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 23,203 complaints for TESLA
Incident date: Jun 15, 2025
In November 2024, our 2024 Subaru Outback began leaking a gooey substance from the upper portion of the windshield down the interior windshield. We would wipe it off and it would eventually come back. In September 2025, this gooey substance began leaking in additional spots down the interior windshield. It began to impair driving visibility as it ran further down the windshield. We brought the ca... Read more
Incident date: Oct 15, 2025
-The front subframe on the passenger side completely rusted through and broke. The driver side is perfectly fine and still has factory paint on it, but the passenger side is completely rusted out. Yes the vehicle and issue are available for inspection. -The front subframe is the frame component that holds and supports your front suspension, steering, engine and transmission. With the failure of t... Read more
Incident date: Oct 15, 2025
-The front subframe on the passenger side completely rusted through and broke. The driver side is perfectly fine and still has factory paint on it, but the passenger side is completely rusted out. Yes the vehicle and issue are available for inspection. -The front subframe is the frame component that holds and supports your front suspension, steering, engine and transmission. With the failure of t... Read more
Incident date: Oct 15, 2025
-The front subframe on the passenger side completely rusted through and broke. The driver side is perfectly fine and still has factory paint on it, but the passenger side is completely rusted out. Yes the vehicle and issue are available for inspection. -The front subframe is the frame component that holds and supports your front suspension, steering, engine and transmission. With the failure of t... Read more
Incident date: Oct 14, 2025
We were notified of a recall in Nov 2024 with a first quarter of 2025 fix. We are now 1 year later and still no fix, clearly a safety issue and I cannot trade in or sell legally without the fix. I am stuck with a vehicle with known safety issues and Chrysler is being allowed to just ignore it.
Incident date: Oct 12, 2025
The vehicle will continuously pop up the notification “Consider Taking A Break” while driving at highway speeds when using the adaptive cruise control. When this occurs it emits 6-7 audible beeps that distract the driver from the wrong and to look towards the instrument cluster. It was also turn down the infotainment system as well. This feature is unable to be turned off in the settings z it ... Read more
Incident date: Oct 5, 2025
I bought this car 1 1/2 yr ago.. Thursday I was driving down the road no warning lights no sounds, it stalled.. I got it home by a friend towing it, and when I went to try to start it, I then had the check engine light come on, and it threw 3 codes.. P0017, P0089, P228D. I was told that the ecm was replaced but after researching this there has been multiple sites stating others are having same iss... Read more
Incident date: Oct 5, 2025
The Telluride has developed a shimmy. At first, the shimmy was noted at lower speeds, around 35 to 45 mph while under minimal load such as going uphill and slightly accelerating. The car was taken to the dealership. The tires were balanced. We were told no other problems. A month later, same thing, same result. We just took a 2700 mile trip. The shimmy is apparent at higher speeds and in... Read more
Incident date: Oct 4, 2025
The digital instrument cluster failed. All telemetry is shown on this cluster including speed, fuel level, rpm, odometer and more. The cluster was going totally black every two minutes and it would disable cruise, lane departure warning, blind spot warning and the check engine light was on. There was no indication prior that there was a problem, it just all of a sudden went black and beeped. Then ... Read more
Incident date: Oct 4, 2025
The digital instrument cluster failed. All telemetry is shown on this cluster including speed, fuel level, rpm, odometer and more. The cluster was going totally black every two minutes and it would disable cruise, lane departure warning, blind spot warning and the check engine light was on. There was no indication prior that there was a problem, it just all of a sudden went black and beeped. Then ... Read more
Incident date: Oct 4, 2025
Vehicle shut down in the middle of driving. Went into limp mode. Then would only run in gas mode at half power.
