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.

2,245,377 Total Complaints

140,173 Reported Crashes

56,794 Reported Fires

8,580 Reported 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

How to Read NHTSA Consumer Complaints › How NHTSA Investigations Work › Used Car: 7 Recall Checks to Run First › The Takata Airbag Recall: Full Story › OBD-II Codes Explained › All Articles ›

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Showing 49,794 complaints for VOLKSWAGEN

Incident date: Jan 1, 2020

I purchased the car CPO June 2021 Battery replaced December 2022 Battery replaced January 2023 Between these replacements, car was consistently dying/would not start, required frequent jumps. Left me stranded numerous times. Each time the car was serviced (at different dealer locations), no mention was made of known issues with batteries being drained. This issue was known by Subaru, as evidence... Read more

Incident date: Jan 1, 2020

The air bag light came on. I brought it to the dealer and was told it was the clock spring. I was charged over $700.00 for this repair. It appears that other years of the same make and model had problems with the clock spring as well and received an extended warranty. I want to know since my car had the same issue why my car 's clock spring is not covered in this class action suit for the ex... Read more

Incident date: Oct 19, 2021

the anti lock button does not work, kia will not fix it, they stated that there recall on it was for locks that can move the car forward and backwards. I've never used my anti lock button its down beside the gear shift so the only way I can drive my suv to put my car in drive, reverse etc to use the gear shift is by holding a screwdriver down in it the whole time and I complained to kia about that... Read more

Incident date: Sep 5, 2023

The contact owns a 2022 Ford F-150. The contact stated while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle stalled and was shaking. Additionally, the instrument panel intermittently went blank while driving. The contact stated that the dealer had previously performed an unknown repair; however, the failure recurred. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired by an independent mechanic or dealer. The... Read more

Incident date: Aug 28, 2023

ABS and Traction Control warnings cycling on and off randomly. Warnings are off only for short periods and are on most of the time. Cruise control is not working when the warnings are on which causes a sudden unexpected drop in speed on the highway when a warning cycle occurs. Two dealers have advised that the unit is faulty in manufacture and design but no replacement parts are currently availabl... Read more

Incident date: Sep 27, 2023

engine malfunction, loose engine power. It will fail to accelerate some times. It has been ispected by the ford dealership and the problem has been confirmed by them. Check engine on. Ford Motor company has a recall on the ford edge 2015-2018. Attached you will find the TSB # 19-2208 from ford in which describe the issues for the recall. Even though my car is showing the exact same malfunction, ... Read more

Incident date: Sep 24, 2023

Complete loss of electrical power while driving due to faulty alternator at only 35K miles. This resulted in total loss of steering, suspension failure, and any other electrical systems in the car. Making the car almost impossible to control specially for a new driver. Apparently the issue is widespread with any Audi car or SUV equipped with a V6 3 liter engine. The repair requires the replacement... Read more

Incident date: Sep 24, 2023

Contacted, by phone, Uftring Chevrolet, located in Washington, Illinois, to request air bag to be fixed due to recall issued by General Motors (Manufacturer Recall NumberN232404980 NHTSA Recall Number23V334) on May 18, 2023 and again on September 28, 2023. I was told that GM has not offered a remedy for the recall. Dealership did not replace the air bag after two requests to do so. According to... Read more

Incident date: Aug 3, 2023

Honda Odyssy 2018- While slowing down and then trying to accelerate does not accelerate and stalls in the lane and requires pumping of accelerator pedal before gear is changed. some time when this happens you can heard grinding noise of gear change. Last time it happened it showed 'Transmission system Problem' and 'Blind Spot Info system Problem' on screen. This is after dealer has looked at the p... Read more

Incident date: Sep 9, 2023

Incident date: Nov 1, 2021

The contact owns a 2011 Ford Explorer. The contact stated while driving approximately 40 MPH, the steering wheel became firm while making lane changes. The contact stated that power steering assist fault warning light was illuminated. The contact pulled over, turned off and restarted the vehicle and the vehicle regained normal functionality. The contact stated that the failure had been intermitten... Read more

Incident date: Nov 1, 2021

2013 Ford Escape transmission bushing breakage / separation where the shifter cable attaches to the transmission crank. Our vehicle had this problem and the bushing broke, leaving the vehicle stuck in Reverse. Almost crashed into the car parked behind me while attempting to parallel park. This appears obviously related to the highly published 2013-2016 Ford Escape recall problem, but my VIN has... Read more

Incident date: Nov 1, 2021

This is a follow up on a concern that I raised 3 weeks ago. This is a new car that broke down after 157 miles. The car has been disabled since September 4th 2023. As of today, I still do not have it and do not have a clear ETA for the repair. The diagnosis from the dealership is a defective combined charging unit. The part had to be back-ordered from Germany. A week or so after the incident, the s... Read more

Incident date: Apr 15, 2023

Engine sputtering, engine light came on P0303 cylinder 3 misfire. Light would come on and off every couple of days. Diagnosed with a blown head gasket at ~51,000 miles.

