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 14, 2023
Leaving Mothers day dinner at Disney Orlando with all 3 generations of family in the car and I click 'Home' and the map sets a charging station in Miami 120miles away in the wrong direction, the FSD and AP wont work and the cars gps goes completely black. That doesn't even make sense, there was the Hooter's supercharger down the street and several others in Miami and probably a dozen more between ... Read more
Incident date: May 14, 2023
The computer system that logs and keeps track of hours is not working properly. The wires are I guess are messed up. Is that dangerous? My hubby works at the Walmart dc and he said a girl slipped and got a bad spinal injury from the flooring not being non-skid.
Incident date: May 14, 2023
The computer system that logs and keeps track of hours is not working properly. The wires are I guess are messed up. Is that dangerous? My hubby works at the Walmart dc and he said a girl slipped and got a bad spinal injury from the flooring not being non-skid.
Incident date: Apr 22, 2023
Speedometer went completely blank and not able to see anything on that which includes safety features like blind spot monitoring and land departure. Also multiple time screen freezing issue causing absence of rear view camera.
Incident date: Apr 22, 2023
Driving on the highway the panoramic sun roof window shattered. Sounded like an explosion. Glass shattered and flew throughout car and blew away. Posed hazard to those in car as the glass shattered. Could have caused hazard if driver did not maintain control due to sudden sound and sudden incidence. Extremely dangerous.
Incident date: Apr 22, 2023
I live in a very rural area with very little traffic on two-lane country roads. When my cruise control is active, my Tesla sometimes brakes for no reason. A couple of days ago it violently braked from 70 mph to 50 mph for absolutely no reason. On that particular trip of 30 miles or so it "phantom braked" four times. I have had this car for almost 4 years and this problem appears to be getting w... Read more
Incident date: May 11, 2023
I live in a very rural area with very little traffic on two-lane country roads. When my cruise control is active, my Tesla sometimes brakes for no reason. A couple of days ago it violently braked from 70 mph to 50 mph for absolutely no reason. On that particular trip of 30 miles or so it "phantom braked" four times. I have had this car for almost 4 years and this problem appears to be getting w... Read more
Incident date: May 11, 2023
The rear tail gate seal for lamps on both the left and right side have failed and the lamp assemblies condense and fill with water. I have read other reports on your website of the same problem with the highlander. In your other reports the a person was told Toyota will not warranty the lamps because of moisture in them because it is not a safety issue. While it is because the moisture blocks the... Read more
Incident date: May 11, 2023
The rear tail gate seal for lamps on both the left and right side have failed and the lamp assemblies condense and fill with water. I have read other reports on your website of the same problem with the highlander. In your other reports the a person was told Toyota will not warranty the lamps because of moisture in them because it is not a safety issue. While it is because the moisture blocks the... Read more
Incident date: May 13, 2023
When the car is at a complete stop or at low speed and then you start to drive again or pick up speed (ex: at a stop light or in a traffic jam) the car will jerk even when coasting and it will not pick up speed. It almost sounds like a belt is unwinding but it isn't. If I pull the car over, turn it completely off and wait a minute or two, it starts up again and drives with no problem. This happens... Read more
Incident date: May 13, 2023
After my 2019 Subaru Legacy 2.5i Limited sat outside on a level blacktop parking lot for one week (05-03-23 to 05-10-23) without moving, both passenger side tires were discovered completely deflated. The tires were Goodyear Eagle LS-2 size 225/50R18 95H (front passenger DOT M678 JR2R 1819 and rear passenger DOT M678 JR2R 1719). The tires were original to the car when purchased new by myself at Jen... Read more
Incident date: May 11, 2023
I was driving north on 95 in Massachusetts going about 75 mph and the forward collision avoidance went off (flashing break waring in the dashboard) slowing my car down to under 50 mph. There were NO vehicles or obstacles in front of me. This keeps happening and it's only a matter of time until I get rear-ended. I reported this to Honda and they said it's just the safety features.... I had one pers... Read more
Incident date: Apr 23, 2023
