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: Dec 1, 2023
Was driving to go pick up one of my kids later at night. Was roughly 1/2 mile from home driving about 40 mph when I heard a pop / noise on the rear passenger side. Was unsure if I had rolled over something or what. Shortly after that (few seconds later), the "Check Electrical System" came on. Since I was close to home, I elected to turn around to go home since I could conduct a fairly easy turn... Read more
Incident date: Dec 27, 2023
There is an active parts recall for some Gladiators, Recall 26A, for the right rear axle shaft. This part on my vehicle has been failing for over 6 months. The ABS system, Traction Control, and 4WD system have active fault codes, preventing these systems from working as intended. In the last month, this problem has become unsafe due to 3 separate incidents where the traction control has triggered ... Read more
Incident date: Dec 28, 2021
The rear lift gate "racetrack" tail light and license plate light bar to include backup lights just stopped working. I suddenly have extremely little visibility of my car from the rear at night. The contact stated with the taillight removed, It is apparent that a deficient factory assembly process resulted in taillight wires impeding the weather seal designed to keep water out of the tail light... Read more
Incident date: Dec 28, 2021
was told by an employee of Ford in Lugoff SC that staff from corporate office came in and advise them to remove the Vin from all the 2023 Ford F-150, and exchange them with 2024 VIN's. A couple staff were also fire without cause, although SC is am at will state.
Incident date: Nov 1, 2023
Took my car for recall last week. Dealership isn't helping me. Spend so much money to fix something that's defecting parts of my engine. But dealership is ignoring me.
Incident date: Jan 1, 2024
Vehicle showing Electronic Brake System as well as Antilock Brake system and traction control system not working. Pinging all the time, currently 165,000 miles on truck. Same issue was dealt with on 8/15/2020 with 39512 miles on truck. Was an out of pocket expense for $927.10 to fix this very important safety related issue. The cruise control is also affected by these messages and will not wor... Read more
Incident date: Jan 2, 2024
My relatively brand new BMW X5 with only 7,500 miles was parked in an enclosed parking garage with valet service. The car only had its warranty service about 7 weeks ago and was in fine condition. There were no issues with the suspension or steering. There was no accident and the car has never gone over a hard bump or pothole. The lower right front control arm snapped cleanly as if from meta... Read more
Incident date: Dec 28, 2023
Spontaneous entire rear window shattering while parked under normal outdoor weather conditions. No impact of any type.
Incident date: Dec 15, 2023
My 2019 Infotainment systems has begun delamination from the outer glass on the back side. It is causing ghost operations of the systems. Access to my safety features are through the system.
Incident date: Dec 15, 2023
While driving on the highway, warning came on to pull over safely that car would be shutting off. I had approximately 20 seconds to coast to side of the 3 lane highway an park on shoulder, as acceleration did not work. Car then shut down completely.
Incident date: Dec 15, 2023
My truck stalled on I26 in Johnson City; I was able to get to the shoulder and was able to get it started again, and it seemed to work ok. After that I started having issues with it not starting, but if I turned the key off, and tried again it would start. I searched the internet and found that the TIPM module in this model truck is the culprit for this issue and that there is a "work around that ... Read more
Incident date: Jan 2, 2024
In August 2022, while traveling on the interstate I received a warning that the vehicle was experiencing a power failure. It subsequently shut down while traveling at highway speeds. I was able to navigate off an exit that happened to be immediate and coasted downhill off the exit ramp to a safe spot. I was unable to power the vehicle off for approximately 10 minutes. Once able to power the vehicl... Read more
Incident date: Jan 2, 2024
BMW/MINI have known about a faulty airbag sensor in the seats, yet never did a recall. The passenger side airbag does not operate when someone sits in the seat due to a faulty sensor on the seat cushion. BMW was around $1600 to replace this. Big safety concern if a crash happens and air bag does not go off. Should be a factory recall.