Incident date: Sep 18, 2023

I came on the on ramp of the interstate, gained speed up to 65 and began passing a slower vehicle, with another vehicle behind me passing them also. Suddenly my speed slowed, my oil light illuminated and digitally said LOW OIL PRESSURE WARNING. I barely made it into the breakdown lane as my vehicle lost all power and the steering wheel seemed to lose power steering also. I had no prior warning o... Read more

Incident date: Sep 27, 2023

The contact owns a 2014 Ford Taurus. The contact stated that upon being pulled over by local police, he became aware that his rear license plate lamp was out. The contact also stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, he heard wind noise in the interior of the vehicle. After a visual inspection, he became aware that the rear driver's side door latch mechanism failed to secure the door clo... Read more

Incident date: May 1, 2023

Over past 2 years, repeat alarm & message on dashboard, says, “Hybrid System Warning! Safety Stop and Do not Drive.” During attempts to back vehicle from garage, brakes grind. Seemed to be on auto-stop, trying to stop the vehicle from moving. On 01/03/22, brought car to Laguna Niguel Hyundai. Invoice notes “Caused by HISTORY CODES IN AHB C2112 C1102 C1237; NO CODES CURRENT CLEARED HISTORY C... Read more

Incident date: May 1, 2023

Incident date: Sep 27, 2023

Eyesight driver assist went out rendering safety features inoperable. Touch screen also blanked out so unable to adjust a/c, navigation,radio etc. Car had been on long distance all hiway drive and at 7 hours systems failed. Weather was in the 60s, overcast and it was in the afternoon. Pulled into rest stop and turned engine off then restarted but still failed. Drove 2 more hours and next rest stop... Read more

Incident date: Sep 27, 2023

Incident date: Sep 18, 2023

We were driving our 2016 Ram in July 20, 2023 to Yakima, WA which is 200 miles away from our home. About 50 miles north of town, our check engine light came on and our power was reduced to a minimal speed. We cautiously drove to the next rest area and turned the engine off. We waited about 30 minutes, restarted the engine and continued to Yakima. We had the code checked and turned off at an Oreily... Read more

Incident date: Sep 18, 2023

The headlight pattern of the low beam lights has a large dark area at the 10 to 11 O'clock position that appears in the oncoming traffic lane when driving at night. This dark area is very distracting while driving at night. The area is approximately 1 to 2 meters in diameter when seen on the driving surface. It appears the headlights to not meet the photometric requirements for headlights. This pa... Read more

Incident date: Sep 18, 2023

The contact owns a 2014 Ram 1500. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V406000 (Fuel System, Diesel) and 23V411000 (Engine and Engine Cooling) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The local dealer was contacted and determined that the parts were not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time ... Read more

Incident date: May 4, 2023

My car has 3 recalls included safety recall and manufacturer engine issues recall. The dealer declined to repair my car the reason said its out of warranty, my car has 106k miles, as I know the recalls should be fixed no matter how many miles on the vehicle, or who is the owner of the vehicle, first or second. Now the Hyundai dealer ( key Hyundai dealer in Manchester CT) asked me to pay them... Read more

Incident date: May 4, 2023

When accelerating transmission is hesitated to almost car dies. When pulling out into traffic cars almost run over you due to this or go to take off at red lights when you accelerate it hesitates then takes off.

Incident date: Sep 26, 2023

When I accelerate from a stop sign or yield it Jerks and hesitates to accelerate. I have to release the gas and push again sometimes doing this multiple times when this happens daily. I've taken it to Hyundi shops and they say it's a normal chararistic if a Tuscan. It also uses an excessive amount of oil. I am told this is because of the engine. If I go change my oil right at every 3k miles my oil... Read more

Incident date: Sep 22, 2023

The contact owns a 2021 Nissan Sentra. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V581000 (Steering) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The local dealer was contacted and determined that parts were not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was made awa... Read more

Incident date: Sep 9, 2023

I know there is a recall for the air bags and my air bag light came on and said service airbag’s system. I read y’all’s article that says keep a watch on my dash board and this is a safety concern and very dangerous if i wreck or someone wrecks into me and my airbags don’t go off.

Incident date: Sep 26, 2023

heard a small popping noise when i opened the door. the next day i heard a louder pop and the driver door no longer would hold open. the door check bracket separated from the door.

Incident date: Aug 21, 2023

Power steering comes and goes with no rhyme or reason. You have to shut truck off and restart and hope it comes back on. Have looked at replacement parts but they are hard to come by and repair is expensive. Looking at the web it seems like there should be a recall.