Summon feature has never worked properly and has always tried to crash itself into cars next to it or drive the wrong way down the parking lot with no one inside. I have several videos of the car trying to crash itself after driving less than 4ft out of a parking spot at Walmart. Couldn't even make it 100ft to the shopping cart deposit. You cant summon and record at the same time with your phone s... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Apr 23, 2023
The contact owns a 2023 Kia Sorento Hybrid. The contact stated that while the vehicle was parked in the garage, the windshield cracked from the top to the base on the passenger's side. The contact stated that there was no indication of an external cause for the failure. The dealer was notified of the failure. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the fail... Read more
Incident date: Apr 23, 2023
The contact owns a 2016 Ford Edge. The contact stated that the vehicle had experienced rough starting and upon inspection it was discovered that the engine coolant was low. Later while driving, the check engine warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the local mechanic who diagnosed that there was coolant intrusion inside cylinder #1, and the engine might need to be replaced. The vehic... Read more
Incident date: Apr 19, 2023
Almost everyday I have to restart the car while I'm driving because the car starts playing songs that are mean, discriminatory, or out right telling me to "Kill yourself on the beach" and "You can't sit here". While I'm driving I'm forced to restart the car to regain control of my instrument cluster which when resetting while driving you basically lose all features of the car minus steering gas an... Read more
Incident date: Apr 19, 2023
Since I received this awful vehicle it has never properly identified emergency vehicles. Sometimes it confuses neon/led signs with emergency lights and smashes on the brake for emergency vehicles that aren't there. Other times it slams on the brakes on the highway when behind an emergency vehicle and the reflective tape is lit up from my own headlights bouncing on the awfully hard and cheap suspen... Read more
Incident date: Apr 19, 2023
Since I received this awful vehicle it has never properly identified emergency vehicles. Sometimes it confuses neon/led signs with emergency lights and smashes on the brake for emergency vehicles that aren't there. Other times it slams on the brakes on the highway when behind an emergency vehicle and the reflective tape is lit up from my own headlights bouncing on the awfully hard and cheap suspen... Read more
Incident date: Apr 25, 2023
Since I received this awful vehicle it has never properly identified emergency vehicles. Sometimes it confuses neon/led signs with emergency lights and smashes on the brake for emergency vehicles that aren't there. Other times it slams on the brakes on the highway when behind an emergency vehicle and the reflective tape is lit up from my own headlights bouncing on the awfully hard and cheap suspen... Read more
Incident date: Apr 25, 2023
I let my 83 year old mother use my truck due to expected extreme weather in Houston. While making a right hand turn the steering seized and she had to brake hard to avoid hitting a mailbox. Neither the tow truck drivers nor I could budge the wheel, even to allow it to be put on a flatbed or towed backwards without being sideways. Several error codes paged through the dash upon failure but the onl... Read more
Incident date: Apr 25, 2023
I let my 83 year old mother use my truck due to expected extreme weather in Houston. While making a right hand turn the steering seized and she had to brake hard to avoid hitting a mailbox. Neither the tow truck drivers nor I could budge the wheel, even to allow it to be put on a flatbed or towed backwards without being sideways. Several error codes paged through the dash upon failure but the onl... Read more
Incident date: Apr 19, 2023
The car radio keeps freezing on songs insulting me or wont play music at all. After resetting the car while driving for the 937,845,609,238,457,609,823,756,098,273,546,908,723,549,068th time the car started playing "Car Radio" a song about a guys car radio being stolen and the silence making him want to pull the steering wheel and kill himself in a car accident. Shortly after this the car radio pl... Read more
Incident date: Apr 19, 2023
The contact owns a 2021 Chevrolet Silverado 1500. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle overheated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, who informed the contact that the radiator needed to be replaced. The contact related the failure to Technical Service Bulletin: 22-NA-047 (Coolant Loss and/or Coolant Odor). The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and ... Read more
Incident date: Apr 19, 2023
