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 34,453 complaints for SUBARU
Incident date: May 16, 2023
The engine keep going into limp mode. The car stalls out while at lights an stop signs, power steering goes out on highway an other roads making it impossible to steer or steer out of others ways, limp mode causes car to not be able to keep up with traffic on highway and other roads. Engine jerks forward an shifts irractically an shifts an downshifts hard.
Incident date: Oct 1, 2022
Message warm engine before start. Car won’t start message key fob damaged when it’s not. Engine clicks but no engine turn over.
Incident date: Apr 21, 2023
The contact owned a 2006 Nissan Altima. The contact stated while exiting the highway, the contact lost control of the vehicle and struck a tree, causing several damages to the front of the vehicle. The air bags did not deploy, causing several injuries to the contact's right eye, cuts, and bruises to the left side of the contact's body. The contact sought medical attention. A police report was file... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Jul 7, 2023
I currently have a 2015 Ford Explorer. This is the 2nd time that I am having to replace the windshield trim on the passenger side due to it flying off while driving.
Incident date: Apr 12, 2022
My daughters Kia Forte, started making a ticking noise. Them more she has driven the car, the worse the ticking has become. Looking on line to see what the problem may be, it appears that this is a very well known issues with Kia’s. Also reading on your sight there has been MANY complaints for the very same thing. If Kia has been made aware of the issue and did nothing about it. I feel that is n... Read more
Incident date: Jul 7, 2023
Steering wheel is quite hard to turn. Gets kind of stuck at certain points when I’m driving. Fluids all good. Don’t understand why this is happening.
Incident date: Jun 7, 2023
After driving on an Interstate Highway for approximately 2 hours I exited and brought the vehicle to a complete stop at a stop sign while preparing to turn right onto a busy 2-lane road. I applied moderate gas pedal pressure and the vehicle momentarily accelerated and moved forward but then the engine stalled as the transmission was attempting to shift automatically from 1st to 2nd gear. The veh... Read more
Incident date: Jan 1, 2023
I was driving my child to daycare on my way to work one morning. I pulled into an intersection and my vehicle just stopped as if the engine had died with no warning signs, sounds or even symbols on the dash. I stepped on the gas and couldn’t get it to move all while I had cars coming at me from both sides. I tried turning it on and off nothing would get it to move, eventually the check engine li... Read more
Incident date: Aug 14, 2022
The contact owns a 2023 Ford Bronco Sport. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V021000 (Service Brakes, Hydraulic) however, the part to do the recall repair was unavailable. The contact then received a second notice that parts were available. The dealer was contacted, and the vehicle was dropped off for the service. The vehicle remained in the dealer possession for over a... Read more
Incident date: Jun 24, 2023
The contact owns a 2017 Subaru Forester. The contact stated that after the vehicle was repaired under NHTSA Campaign Number: 19V701000 (Air Bags), the passenger’s side air bags experienced intermittent functionality failure. The air bag warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, who determined that the front passenger’s side seat needed to be replaced; however, the par... Read more
Incident date: Jun 6, 2020
I have owned the 2018 VW GTI since new. With 105,000 miles, following a 30 minute highway drive, the EPC light came on and the vehicle entered limp mode. After turning car off, letting it sit 5 minutes, and restarting, EPC light went off and no limp mode. Drove car daily for another week with no observed issues until appointment. Brought car to dealer. They identified the fuel injector wiring ... Read more
Incident date: Feb 1, 2021
The contact owns a 2006 Chrysler 300C. The contact stated that while driving at slow speeds during traffic congestion, the vehicle inadvertently lost motive power and stalled. Upon restarting the vehicle, the vehicle hesitated but seemed to return to normal functionality. No warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer however, the dealer was unable to determine the cause o... Read more
Incident date: Oct 15, 2021
Drivers door began making a clunking/popping/scratching noise when opening without incident or cause. Window will only roll down approximately 4 inches. No warning lamps or messages present. The noise and the metal on metal feeling when opening or closing is getting worse and the door is getting harder to close. I am worried it may fall off at anytime, or if it is repaired that it will be replaced... Read more
Incident date: Oct 15, 2021
The contact owns a 2022 Chevrolet Silverado 1500. The contact stated while driving 58 MPH and attempting to depress the brake pedal, the contact saw that an unknown electrical component had detached from underneath the dashboard and was obstructing the brake pedal. The contact stated no warning light was illuminated. The contact was able to remove the electrical component with his left foot to dep... Read more
Incident date: Jul 4, 2023
My car was set on navigate on autopilot, and normally it decreases speed when detecting change in speed limit. But for last couple of times, it's been not decreasing speed. On july 4th, 2023, I was driving and it did not change the speed limit based on the changes on the road. The speed limit had changed from 60 to 55, and it didn't change in the car. Also, Tesla just abruptly slowed down multip... Read more
Incident date: Dec 15, 2020
Power Steering System went out while driving. A warning light for the Advanced Traction System came on shortly before the Power Steering went out. This caused me to hit a curb creating a tire blowout. I got both problems fixed and the mechanic stated the issue with the power steering was that a wire for the system was resting on the catalytic converter, which caused the wire to melt and create the... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Jul 1, 2023