Incident date: Sep 20, 2023

Unknown

Incident date: Sep 20, 2023

Unknown

Incident date: Sep 20, 2023

Unknown

Incident date: Sep 6, 2023

Component or System that Failed or Malfunctioned: Engine or other I was driving my 2016 Hyundai Elantra in Kissimmee, FL, 34746 when the engine suddenly lost power and the car stalled out. The rpms dropped to 0, and the car could not be restarted. I was able to coast to the side of the road, but I was nearly hit by oncoming traffic. After several minutes on the side of the road, I was able to re... Read more

Incident date: Sep 25, 2023

My Jeep began having a few second stall and restart while driving randomly late 2020. I’m the last 6 months it stalls for longer periods of time but I initially was able to put it in neutral and restart it. About 4 months ago it became more and more difficult to start after I would be forced to pull to the side of the road with no power, hard steering and hard brakes. The check engine light cam... Read more

Incident date: Sep 25, 2023

While my family and I were returning from lunch and pulling into a parking space at my moms apartment complex, my 2015 Ford escape SE eco-boost, had a sudden unintentional acceleration where it basically accelerated forward and we hit a building. During this, the brakes were unresponsive, and there was building and vehicle damage. Luckily, the post to the building prevented us from driving through... Read more

Crash 3 injured

Incident date: Sep 25, 2023

Crash 3 injured

Incident date: Sep 7, 2023

The contact owns a 2019 Ford Fusion. The contact stated while driving approximately 55 MPH, the vehicle started to shake and vibrate abnormally. The contact stated there was an abnormal sound like an object striking the bottom of the vehicle. The contact stated that the vehicle started losing motive power. The contact stated that the accelerator pedal was depressed; however, the vehicle revived bu... Read more

Incident date: Sep 7, 2023

The contact owns a 2019 Ford Ecosport. The contact stated that while his wife was driving approximately 60-65 MPH, the vehicle lost motive power. The contact's wife was able to pull to the side of the road. The check engine and the low oil pressure warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was towed to the dealer, where it was diagnosed and determined that the engine needed to be replaced. The ... Read more

Incident date: Sep 25, 2023

The Stability Control System engages on low speed left turns when it is not required. It does not engage on right turns at similar speed and sharpness of corner. Power is cut to the rear wheel and the right brake engages, causing a "wobble", unsteady, and jumping sensation. This creates unease and the sense of losing control. I've been told this is a common problem that the YAW sensor and sas syst... Read more

Incident date: Sep 25, 2023

The contact owns a 2010 Volkswagen Jetta. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the ABS warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic where it was diagnosed that the ABS control module software needed to be updated. An undisclosed dealer was notified of the failure and confirmed that the VIN was not included in a recall. The vehicle had not ye... Read more

Incident date: Sep 18, 2023

I uploaded the same letter I sent to the Nissan Manufacturer. Please view letter on Uploade files. Thank you

Incident date: Sep 23, 2023

Rear windshield exploded and shattered into pieces mostly on the middle part of the windshield.

Incident date: Sep 24, 2023

My Ford Escape driver's door is getting worse. The weld is broken, and my window only goes down about one-half inch. Sometimes when I'm driving it makes a loud noise and I'm afraid it may open by itself. It's getting worse as time goes on. I've taken it into a ford repair shop, and they have checked it out. They are contacting FORD to see if they will cover the cost. I cannot afford $2500 for this... Read more

Incident date: Sep 24, 2023

Death wobble at approximately 60 mph. The truck is absolutely uncontrollable when this occurs. The only way to stop it is to stop the vehicle. This is a known issue with this truck. Will have it evaluated at a shop next week.

Incident date: Sep 24, 2023

My 2013 Dodge Journey is just one of thousands of Dodge/Chrysler/GM vehicles to have transmission failures with this type of engine (3.6L V6) and transmission (62TE). These transmission units are exorbitantly expensive and fail time and again paired with these engines on vehicles such as CARAVAN, TOWN & COUNTRY, 200, AVENGER, JOURNEY. This was a serious misstep and miscalculation by these companie... Read more

Incident date: Jun 30, 2023

Unknown, my Kia has been burning oil there is no oil leak and I had to get my oil changed every 2k miles. Then one day it started shaking on the freeway making noise and I had to exit 30+ miles from my city found the closest Kia dealership I took it there and they said I don’t qualify for the engine recall because it is a cylinder my car is a 2018 it’s 5 years old! There is no reason it should... Read more

Incident date: Jun 30, 2023

Loses sight of vehicle ahead and will accelerate to set speed ignoring vehicle in front when in bends. It only seems to track vehicles in a straight line of sight ahead and not accommodate for steering. It’s most obvious on curves in highways and can easily be reproduced on cloverleaf on ramps or off ramps or even at low speeds when going around an obstacle.

Incident date: Jun 30, 2023

Emergency brake will not disengage and is effecting braking and driving. It has been inspected but 2 different mechanics who have been unable to resolve issue. This has ruined my brakes and has made the vehicle difficult to drive.

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Consumer Safety Complaints

What is a NHTSA consumer complaint?

How to interpret what you read

If you've experienced a defect

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