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 22,185 complaints for TESLA
Incident date: May 19, 2023
It's termed as a "Dead Pedal" with the accelerator pedal sensor as to when the accelerator pedal is applied to move the car, the signal to apply gas to the engine to move it , doe's not happen, and the car will not move, momentarily causing a very unsafe situation in traffic. this problem is sporadic and you never know when it will happen. to my knowledge this is happening in the 2009 to 2015 mod... Read more
Incident date: Apr 22, 2023
I was driving with my husband in the passenger seat and my 5 month old baby girl in the back seat. All of a sudden we heard a loud sound that sounded like a gunshot and our sunroof shattered. There were no other cars around and we were not driving under any bridges. We pulled over immediately and checked to see if we could find a something in the car but we did not find anything. There was a hole ... Read more
1 injured
Incident date: May 22, 2023
The contact owns a 2022 Jeep Gladiator. The contact stated while driving approximately 65 MPH, the brake pedal was depressed and slowed the vehicle; however, the ABS, traction control, 4-wheel drive, and stability control warning lights illuminated. The contact stated that the vehicle was shuddering. The contact stated that he pulled off the highway, turned the off the vehicle, and restarted the v... Read more
Incident date: May 5, 2023
Trip to California and back from AZ. Had several instances of severe braking. If I did not press the accelerator immediately, the car would slow down under what seemed like nearly maximal braking. No reason was apparent for this behavior. Some braking instances were on long straight stretches of I-40 with no other cars visible. This issue was only occurring if I had the cruise control engaged. Und... Read more
Incident date: May 5, 2023
Brakes Failed with code c1391 this is a known issue with toyota .
Incident date: May 5, 2023
Windshield cracker for NO reason. And rear/back window/glass again cracked for NO reason
Incident date: Apr 12, 2023
The contact owned a 2014 Dodge Grand Caravan. The contact stated while her daughter was driving at approximately 55 MPH the vehicle stalled. The contact stated that the daughter lost power steering and crashed into a highway barrier on the passenger side. The contact stated that the damage was from the front fender to the rear fender. The contact stated that all the air bags had deployed. The cont... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Apr 12, 2023
Driving I-80 on May 9 between 2 - 4 pm going approx 70mph using autopilot. Sudden, unexpected, rapid deceleration causing back seat contents (suitcases & my dog) to fly forward. Nothing in front of me, no visual obstruction, weather clear and sunny. Luckily no one behind me. It felt like I had slammed on the brakes. I did get off highway shortly after to get dog out of where he lodged in back seat... Read more
Incident date: May 9, 2023
I heard a series of loud pops coming from the vicinity of my driver door hinges, while inside the vehicle with the door closed, over the course of several days. I could not identify exactly where they came from until the driver door stopped operating properly. Upon inspection I could see several small holes in the front inside edge of the driver door and after comparing them to the passenger side ... Read more
Incident date: May 9, 2023
I heard a series of loud pops coming from the vicinity of my driver door hinges, while inside the vehicle with the door closed, over the course of several days. I could not identify exactly where they came from until the driver door stopped operating properly. Upon inspection I could see several small holes in the front inside edge of the driver door and after comparing them to the passenger side ... Read more
Incident date: May 22, 2023
2018 Tesla Model 3 was in cruise control (not self-drive) on an interstate with no other vehicles in the near vicinity. The car repeatedly applied brakes unexpectedly. I have traveled with this vehicle before and did not have unexpected braking problems. I have requested a Tesla service appointment but do not know if Tesla has an answer to what I hear is a widespread problem.
Incident date: May 22, 2023
UConnect 8.4 touchscreen just started going crazy like someone was constantly pressing multiple buttons without stopping. Makes it totally unusable. Distracting driver.