Incident date: Dec 30, 2023
My vehicle has the 2.0 Ecoboost 2018 engine has developed a misfire in the number 2 cylinder. Vehicle is at a Ford dealership engine block has a manufactured defect coolant leaking into cylinder. I purchased lifetime power train warranty no Ford is trying to refuse to repair because. I performed some of the oil changes on the vehicle. Oil has nothing to do with the defective engine block or head o... Read more
Incident date: Dec 30, 2023
My vehicle has the 2.0 Ecoboost 2018 engine has developed a misfire in the number 2 cylinder. Vehicle is at a Ford dealership engine block has a manufactured defect coolant leaking into cylinder. I purchased lifetime power train warranty no Ford is trying to refuse to repair because. I performed some of the oil changes on the vehicle. Oil has nothing to do with the defective engine block or head o... Read more
Incident date: Oct 29, 2023
There is an issue with the vehicle displaying the speed when operating. I have experienced this issue randomly over the past year. The speed is typically displayed on the information cluster screen above the steering wheel. I have photo and video of the issue but the Upload File button is not working on your website. The only resolution so far has been to restart the vehicle. It does not appear th... Read more
Incident date: Oct 1, 2022
The contact owns a 1991 Jeep Wrangler. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 02V041000 (Parking Brake), 94V106000 (Fuel System, Gasoline) however, the part to do the recall repair was not available at the contacts local dealer. 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 ... Read more
Incident date: Oct 1, 2022
PASSENGER FRONT DOOR CHECK HAS CRACKED & IS NOT OPERABLE THERE WAS CONSISTENT "POPPING" SOUNDS FOR SOME TIME PRIOR. HE DEALER INSPECTED AND SAW BROKEN DOOR WELDS. HE INDICATED AT LEAST 3 SAME COMPLAINTS HAS BEEN MADE .THE REPAIR ESTIMATE WAS FOR 2200.00 IF I HAD TO PAY FOR IT THE DEALER SENT A CLAIM TO FORD REQUESTING THAT THEY TAKE CARE OF THE REPAIR I AM WAITING FOR THEIR RESPONSE
Incident date: Dec 30, 2023
All of a sudden, the eyesight and collision prevention stopped working, the check engine light came on, the blue light thermostat indicator came on. We had no heat. The flashing "S" (sportsmode indicator) came on. We were driving on the highway and still over an hour from home. It was snowing, we could not adequately clear the windshield of fog so our visibility was severely compromised. We ... Read more
Incident date: Dec 30, 2023
Approximately five times over six years, my 2016 Ram pickup engine will shut off on its own with no warning. It has always happened on the highway at high speed. This puts others at risk as I must put on hazard lights and coast to a stop with minimal control of the vehicle while other motorists try to avoid hitting me. The instrument lights remain on and once stopped, I can put transmission into p... Read more
Incident date: Dec 30, 2023
When I brushes a car, the dealer said Car has a recall for safety issue for airbags and will fix someone hit the front light with a low speed 20 mph on the street the old airbag open in the car for no reason to do this
Crash
Incident date: Dec 5, 2023
When I am idling at a stop sign or sitting in traffic and I have come to a full stop, the car's engine shuts down as a gas-saving feature. This is not the problem! The problem is that sometimes when this feature engages, when I lift my foot off the brake to start driving again, a shrill constant ringing sound starts and the engine won't power back on. There is an error message that comes on that s... Read more
Incident date: Dec 5, 2023
Service park brake and service ESC lights are on, check engine on and motor making a knocking noise
Incident date: Dec 5, 2023
Service park brake and service ESC lights are on, check engine on and motor making a knocking noise
Incident date: Dec 27, 2023
The steering system failed/malfunction. when turning the wheel counter-clockwise, the steering wheel jerks and temporarily shuts down the vehicle even while driving. Steering wheel has failed during the middle of a left hand turn in multiple intersections. Very unsafe and scary situation when the car does not respond or perform any inputs when the drive is trying to correct/move the wheel. the st... Read more
Incident date: Nov 6, 2023
New 2023 Mazda CX5. We have experienced 2 Unintended Sudden Acceleration episodes. The most recent one was while backing down our driveway, the car suddenly accelerated when the brake was applied causing considerable damage to the car and house. Our front porch camera caught the entire episode showing that the brake lights were in fact on. Mazda needs to take responsibility and recall these ve... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Dec 28, 2023
On 12/28/2023 my 2018 Subaru Outback without warning suddenly accelerated on its own, causing my vehicle to hit the curb and ran into a building.
Crash
Incident date: Dec 28, 2023
On my 2023 Honda civic sport the steering wheel is sticking specially during freeways speeds. I took the vehicle to Stockton Honda in Stockton Ca . According to the tech he was unable to reproduce the sticky steering wheel. (To be noted the car had the same miles as when I dropped it off at Stockton Honda ) this vehicle is unsafe for me to drive.
Incident date: Dec 28, 2023
Tesla replaced the upper control arm assembly in February 2021 after I complained that there was a squeaking noise when moving the steering wheel. My car and components are available for inspection. I was concerned that the front suspension would break leading to an accident. Tesla inspected and confirmed the issue. No warnings or message were displayed by the car.