I pay $9.99/month for 'premium connectivity' which is an acronym for "None of the features you paid for actually work unless you ALSO pay us $9.99/month for Spotify wrapped as Tesla radio that doesn't work half the days you drive it". How can you sell me a car with all these safety features, charge me to have access to them and then not give me service? I paid for features Tesla isn't capable of d... Read more
Incident date: Apr 25, 2023
The contact owns a 2018 Mitsubishi Outlander. The contact stated while driving 15 MPH and making a turn, the message "ABS Service Required" was displayed. The contact veered to the side of the road. The contact stated that she turned off and restarted the vehicle, and the warning message was turned off. However, the contact stated that the failure reoccurred several times while driving. The vehicl... Read more
Incident date: Apr 25, 2023
The contact owns a 2018 Mitsubishi Outlander. The contact stated while driving 15 MPH and making a turn, the message "ABS Service Required" was displayed. The contact veered to the side of the road. The contact stated that she turned off and restarted the vehicle, and the warning message was turned off. However, the contact stated that the failure reoccurred several times while driving. The vehicl... Read more
Incident date: Apr 27, 2023
Since the day I got it the Tesla hasn't been able to identify emergency vehicles with their lights on. I started video taping after like the 20th time because my dashcam cant show you the screen also. I did this strictly to display that the Tesla failed to identify a State Trooper with his lights on for several hundred feet with 'Full Self Driving' enabled. Just to be clear the car is on the curre... Read more
Incident date: Apr 27, 2023
225 65 R17 bought the car on 03/31/23 and the dealership sold these tires on vehicle. All 4 dry rotted in sidewalls. Big O tires would not even touch them.
Incident date: Apr 27, 2023
225 65 R17 bought the car on 03/31/23 and the dealership sold these tires on vehicle. All 4 dry rotted in sidewalls. Big O tires would not even touch them.
Incident date: May 3, 2023
Once again I caught on video my car trying to suicide me (a Jeffrey Epstein (not a typo I'm in fear for my life) witness) by turning off all safety features and attempting to drive me directly into oncoming traffic. Tesla has REFUSED to repair or replace my car. They have done EVERYTHING they can to prevent me from getting service for months. Reschedule after reschedule, 'we cant reproduce the pro... Read more
Incident date: May 3, 2023
This vehicle was subject to a recall NHTSA campaign number: 20V710. Tesla’s own number for this recall is SB-20-12-005. It appears the inspection carried out in 2021 apparently passed at the time and no corrections were made, however, the part in question recently last week. The center spine panel came apart. Tesla are not willing to accept any liability or responsibility even though they now th... Read more
Incident date: May 3, 2023
After the car couldn't drive me into oncoming traffic and put me out of my misery; I reset the car and then all the safety features were disabled again, the car couldn't see the solid white freshly painted lanes during the middle of the day with perfect visibility. As I approached the red light I demonstrated how the Tesla has no collision warning or assistance enabled although they are features a... Read more
Incident date: May 8, 2023
After the car couldn't drive me into oncoming traffic and put me out of my misery; I reset the car and then all the safety features were disabled again, the car couldn't see the solid white freshly painted lanes during the middle of the day with perfect visibility. As I approached the red light I demonstrated how the Tesla has no collision warning or assistance enabled although they are features a... Read more
Incident date: May 3, 2023
After the car couldn't drive me into oncoming traffic and put me out of my misery; I reset the car and then all the safety features were disabled again, the car couldn't see the solid white freshly painted lanes during the middle of the day with perfect visibility. As I approached the red light I demonstrated how the Tesla has no collision warning or assistance enabled although they are features a... Read more
Incident date: May 3, 2023
The contact owns a 2018 Jeep Cherokee. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle stalled with several unknown warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, and an unknown repair was performed; however, the failure recurred. The vehicle was taken back to the dealer, who informed the contact the vehicle had an electrical failure. The manufacturer w... Read more
Incident date: May 3, 2023
The contact owns a 2007 Nissan Titan. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23E012000 (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 was made aware of the issue. The manufacturer was not made aware of the issue. The contact had not e... Read more