Incident date: May 22, 2023
The car cabin smells like gasoline due to faulty fuel injectors. I tried getting Honda to fix it and they claimed it was a software issue. After the software update the very next day the car showed 6 different warnings. The warnings would come on intermittently but now they are always showing. When the warning lights weren’t on the car would stop abruptly due to the front end collision system. ... Read more
Incident date: Mar 2, 2022
Driver received alert "front passenger safety restrain system fault." Tesla advised that airbag may not deploy when occupant in passenger seat due to seat pressure sensor malfunction. Added "filter" and issue corrected. Issue has returned and Tesla is asking for $2,000 to replace the entire seat due to pressure sensor not being otherwise accessible. I would like to alert the NHTSA to this issue si... Read more
Incident date: Mar 2, 2022
While driving down the highway our sunroof shattered and nothing had hit the sunroof. Glass fell into the car as our cover was retracted and put our baby at risk. Our car is under 1 year old and there were no warnings or other symptoms evident before the incident.
Incident date: Mar 2, 2022
Harness is fraying from normal use; car seat is unsafe to use. Contacted company and they refused to replace it.
Incident date: May 22, 2023
Clear coat on blue Toyota started peeling a couple years ago and I took my car to Toyota to have the paint repaired, and now it os doing it again. I have seen numerous blue Toyotas of varying models that are doing the same thing.
Incident date: May 21, 2023
I started burning oil and was going through a quart of oil every 150 miles, then due to the excess oil consumption my catalytic converter went out.
Incident date: May 21, 2023
I started burning oil and was going through a quart of oil every 150 miles, then due to the excess oil consumption my catalytic converter went out.
Incident date: May 1, 2023
The contact owns a 2014 Hyundai Sonata. The contact stated that on various occasions, the brake lights and turning signals failed to illuminate as designed. The contact stated that she replaced the bulbs seven times; however, the failure recurred. The vehicle was taken to a local dealer, where it was diagnosed that the taillight wiring harness assembly had melted and needed to be replaced. The veh... Read more
Incident date: May 20, 2023
The EPC light has been continuously coming on for almost a year. It has been taken to the dealership 5 times and they cannot fix it or find the cause of it. At times when driving it enters "limp mode". Other times it has acted like it was overheating. And twice it has completely shut down. The vehicle is now out of warranty and no fix has been put in place. The EPC light will still randomly come o... Read more
Incident date: Mar 21, 2023
parked in angle space and turned off car. went into store for about 15 minutes. got in car and started it. heard a noise sounding like a car revving engine and looked behind me to see if it was another vehicle. realized it was my car. tried to push foot on accelerator but it was all the way to floor and would not come up. immediately put foot on brake and turned off car. looked at floor mat and... Read more
Incident date: May 20, 2023
The contact owns a 2019 Ford F-250. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V644000 (Back Over Prevention) however, the part to do the recall repair was unavailable. 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 ... Read more
Incident date: May 20, 2023
The contact owns a 2019 Kia Sorento. The contact stated while driving approximately 65 MPH, he started smelling a burning odor. The contact stated that the oil warning light was illuminated. The contacted pulled over and checked the dip stick which indicated that there was no oil in the oil pan. The contact stated that he had had an oil change several months prior to the failure and had not notice... Read more
Incident date: Apr 18, 2023
The car had problems with automatic start/stop function. During this time the car had a transmission that failed. The automatic start/stop function was fixed by the dealership and the new transmission that was installed failed. The car is currently on its third transmission at 85,000 miles and this transmission is starting to give the car problems where the information system tells the driver t... Read more
Incident date: May 12, 2023
Good Morning! On April 9, 2023 I was going to pickup my Son in his 2006 Dodge Ram 2500 at LAX. He was returning from a 3 week trip to Chile. After taking the transmission out of gear I attempted to start the truck, but the battery was dead. I got out of the cab and released what I thought was the hood release but released the emergency brake instead. The front wheel was turned at about a 40 deg. ... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: May 12, 2023