Experiencing a dead or faulty battery issue in my 2022 Honda Insight. I called the Honda dealership to see if I could charge the battery from the points noted in the owners manual. The service representative said yes. Charged the battery to 100% and proceeded directly to the dealership for service. During the drive to the dealership I experienced the dashboard lights and annunciation display with... Read more
Incident date: Jul 2, 2023
An incident has not occurred, however, if I keep driving there may be one with the brake controls. The VSA Modular unit has gone haywired and now my brakes are getting stuck and not sure if when I stop they may not work due to the system lights appearing. Honda dealer says it's faulty and when looking the problem up, seems like most hondas get this problem. This should be safety recall, especiall... Read more
Incident date: Feb 3, 2023
The contact owns a 2012 Buick Regal. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the instrument panel went blank, and the turn signals failed to operate as needed. The contact stated that vehicle briefly lost motive power but independently restarted while making turning in either direction. There was no warning light illuminated. Additionally, the vehicle jerked while at a complete st... Read more
Incident date: Apr 6, 2021
Takata recall. The contact owns a 2014 GMC Acadia. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V334000 (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 dealer and manufacturer were made aware of the issue and confirmed that parts were not yet ava... Read more
Incident date: Jun 25, 2023
When I turn the car on it flashes check engine eyesite failure which then turns off the ability to use cruise control, crash detection, lane assist, ext. we called Dick Hannah Subaru and the code came up as P26A5 engine coolant bypass valve A position sensor. They said a thermo valve needs replaced and they’ve seen that happen a lot in 2019/2020 Subarus
Incident date: Jun 25, 2023
“Service Trailer Brake System” indicator light and alert continue happening. As of this weekend, my rear driver side taillight has begun going in and out/off and on.
Incident date: Jun 25, 2023
“Service Trailer Brake System” indicator light and alert continue happening. As of this weekend, my rear driver side taillight has begun going in and out/off and on.
Incident date: Jul 3, 2023
The contact owns a 2012 Jeep Patriot. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the lights inside the vehicle were flickering and the vehicle shuddered. Additionally, the vehicle made an abnormal sound and then stalled. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the contact smelled an abnormal odor, and the vehicle failed to accelerate while the accelerator... Read more
Incident date: Jun 1, 2023
The Toyota bz4x have a large crash rate, because the Car Computer System is different from the Driver mind on the Highway. Cars cannot be a Driver or Substitute on Streets for Now. Any Changes of the lines on the Highway need Signals before, If you don't, your Car bz4x can't changed your line. In the work zone, the bz4x have a large probability of crash, because of NO STRAIGHT LINE IN THE WORK ZO... Read more
Incident date: Jun 1, 2023
My 2005 F350 Diesel Pick up has suffered from the Ford death wobble on and off for the last 15 years. While navigating a left hand corner at speeds over 40 it begins to shake uncontrollably after hitting a small bump or pot hole until speed is reduced to 30mph or less. I have replaced bearings, uppper & lower ball joints, torque arms and other suspension parts without finding a cure.
Incident date: Jun 1, 2023
My 2005 F350 Diesel Pick up has suffered from the Ford death wobble on and off for the last 15 years. While navigating a left hand corner at speeds over 40 it begins to shake uncontrollably after hitting a small bump or pot hole until speed is reduced to 30mph or less. I have replaced bearings, uppper & lower ball joints, torque arms and other suspension parts without finding a cure.
Incident date: Jun 20, 2023
The electric pushbutton would not function. I have a standard transmission and I let the clutch out too soon by accident. It killed the engine but the electrical components stayed on, such as lights, interior dash gauge, air conditioning, radio, everything else functioned as if the car were on and running however, i couldn't start the vehicle and the push button did not generate any response from ... Read more
Incident date: Jun 20, 2023
On June 17, 2023, while during this car suddenly it started losing speed, pressing accelerator did not help. I stopped the car and restarted, it drove for another 400 yards and stopped again. I checked with my obd2 and it gave a code of misfiring third cylinder. Car had a recent replacement of engine under warranty by Parks Hyundai of Gainesville as previous engine had started smoking in 2011. My ... Read more
Incident date: Jun 20, 2023
On June 17, 2023, while during this car suddenly it started losing speed, pressing accelerator did not help. I stopped the car and restarted, it drove for another 400 yards and stopped again. I checked with my obd2 and it gave a code of misfiring third cylinder. Car had a recent replacement of engine under warranty by Parks Hyundai of Gainesville as previous engine had started smoking in 2011. My ... Read more
Incident date: Jul 4, 2023
Not the first time but while I am driving the car steering will lock and I can no longer move it. The latest was when I went to see fireworks with my kids and while on the way there I was going to turn and while turning the steering locked and I couldn’t turn anymore so I had to break before I hit a pole but another car almost crashed into me, honked at me, and flicked me off. On the way home I ... Read more
Incident date: Mar 2, 2020
At 200,000 miles I'm beginning to have problems withe electric power steering along with suspension issues as well. i start my vehicle drive for a bit could be turning or coming to a brake an steering gives out cause me to work to turn it
Incident date: Jul 3, 2023
Car stopped at a light and didn’t want to turn back on. Tried to have it jumped with no luck. The car turns on but the engine won’t turn over at all.