Incident date: May 4, 2023
For the last 8 months I've been reporting this FATAL error where my Tesla in FSD with location set will slow down all the way to 0mph in a 70mph zone on the expressway for a stop sign and round about under the highway that is not visible by ANY of the cameras the car is supposedly using to 'read the environment' well that's a load of crap because its stopping for non existent stop signs and drivin... Read more
Incident date: May 4, 2023
The contact owns a 2019 Subaru Outback. The contact stated that while the vehicle was parked in the garage, she noticed a 7-inch-long crack on the windshield located behind the rearview mirror. The contact stated that there was no indication of an external cause for the failure. The dealer was notified of the failure. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the... Read more
Incident date: May 4, 2023
While driving I was unable to come to a complete stop….while breaking the vehicle would pull to the side and keep moving into traffic 😞
Incident date: May 10, 2023
Less than 2 minutes into my drive the car decided to disable lane keep assistance and warnings for no reason. As you can see in the photo linked below the vehicles in the oncoming lane are lagging and look kind of like a ghost car while the rest of the screen is totally fine. Well all I did was switch from the middle lane to the left lane like I do everyday with my indicator on, on my way to McDon... Read more
Incident date: May 10, 2023
while driving on a 2 lane road that curved to the right, the Collision Mitigation Braking System (CMBS) activated for no apparent reason. The brakes engaged hard for a short period of time. Fortunately there was no vehicle behind me that could have rear ended me. I would say this is a serious safety issue under the right conditions .
Incident date: May 10, 2023
while driving on a 2 lane road that curved to the right, the Collision Mitigation Braking System (CMBS) activated for no apparent reason. The brakes engaged hard for a short period of time. Fortunately there was no vehicle behind me that could have rear ended me. I would say this is a serious safety issue under the right conditions .
Incident date: Apr 28, 2023
The Jeep has had a deadly death wobble. it has been awful to drive Jeep has parts on back order for 6 months. it continues to throw me off the road or into oncoming traffic.
Incident date: Apr 28, 2023
The Jeep has had a deadly death wobble. it has been awful to drive Jeep has parts on back order for 6 months. it continues to throw me off the road or into oncoming traffic.
Incident date: May 12, 2023
Failure of hydraulic power brake booster and brake booster pump caused loss of brake fluid resulting in brakes not working properly. Cycling noise from brake booster. Vehicle regenerative brake system also failed to operate. Independent dealer repaired vehicle at my expense after Toyota denied warranty repair
Incident date: May 5, 2023
The contact owned a 2008 BMW X3. The contact stated while driving at an undisclosed speed, he turned on the heater and became aware of smoke coming from under the hood of the vehicle. The vehicle then started to overheat, and the coolant temperature warning light and the check engine warning illuminated. The contact stated that he veered off the road and turned the vehicle off. The contact then st... Read more
Incident date: May 5, 2023
The contact owns a 2017 Ford Explorer. The contact stated that the vehicle had experienced unintended surging and engine revving. During the failure the driver had difficulty stopping the vehicle while depressing the brake pedal. The contact stated that the failure had occurred while driving at various speeds, and also while the vehicle was stationary and idling. The cause of the failure was not y... Read more
TESLA
MODEL 3
(2021) — ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING:ENGINE:OTHER FUEL TYPES:TURBO/SUPERCHARGER:HOSES/PLUMBING
May 12, 2023
Incident date: May 11, 2023
The contact owns a 2018 Ford F-450. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the check engine warning light remained illuminated, and the vehicle failed to properly accelerate. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer who replaced the turbo charger. After retrieving the vehicle, the failure immediately reoccurred. The vehicle was taken back to the dealer who diagnosed that the die... Read more
Incident date: May 1, 2023
Internal manual transmission problem. Cannot put jeep in 3rd gear. Burning smell
Incident date: May 11, 2023
The contact owns a 2022 Ram 2500. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Numbers: 23V060000 (Electrical System) and 22V835000 (Power Train) however, the parts to do the recall repairs were not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The dealer and Criswell Chrysler Dodge Jeep RAM of Thurmont (104 Frederick... Read more