Incident date: Oct 1, 2025
What component or system failed or malfunctioned, and is it available for inspection upon request? Braking and acceleration control, yes How was your safety or the safety of others put at risk? The car continued to move/accelerate after depressing the brake pedal, and upon applying additional force continued to move forward, this could lead to a situation where a diver is unable to stop their car ... Read more
Incident date: Oct 1, 2025
My side airbags deployed unexpectedly and without impact while riving down the street. I was in my neighborhood, close to my home, and suddenly the passenger side airbags deployed. The car shut down immediately. There is no impact to the side of the car and no dents (pics attached) I have a "malfunction" error on my screen. I don't know why this happened. My safety was at risk because if I was ... Read more
Incident date: Oct 10, 2025
My 2020 Ford Escape's 2.0 ecoboost engine suffered a catastrophic head gasket failure at only 83 thousand miles. This occurred on 10/9/2025 and was confirmed via Ford dealership (Crossroads Ford- Ravena, NY) on 10/13/2025. Prior to 10/9, there were no warning signs or known mechanical issues. The failure happened out of nowhere. In discussing the failure with the Ford service advisor, it was expl... Read more
Incident date: Sep 19, 2025
On the morning of 1 Oct, I had left the house here in Cedartown GA to head to a meeting in Atlanta with a customer. I had started the truck 15 minutes before departing just as we have always done to our vehicles over the years to allow them to warm up properly. I departed Doyle Rd onto Hwy 27 South heading towards interstate 20. About 15 miles from the house I was at a steady cruise speed of 45 MP... Read more
Incident date: Oct 8, 2025
I was driving my 2025 4xE wrangler to work and throttle shut off on me and I wasn’t able to move. Stuck in the middle of busy traffic and stranded. I had to call a tow truck to take it to the dealership.
Incident date: Oct 8, 2025
Vehicle had a studdering problem, spark plugs replaced, dealership said the spark plugs were masking an “underlying issue with the transmission shudder and torque converter and transmission was at the end of its life”. The unknown of the state of the transmission is the safety concern to me and others. The vehicle has been inspected by Ed Morse Ford. There was no indication other than shudder... Read more
Incident date: Oct 13, 2025
Since November 2024 to date the transmission has reduced power when trying to accelerate thus being unsafe when trying to pull out into traffic. It also will not engage reverse thus again impeding when in traffic. It appears randomly. Verified software has been updated. Ford is saying complete transmission replacement is needed on a vehicle that is only 7 years old.
Incident date: Oct 13, 2025
Headlamp Multi-Function Switch Service Campaign Hazwewdiouse may cause colition or vision impairment. from ongoing traffic and or insufficient illumination While driving lights will flicker, causing drivers to high beam you, it does not matter if the high beams are on or not, the light will randomly flicker and turn off, very dangerous in southern and eastern areas, there is limited to no street/... Read more
Incident date: Oct 13, 2025
Headlamp Multi-Function Switch Service Campaign Hazwewdiouse may cause colition or vision impairment. from ongoing traffic and or insufficient illumination While driving lights will flicker, causing drivers to high beam you, it does not matter if the high beams are on or not, the light will randomly flicker and turn off, very dangerous in southern and eastern areas, there is limited to no street/... Read more
Incident date: Jul 22, 2025
When stepping on the brakes on a somewhat bumpy road the brakes will at times stop braking and the car will still keep going unless you take your foot off the brake and step on the brakes again. This is a massive safety issue.
Incident date: Jul 22, 2025
2024 GMC Canyon Elevation trim 4x4 with 31,000 miles on it always had maintenance every 5k interval. I noticed an upper radiator hose leak significant enough to require a decent amount of coolant and decided to take it in to GMC to get it repaired. Mind you this repair is almost $1,000 to get repaired with the hose itself only costing $148. It's disappointing to have such a new truck and have the... Read more
Incident date: Jul 22, 2025
At 97,000 miles, the slave cylinder in my vehicle blew. My clutch pedal had stuck to the floor, and my brakes became harder and harder to press down because the clutch takes from the brake fluid reservoir. Brake fluid began to leak from the transmission, and it had to be towed in. If I hadn't come to a stop, I could have gotten in a horrible accident.