Good Morning! On April 9, 2023 I was going to pickup my Son in his 2006 Dodge Ram 2500 at LAX. He was returning from a 3 week trip to Chile. After taking the transmission out of gear I attempted to start the truck, but the battery was dead. I got out of the cab and released what I thought was the hood release but released the emergency brake instead. The front wheel was turned at about a 40 deg. ... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: May 22, 2023
Sudden Unintended Acceleration....ONCE AGAIN! I was pulling into a parking stall of a shopping center at about 2-3 mph. I started to apply the brakes. Simultaneously, the car lurched forward hitting a retention pole. In an attempt to stop the car from going any further, I continued to press down on the brake pedal and shifted into reverse. The EDR shows that the gasoline engine reached 2200 rpms, ... Read more
Crash
Incident date: May 22, 2023
Sudden Unintended Acceleration....ONCE AGAIN! I was pulling into a parking stall of a shopping center at about 2-3 mph. I started to apply the brakes. Simultaneously, the car lurched forward hitting a retention pole. In an attempt to stop the car from going any further, I continued to press down on the brake pedal and shifted into reverse. The EDR shows that the gasoline engine reached 2200 rpms, ... Read more
Crash
Incident date: May 17, 2023
Braking. Yes, can be inspected upon request. Phantom braking for no apparent reason occurred at least 12 times in each direction on a long-distance trip on 2- and 4-lane roads on May 15 & 17 and also a trip in April, both in Autopilot and TACC modes, with nothing but the open road ahead, very little traffic, although a couple times when nearing the top of a hill. Driving at 70 mph on 2-lane roa... Read more
Incident date: May 17, 2023
In the morning of Jan 28th, I drove this car off highway(North bound MoPac) to the ramp to frontage road to 360 in Austin TX. the vehicle lost control out of sudden and crashed to the left side of the road. the accident caused total loss of the vehicle but luckily a>the passages and the the driver on the car are OK. b>no other vehicle was involved . As the drive of this vehicle , I feel the c... Read more
Crash
Incident date: May 17, 2023
In the morning of Jan 28th, I drove this car off highway(North bound MoPac) to the ramp to frontage road to 360 in Austin TX. the vehicle lost control out of sudden and crashed to the left side of the road. the accident caused total loss of the vehicle but luckily a>the passages and the the driver on the car are OK. b>no other vehicle was involved . As the drive of this vehicle , I feel the c... Read more
Crash
Incident date: May 10, 2023
The Jeep stalled when I went from a stop to starting after stopping for traffic, three times in the last week. It wouldn’t restart for 10mins. The last time it happened
Incident date: May 21, 2023
My back window broke while i was parked outside my house sitting inside the vehicle with the A/C off. This made no sense whatsoever, yet my insurance didn’t cover back glasses so i had to pay fully out of pocket for the glass from Honda & then had to find myself someone to install it because not even the Honda i purchased it from installed back glasses, only front ones, they said. I really hope ... Read more
Incident date: May 8, 2023
A two-month old Tesla model Y encountered phantom braking at least 12 times in 5 days while Autopilot was activated. All incidents happened in a 4000 miles round trip on I-5 in California, I-10 in Arizona, and I-10 in Texas. The vehicle underwent automatic braking without any prior prediction. As a result of these incidents, there was a potential risk of the rear vehicle colliding with my own vehi... Read more
Incident date: May 8, 2023
1. The components that malfunctioned were the "engine/transmission match" and "transmission communications failure idle torque limit". Yes, my unit is available for inspection at any time. 2. When I had to stop on the freeway due to heavy traffic, the gearshift would not budge, causing an even bigger traffic delay. I had to turn off/on my unit multiple times to be able to pull over, safely. If I... Read more
Incident date: May 8, 2023
I have had 3 unidentified coolant leaks of unknown origin. SUV is losing coolant. After driving approximately 120 miles the car is losing coolant. Mechanic could not find. Transmission had to be re[laced at 100k miles Also, the low tire light stays on when correct pounds are in the car.
