip to the dealership, I learned that the car's Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) valve malfunctioned and needs to be replaced. Some online research shows that this is a very common issue with Chevrolet Volts. What's worse, the part is back ordered indef... Read more
Incident date: Nov 14, 2023
While driving over 40mph and especially while driving on the highway, the steering may feel sticky and requires more effort than normal to make small adjustments to the steering while trying to maintain the lane.
Incident date: Nov 30, 2023
The contact owns a 2014 Jeep Cherokee. The contact stated that moisture had entered the vehicle through the rear liftgate. The vehicle was taken to a dealer where a diagnostic test was performed and the rear module was replaced; however, the failure persisted. Upon investigation, the contact discovered that the VIN was included in NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V338000 (Electrical System, Structure) how... Read more
Incident date: Nov 16, 2023
The contact owns a 2023 Jeep Grand Wagoneer. The contact stated that the stop and go and lane change features were not working. While reversing, there was no audible alert. The auto-air lift system failed to engage. Upon accelerating, the vehicle was making an abnormal sound. The navigation screen was flickering. The contact noticed open wires under the driver's side front seat. There were no warn... Read more
Incident date: Nov 16, 2023
The contact owns a 2023 Jeep Grand Wagoneer. The contact stated that the stop and go and lane change features were not working. While reversing, there was no audible alert. The auto-air lift system failed to engage. Upon accelerating, the vehicle was making an abnormal sound. The navigation screen was flickering. The contact noticed open wires under the driver's side front seat. There were no warn... Read more
Incident date: Nov 29, 2023
The contact owns a 2019 Dodge Journey. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the brake sensor and the check engine warning lights illuminated. The contact stated that when she depressed the accelerator pedal, the vehicle seemed to be losing motive power. The contact stated that the speed odometer was inoperable and several unknown warning lights were illuminated. The vehic... Read more
Incident date: Nov 29, 2023
This describes false alarms by the vehicle electronics. About once every four to six months, the center display on the dash says, "BRAKE," and a Sonalert-type steady beep comes out of the dash. This happens with cruise control on. In two cases, there was no vehicle in front of me on the road. I could not see any source of radio signal or radar interference (EMI) in the area or nearby. In one cas... Read more
Incident date: Nov 29, 2023
The car in front of me stopped short and neither the Collision Warning or Emergency Braking activated or alerted at all, making no attempt to stop the vehicle, resulting in a collision.
Crash
3 injured
Incident date: Nov 30, 2023
I have a lot of questions. I bought the best trim car for safety, but as a result, nothing worked. The damage to my family caused by this was a lot of damage mentally and physically, and it took a lot of time for these results to come out. That ended my view of Hyundai/Kia as a Korean American living in the U.S. I will never repurchase a Korean car. I suspect a sudden acceleration. I decided t... Read more
Crash
2 injured
Incident date: Nov 29, 2023
the abs light stays on no matter what ive tried resetting it and everything and it wont work, the electrical system in the car sometimes doesnt work properly this regarding the headlights and interior buttons, the transmission on the car since i have bought it has a really dangerous kick back on it in the transmission jolts the car really hard to the point its dangerous to drive on dry and rainy d... Read more
Incident date: Nov 29, 2023
the abs light stays on no matter what ive tried resetting it and everything and it wont work, the electrical system in the car sometimes doesnt work properly this regarding the headlights and interior buttons, the transmission on the car since i have bought it has a really dangerous kick back on it in the transmission jolts the car really hard to the point its dangerous to drive on dry and rainy d... Read more
Incident date: Nov 29, 2023
Had blown gasket repair last year (which was fixed by my local Toyota Dealership and all cost paid for by myself). Dealership acknowledged that there were known issues with failures due to clogged EGR's and out-dated manifolds. Was never recalled and did not know about the issue until after the incident. Wanted to report issues since it appears countless other have been in the same situation with ... Read more
Incident date: Nov 27, 2023
While decelerating on to an exit off-ramp the car started refusing to shift and came to a stop on the side of the expressway. When I tried to pull off the road it said “Transmission Fluid Pressure Low”. At this time I am unsure if it is a sensor or the transmission.
Incident date: Nov 1, 2022
The engine is being to make a sound. When I checked it’s the rod knock. In the end of September my wife drove the car to work where it stopped working. That’s when I heard and seen what it was. It’s my understanding that many optimas have been having engine problems. I was told to take it to a dealership and Kia would fix it that there was a recall. Please let me know if this is true or any... Read more
Incident date: Nov 2, 2023
The contact owns a 2021 Honda Pilot. The contact stated that the Auto Idle feature on the vehicle intermittently failed to operate as needed. The contact stated that the vehicle failed to restart upon the depression of the accelerator pedal. The contact stated that an unknown message was displayed on the instrument panel during the failure. The contact had taken the vehicle to the dealer on severa... Read more
Incident date: Nov 2, 2023
TSB 0158-14 IS a Toyota engine that was also used in General Motors Pontiac vibe in 2009 and 2010 The tsb has to do with oil consumption and a tsb was made for Toyota. Not for Pontiac as a result my Pontiac is now consuming oil every 1000kms As they both used the 2Az-FE 2.4 engine
Incident date: Nov 2, 2023
The Lexus is equipped with a large screen which displays GPS and other Apps. The car has been programmed with a pop up advertisement which states "Experience Drive Connect" that is an additional paid subscription which I do not want. I can reach over and touch an icon that removes the pop up which only pops up again a short time later. According to Stevinson Lexus and Lexus for help site there is ... Read more
Incident date: Nov 29, 2023
I have experienced premature rear brake wear and excessive tire wear. Issues with infotainment system and pre-collision braking system. (1) Regarding Tires: Performed all dealer recommended tire rotations and aligned vehicle when recommended. Needed new tires at 31,169 miles. Tires showed excessive inside wear. Bought new tires from a 3rd party shop and had alignment done with hunter alignment sys... Read more
Incident date: Nov 29, 2023
I have experienced premature rear brake wear and excessive tire wear. Issues with infotainment system and pre-collision braking system. (1) Regarding Tires: Performed all dealer recommended tire rotations and aligned vehicle when recommended. Needed new tires at 31,169 miles. Tires showed excessive inside wear. Bought new tires from a 3rd party shop and had alignment done with hunter alignment sys... Read more
Incident date: Nov 29, 2023
Car suddenly stops while driving. Usually when stop at a red light, stop sign, or yield sign where I have to accelerate. Transmission turns to P itself and hear a grinding noise.
Incident date: May 2, 2023
The horn for this vehicle simply stopped working. The horn was used earlier in the day to prevent a different vehicle from changing lanes to avoid an accident. My wife has the same vehicle (year make and model) and her horn stopped working 2 weeks ago. The fuse is not the issue on either vehicle. My wife was informed by local Kia that this issue has been common. I researched this issue online and ... Read more
Incident date: May 2, 2023
The contact owns a 2023 Jeep Grand Cherokee. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V413000 (Suspension) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The local dealer was contacted. 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 expe... Read more
Incident date: May 2, 2023
The contact owns a 2012 Kia Soul. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V652000 (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 contact also stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle briefly shuddered ... Read more
Incident date: Dec 4, 2020
I purchased an Audi eTron 2022 in November 0f 2021. My wife has always loved the brand. Indeed, if you look at your sales records, you’ll find that we’ve purchased a Q5, two Q7s, and most recently an eTron from Audi North Austin. We’ve also always used your store for all the maintenance of our Audis. Approximately 5 months after buying the eTron we started experiencing glitches: -Screen rand... Read more
1 injured