Incident date: Jul 3, 2023
Car stopped at a light and didn’t want to turn back on. Tried to have it jumped with no luck. The car turns on but the engine won’t turn over at all.
Incident date: Oct 30, 2020
There have been several occasions where I am cruising at a steady spread and when I try to brake, the pedal just goes down to the floor. It's as if I don't have any brakes at all. I've had my brakes and fluid checked and all is good. This is a very scary and dangerous situation. Doing my research I see that this is a common problem. How is there not a recall on this? This could be a fatal si... Read more
Incident date: Jun 1, 2023
My one year old is able to press the chest clip and it unlatches. So now the only thing holding him is the buckle. He has been able to undo the chest clip. While driving in traffic. This should not happen. Could be terrible danger if got in a car accident.
Incident date: Jun 27, 2023
Complete rust through of frame of my 2006 HUMMER H3.
Incident date: Jul 1, 2023
Rear driver side door does not lock nor do windows go up or down. Car does not start with remote.
Incident date: Jul 2, 2023
Our Sprinter 2500 is equipped with Mercedes Benz autonomous cruise (Distronic Cruise). It fails repeatedly for unknown reason, and when it does it also disabled related safety features (collision warning, emergency braking) as well as standard cruise control. The manual suggests checking for bugs, snow, or other obstructions on sensors, but they’ve been clear. Forums note that their vans also ... Read more
Incident date: Feb 1, 2023
When we closed the front driver seat of the car while the car was parked, the back moonroof glass exploded, meaning the glass shattered into a ton of little pieces. Those glass pieces fell all over the back seat. There was no external cause such as something falling on the glass, etc. This happened at the same time as when we closed the front driver door. There were no seen issues with the glass p... Read more
Incident date: Jun 29, 2023
2019 Subaru Forester Premier. 6/29/23 All ok while driving for 3 hours on highways. Never had any issues before. I stopped car to take a break, when I restarted the car. All the warning lights lit ou and eye-site was off and could not be turned on. Check engine light on along with many others. Had 30 minutes more to go, stopped a few more times to check on the engine compartment - all ok. Brought... Read more
Incident date: Jun 29, 2023
The rear suspension became corroded and one of the coils or bars broke off while driving. After the coil from the suspension broke off, it punctured a tire, which blew while driving. Thankfully, I had just exited the interstate, otherwise this would've happened at high speeds. This is a known issue that has previously been reported in a recall (113). The vehicle is registered in Ohio and has bee... Read more
Incident date: Jun 29, 2023
AC component: Condenser and Evaporator (issue is systematic as it's creating issues to Freon) Current RECALL is only for Condenser but it's systematic to Evaporator (faulty part that has failed); I believe Honda is circumventing the cost to repair and is revealing only condenser part failure vs taking ownership on full AC component (if one fail the other will too). Reading blog, reddit, and man... Read more
Incident date: Jun 1, 2023
The contact owns a 2014 Ford F-150. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the transmission intermittently downshifted while depressing the accelerator pedal. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. Neither the dealer nor the manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 135,000.
Incident date: Jun 1, 2023
Bought the car brand new in 2018, my car is only 90k miles and the transmission is bad. Apparently there’s thousands of owners requesting a recall on the transactions of these cars, not reliable at all… Please help, it’s outside warranty already and they refused to help me out with this problem that ITS NOT MY FAULT
Incident date: Jun 30, 2023
My truck backup camera is not working. It goes black or distorted to where you can’t see anything behind you. It identical to a recall on other 2019 Ford F150s. But my truck is not on that recall. If the problem is the exact same, shouldn’t it be fixed through the recall as well?
Incident date: Jun 19, 2023
RAB disabled, eye sight disabled, I drive disabled, check engine light came on. Car drives like it's is in sport mode with very touchy throttle. Pulled a code and it's the TCV. It's a known issue by Subaru with a part that has since been revamped but with thousands of vehicles on the road affected. Should be a recall. Contacted Subaru of America with no response so now a $1,900-$2,500 depending o... Read more
Incident date: Jun 19, 2023
I was pulling out of a parking lot going about 3 mph. There were no other vehicles around and the windshield cracked right in front of me. I called my insurance and explained to them the strange event that just took place, and they said that it would be a deductable of $500.00 or around $1000.00. Reasearch has proven that quote. The next day I went out to the car to start it up so the kids wouldn'... Read more
Incident date: Jun 19, 2023
I was pulling out of a parking lot going about 3 mph. There were no other vehicles around and the windshield cracked right in front of me. I called my insurance and explained to them the strange event that just took place, and they said that it would be a deductable of $500.00 or around $1000.00. Reasearch has proven that quote. The next day I went out to the car to start it up so the kids wouldn'... Read more