Incident date: Oct 5, 2025
Driving car stopped said to put in Park, engine light comes on. Restart start driving put into park again .. whilst on freeway! Just stopped
Incident date: Jun 9, 2025
I was driving down and my vehicle lost power. I was able to steer and brake but the gas wouldn’t work. I was able to pull off and restart the vehicle and it did it again with a short amount of time.
Incident date: Jun 9, 2025
Check engine light came on and started running rough and shaking at times. Took to dealership who found P0302 code. They performed a number of tests and eventually used a boroscope to inspect Cylinder 2 and found severe coolant intrusion. They advised engine replacement…for over $11,000. I see this is a common problem for Ford Escapes.
Incident date: Oct 11, 2025
On October 3, 2025 our 2020 Ford F250 King Ranch 6.7 diesel broke down with no start and check engine light. We contacted Ford. We towed the vehicle, at our expense to the dealership we purchased it from approximately one year ago on October 6, 2025. I contacted Ford on October 3, 2025 and received a claim number. On October 7, 2025 the Ford dealership contacted us to inform us the high pre... Read more
Incident date: Jun 5, 2025
While my wife was driving to pickup my son from school, the vehicle was stopped at a stoplight and the engine turned off approximately 1 mile after departing the house. After getting the vehicle towed to the dealership because it wouldn’t start, it was determined by the dealership that the engine was seized. The vehicle has 60,500 miles on it and is driven by a suburban woman and has always ... Read more
Incident date: Sep 5, 2025
The vehicle did an over-the-air update to the vehicles software, u connect. The vehicle has since suffered two losses of propulsion while driving, with check engine light indicator illumination and a P1E1D code. This has been reported by numerous other 2024 4xe drivers.
Incident date: Sep 5, 2025
Stabilitrak error intermittently while driving accompanied by loss of power steering and electrical
Incident date: Oct 2, 2025
Vehicle shut down without warning while driving 6 times within an hour time period trying to get to nearest repair facility. No throttle response and loss of power steering upon occurrence. After pulling over and restarting the vehicle, the vehicle functioned normally for 5 to 10 more minutes but a check engine light stayed illuminated. Vehicle was operating on battery power, not gas engine, eac... Read more
Incident date: Sep 21, 2025
I accepted a uconnect software update last night and this morning lost complete power while diving my jeep multiple times. I had to pull over on busy streets, put the vehicle in park, turn on/off the vehicle a couple times and got it to start again. The check engine light has been on since. I went to the dealership and they said they’ve received multiple complaints today as well. I have it home ... Read more
Incident date: Sep 21, 2025
After performing the over the air Uconnect update my vehicle stopped moving in the middle of traffic. An error message said service charging system, and put into P and start vehicle. Me and my family were in danger. I was able to finally reset vehicle and pull into a safe parking area.
Incident date: Sep 21, 2025
After performing the over the air Uconnect update my vehicle stopped moving in the middle of traffic. An error message said service charging system, and put into P and start vehicle. Me and my family were in danger. I was able to finally reset vehicle and pull into a safe parking area.