Incident date: May 18, 2023
- 2014 Silverado AFM/DFM/lifter failure. - While driving, truck misfired and lost power without warning or check engine light. - Truck abruptly slowed down, forced to pull over putting myself and others in danger. - Turned off engine and restarted, still no check engine light. - Started driving again but had constant misfires and ticking noises. - Took truck immediately to the shop. - Service cent... Read more
Incident date: May 17, 2023
While driving vehicle speed becomes disrupted and inconsistent regardless of pressure on accelerator. Engine rods are knocking and dealer determined that a new engine is needed. Kia was contacted by dealer as this is the same problem as other engine models in this Kia manufacture year but Kia denied request to replace as a defective engine.
Incident date: May 11, 2023
Incidents of phantom braking: We took our brand new Tesla model Y on a road-trip from Saint Helena CA to Scottsdale AZ and back. We had several incidents of the car slamming on the brakes while in cruise control due to mistakes in recognizing an actual reason to brake. May 11, in Arizona on highway 60, single lane road, we were in the right lane heading east when a large white pickup approached i... Read more
Incident date: May 11, 2023
1. When Engine Idle Stop is engaged vehicle cuts off or stalls when you let up off of brakes. - Honda could not tell me why it was doing it. - no warning -car cut off completely in the middle of traffic at a stop light during rush hour. I was able to get it to cut back on after 2 minutes. - I fear for the safety of my family while in this vehicle. 2. Malfunction of stereo system cause a contin... Read more
Incident date: May 11, 2023
1. When Engine Idle Stop is engaged vehicle cuts off or stalls when you let up off of brakes. - Honda could not tell me why it was doing it. - no warning -car cut off completely in the middle of traffic at a stop light during rush hour. I was able to get it to cut back on after 2 minutes. - I fear for the safety of my family while in this vehicle. 2. Malfunction of stereo system cause a contin... Read more
Incident date: May 20, 2023
* The red airbag dash light comes on only when there is a passenger in the front passenger seat. The "OFF" light by the passenger air bag sign goes off like it should, symbolizing the airbag is turned in. However, the light on the dash coming on has me worried it is defective. *If the passenger airbag does not deploy if needed, that could risk serious injury or death. *This van was sold to us tw... Read more
Incident date: May 18, 2023
Water pump recall class action
Incident date: May 18, 2023
When you start the car it acts as if it wants to bogg down and stall out going down road. Took car to ford and they said,"oh, we have a service bulletin on this car for coolant getting into the engine causing engine to over heat or misfire, it is a defect in the 2.0 ecoboost engines, and we have to replace your engine for 7,600." This is in multiple vehicles, class action law suits, engines over h... Read more
Incident date: May 20, 2023
I was driving on the interstate going about 75 mph and suddenly my hood popped up and blocked my view. The hood cracked the windshield and was pushed back, in a way that doesn't allow it to close anymore. The hood warning light was not showing and I have driven hours earlier at highway speeds without a problem. The hood jack is snapped off. The problem has not been reproduced or looked at by my in... Read more
Incident date: May 20, 2023
Hybrid battery overheats after an hour of driving at high speeds. Car battery shuts down and becomes immobile.
Incident date: May 16, 2023
This car we still owe 20000.00 on and the rings are no good we took the car to kia who said the engine is no good but our extended warranty place denied the claim. The oil consumption is a problem in all kia's. I know we are not the only owners complaining about this issue.
Incident date: May 16, 2023
Ford installed 3g modems knowing the network would be shutdown. This causes most things on the infotainment center to stop working such as the vehicle GPS and most recently the Bluetooth command button. Updates have failed to resolve the issues. It is illegal for me to be distracted while driving, however, all of my distractions come from dealing with the infotainment and connectivity issues tha... Read more
Incident date: May 15, 2023
Problem is with what Toyota calls the Combination meter of the Instrument Cluster. Problem is that displayed icons are washed out and/or unreadable under conditions of normal sunny skies. (There is no problem during darkness or overcast skies). Specifically, (going from left to right), "Headlight high beam indicator," "Shift position indicators," "Cruise control indicator," and Passenger Air Bag... Read more