Incident date: Dec 21, 2023
I have 50,000 miles I’m the original owner, bought it new in 2020, I was leaving work, started my car, blue smoke came out my exhaust, when i drove home from work, on inclines, the car sputters & stalls like it’s about to lose power, accompanied by thick blue smoke, and engine noise. I suspect it’s the piston rings in the cylinder head or valve seals are bad. My car has been parked for month... Read more
Incident date: Dec 29, 2023
I was pulling into a parking space at my apartment complex. I had my foot on the BRAKE, and the vehicle slowed as I approached the space. As I turned into the space with my foot light on the brake, the engine suddenly revved and the Forester surged forward. AT NO POINT DID I TOUCH THE ACCELERATOR. I have a size 7 (women’s) shoe, and the floor mat was flat and secured as always. The vehicle surge... Read more
Incident date: Dec 29, 2023
My sunroof spontaneously combusted while driving, without anything hitting the vehicle or any pre-existing damage. The glass shattered everywhere while going down the highway.
Incident date: Dec 29, 2023
I have 50,000 miles I’m the original owner, bought it new in 2020, I was leaving work, started my car, blue smoke came out my exhaust, when i drove home from work, on inclines, the car sputters & stalls like it’s about to lose power, accompanied by thick blue smoke, and engine noise. I suspect it’s the piston rings in the cylinder head or valve seals are bad. My car has been parked for month... Read more
Incident date: Dec 28, 2023
Our company has purchased 8- 2018-2022 Ford EcoSports similar to the VIN on this complaint. 5 of the 8 purchased have required engine replacement due to oil pressure related issues. One had just 20k miles, one had mid 40K miles, one had 52K miles and another 68k miles. And we had another today with just 58K miles. This seems to be a chronic issue with these engines.
Incident date: Dec 22, 2023
Brake light stays due to brake pedal stays stuck.. on while driving causing the motorcycle to be activate the ABS Also handlebar tends to become loose
Incident date: Dec 27, 2023
Engine jerking really had while vehicle is in drive and idle hard while sitting still
Incident date: Dec 27, 2023
Engine jerking really had while vehicle is in drive and idle hard while sitting still
Incident date: Dec 27, 2023
The contact owns a 2013 Audi A8. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V178000 (Engine and Engine Cooling) however, the contact had scheduled three separate appointments with a dealer and was cancelled after each scheduled appointment. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was not made aware... Read more
Incident date: Aug 12, 2022
while driving in gears between 8-10 I experienced a loss of power (Possible mis-firing) while at speed between 50-60 miles per hour. This occurs every time the vehicle is driven.
Incident date: Dec 1, 2020
Driver side headlamp draws moisture, keeps blowing bulbs at 104.99 a pop. Water gets in the headlight assembly and shorts out the ballast. This happens even when driving down the road at random. It could be pitch black and suddenly you have no headlights and are forced to drive with only fog lamps
Incident date: Dec 22, 2023
ABS and Traction Control warning. Cruise control will not work either. This started at 25K miles, but the truck was out of warranty because of time. I purchased an ABS Module from Ram and installed it Dec 27, 2023 and I will have to take it to the dealer to program it.
Incident date: Dec 28, 2023
The contact owns a 2011 Kia Soul. The contact stated that the check engine warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, who diagnosed the vehicle but could not determine the cause of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V652000 (Service Brakes, Hydraulic) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet... Read more
Incident date: Dec 28, 2023
There is a crack on the left lower part of the windshield. It’s the 3rd crack requiring a windshield replacement and it only has 21,110 miles on it
Incident date: Dec 28, 2023
The contact owns a 2022 Ford Escape. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V380000 (Engine) 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. VIN tool confirms parts n... Read more
Incident date: Dec 27, 2023
unknow getting gas in oil at 62532 miles on it which can cause the motor to grenade. a lot of the 5.3l on 2018 has this trouble from watching utube and using research, should be recalled and transmissions trouble as well.
Incident date: Dec 27, 2023
Steering wheel sticking when driving. Gets temporarily stuck when making slight adjustments on the road.
Incident date: Dec 27, 2023
Door is cracking only at 38k miles and the thing pops when I open and shut it on drivers side sounds like it’s going to fall right off
SUBARU
XV CROSSTREK
(2015) — ENGINE
Dec 27, 2023
Incident date: Dec 26, 2023
There’s something drawing the battery AMPS down. This has been an ongoing problem for the last 6 months. Per Kia techs, it was my battery and grounds needed cleaning. Battery changed, techs cleaned all the grounds the problem still exists. I was informed that it was the alternator, new alternator installed. Problem still remains. A new starter installed, problem still exists.
Incident date: Dec 21, 2023
The vehicle has given codes P0018 and P0021 on multiple occasions. These codes are likely due to an issue with the cam phasers. This is a known issue due to a design flaw.
Incident date: Dec 25, 2023
The contact rented a 2022 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated that while driving 70 MPH with the Adaptive Cruise Control activated, the vehicle experienced Phantom Braking and abruptly decelerated. The contact stated that the failure had occurred twice during the trip; after de-activating the Adaptive Cruise Control, the vehicle operated normally. During the failure there were no other vehicles or o... Read more