Incident date: Sep 25, 2025
After software update jeep will not drive
Incident date: Oct 10, 2025
There is a camera mounted on the steering column that is "supposed" to be a safety feature to tell you when you are not paying attention to the road. It gives you a picture of a coffee cup and says "consider taking a break" along with repetitive beeping. Unfortunately, if you wear sunglasses (mine are prescription), a hat, are too short or too tall it can go off repeatedly. It is extremely distr... Read more
Incident date: Oct 10, 2025
There is a camera mounted on the steering column that is "supposed" to be a safety feature to tell you when you are not paying attention to the road. It gives you a picture of a coffee cup and says "consider taking a break" along with repetitive beeping. Unfortunately, if you wear sunglasses (mine are prescription), a hat, are too short or too tall it can go off repeatedly. It is extremely distr... Read more
Incident date: Sep 24, 2025
Bought a 2004 Linc Tow as a gift to my grandson. Drove it a couple of times and had no issues. After it had sat for about 2-3 weeks, I drove it to town to let it run after sitting. On my way home I was turning on to the road for home and the steering suddenly caught, I was in the middle of a turn and pulled steering wheel to straighten the car when it released. I almost hit the car next to me. I h... Read more
Incident date: Sep 24, 2025
After Hyundai performed a recall service on my vehicle, the radiator hose burst while I was driving on the highway, causing the engine to fail completely. Smoke came from the engine compartment, and I had to pull over immediately with my family to avoid a serious accident. Before the recall, the vehicle had no issues and ran perfectly for three months after purchase. The problem occurred only a f... Read more
Incident date: Sep 24, 2025
After Hyundai performed a recall service on my vehicle, the radiator hose burst while I was driving on the highway, causing the engine to fail completely. Smoke came from the engine compartment, and I had to pull over immediately with my family to avoid a serious accident. Before the recall, the vehicle had no issues and ran perfectly for three months after purchase. The problem occurred only a f... Read more
Incident date: Oct 8, 2025
After Hyundai performed a recall service on my vehicle, the radiator hose burst while I was driving on the highway, causing the engine to fail completely. Smoke came from the engine compartment, and I had to pull over immediately with my family to avoid a serious accident. Before the recall, the vehicle had no issues and ran perfectly for three months after purchase. The problem occurred only a f... Read more
Incident date: Oct 8, 2025
The engine makes a noise like a knock, when the car is running or the speed increases the noise becomes louder and it feels like a strong blow coming from the engine.
Incident date: Oct 7, 2025
Transmission malfunctioned leaving me with stuck in an intersection with no power, has down shifted unexpectedly on the highway causing the truck to slow down out of nowhere, also very rough shifts at low speed. No warning lights on the dash, problem appeared intermittently but was confirmed by AutoNation Ford St Petersburg location by Ford tech. Took it to an independent transmission specialist a... Read more
Incident date: Oct 6, 2025
While driving about 40 MPH on a two land road the sidewall blow out . Right before I got a low tire pressure warning from my vehicle.
Incident date: Oct 9, 2025
My car has a GDI motor and it is the most diabolical engine. I get an oil change REGULARY according to my cars need. Between oil changes, i have to constantly add oil. About every week i have to add about 2 quarts of oil. I have confirmed with my mechanic that i have NO leaks, no faulty gaskets or injectors. This car has caused me SO many problems. I should not have to constantly add oil to my car... Read more
Incident date: Oct 9, 2025
The sunroof on my 2018 Ford Expedition is leaking at multiple points and has become stuck and inoperable. The dealership advised that the brackets are broken and the entire sunroof assembly must be replaced. The leak occurs in several areas across the Vista Roof, causing water to enter the cabin. This appears to be related to known design defects already referenced in multiple Ford Technical Servi... Read more
Incident date: Oct 9, 2025
The sunroof on my 2018 Ford Expedition is leaking at multiple points and has become stuck and inoperable. The dealership advised that the brackets are broken and the entire sunroof assembly must be replaced. The leak occurs in several areas across the Vista Roof, causing water to enter the cabin. This appears to be related to known design defects already referenced in multiple Ford Technical Servi... Read more
Incident date: Aug 21, 2025
I have been hearing noise coming from the rear of the engine or front of the transmission. I took it to my local shop and they said it appears to be coming from the transmission and that I should take it to a Chevrolet shop because their is a service bulletin (PIP5996A) that describe what I am experiencing. They gave me a copy of the service bulletin and it covers many models and years of the Sil... Read more
Incident date: Aug 21, 2025
My car has been malfunctioning it keeps saying shift to park when it’s park and it show esc system issue and then the brakes stop working it has been going on and off took it to Lou bachrodt Chevrolet and they couldn’t fix the issue. I have done research online and it shows the same