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: Apr 24, 2023

This auto has approximately 45,000 miles on it and was found to have a fuel leakage issue on a high pressure pump and a fuel hose. Gas smell was very bad and upon inspection, gas was leaking at the hose / pump connection directly onto the engine. I had the defect repaired for a total of $1288.57 and tried to submit the claim to Mercedes. I found out that this issue has been a problem for Merced... Read more

Incident date: Jun 5, 2023

The contact’s son owns a 2009 BMW X5. The contact stated that while driving at approximately 30 MPH, the vehicle stalled. The contact was able to veer the vehicle off the road. No warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic where it was diagnosed that the fuel pump module failed and needed to be replaced. The contact was then informed by the mechanic of NHTSA ... Read more

Incident date: Jun 7, 2023

Engine burning oil so much that it destroys the catalytic converter leaving me stranded middle of a highway.

Incident date: May 16, 2023

The contact owns a 2016 Jeep Cherokee. The contact stated while driving at approximately 50 MPH, the steering column was moved, and the 4-WD warning light illuminated. The contact stated that the light remained illuminated until the wheel was straightened. Additionally, the contact stated that when the steering wheel was turned, a grinding sound was coming from the front of the vehicle. The vehicl... Read more

Incident date: Apr 25, 2022

Rear passenger door would not open after door is locked from inside the vehicle or outside the vehicle. Was stuck in the vehicle. Had to crawl out via other side door. Due to my size this would be a great hazard in an emergency exit situation. Have not take it to the dealer police or insurance but internet search leads to a faulty actuator. No warnings.

Incident date: Apr 25, 2022

The charging port on the electric vehicle appears to have poor cooling as the port frequently overheats when connected to any level 2 charger that is within the vehicle's approved specs. I've measured it going as high as 200 degrees F before the car stops accepting a charge, and even after that the port will remain piping hot until it is physically unplugged. This is quite dangerous as I mostly ch... Read more

Incident date: May 15, 2023

When the vehicle has been shut off, there is an electrical system problem that attempts to re-start the vehicle. the alarm goes off, headlights turn on, the dashboard lights up. This cycles over and over unless you open the hood or a door to "fool" the system. If you don't do this, then often the headlights and dash light will remain on overnight and the battery is dead the next morning. Th... Read more

Incident date: May 15, 2023

GM TRANSMISSION CONTROL MODULE # 24256861.... There are over 9,000 GM trucks that are sitting idle because GM quit making this part, There are no after market replacements nationwide. When this part fails it shifts the transmission into 2-3 rd gear and goes into limp mode which if you are doing 70 on the interstate you are in for a sudden awakening. It also causes other issues like stablitrac is... Read more

Incident date: Jun 1, 2019

-Traction Control/Stabilitrak light comes on and the major thing is the Camshaft and bearings that cause the LOW OIL PRESSURE SHUT OFF ENGINE WARNING LIGHT.. - When Low oil pressure shuts off the engine light comes on it will cause your vehicle to stall and shut off wherever you at.. -Independent service center - No just the independent service center worker - Yes! Start out with the Traction ... Read more

Incident date: Jun 1, 2019

vehicle steering assist stopped working in multi lane traffic and had to manually steer to roadside almost causing a accident. vehicle was turned off and on 6 times before assist started to work and later failed again driving it home. currently it does not work at all now and vehicle is not used due to life safety issues caused by this problem and family members not able to manually steer the ca... Read more

Incident date: Jun 5, 2023

me and my girlfriend where driving when out of no where the air bags deploed causing us to crash. there was no warning lights on the car. no one has had a chance to look into this other then me and the research that i have done i did find that there is an open investigation for the airbigs and this jeep was listed as one of the possible affected cars im not sure what i shoud do next that is why im... Read more

Crash

Incident date: Apr 6, 2023

The contact owns a 2016 Ford Explorer. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the windshield trim on the passenger’s and driver's side detached from the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to the dealer and the vehicle was repaired; however, the failure recurred. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 30,000. The VIN was not a... Read more

Incident date: Apr 6, 2023

Vehicle braking system was not working which could have caused an accident, vehicle brake booster was replaced, vehicle still having problems braking, upon further investigation the torque converter is failed, this requires both transmission and torque converter to be replaced at a cost of $8000 This is a 2019 and warranty just expired

Incident date: Jan 1, 2023

We had two issues develop. The first issue developed about 30k miles after purchasing it new. The car would accelerate unevenly and after long drives the car would lurch during acceleration after starting from a stop. The lurching would continue for a few days before disappearing. No tech could reproduce it. They tried multiple times to reset the software and found no other issues. After a nor... Read more

Incident date: Jan 1, 2023

The truck opens by itself while I’m driving.

Incident date: Jan 1, 2023

Welds on the steel wheels are breaking. I've broken two separate wheels, one just backing into a site, and the other turning sharp at a gas station to get to a pump. The wheels are 2-piece, with the inner ring that welds to the outer hoop. The welds appear to be very thin and so just the pressure of a sharp turn is over-torqueing the tiny welds to the point of breaking. Thankfully this didn't ... Read more

Incident date: May 28, 2023

I was driving on the highway at about 70 mph when the truck suddenly lost control. I almost crash into the nearest wall. Fortunately I didn’t, and I managed to break however as I was braking the truck kept shaking. All the tires were inspected and they aren’t the issue. Something to do with the suspension caused the lost of control.

Incident date: May 28, 2023

Failure of the starter motor, should be able to get the faulty part from mechanic. This rendered me unable to start my car and required a tow, thankfully not from the side of the highway. Confirmed faulty with tow driver and mechanic. The part has only been inspected by mechanic who mentioned this was the third starter motor failure he has seen on Subaru Imprezas. No warnings, though the car strug... Read more

Incident date: Jun 3, 2023

No lights previous to incident. Sudden engine & speed malfunction . Yes, it happened multiple times heading to the ford dealer-2 mi away. We kept the hazard lights on. Sudden loss of power while driving, engine goes into limp mode, down hill assist light and altrack light comes on. Truck restarts but again limps unexpectedly. Took it to dealer -it was the throttle body that had been replaced ... Read more

Incident date: Apr 16, 2023

This car was delivered with no plastic panel covering the area above the driver's feet. The steering column, insulation, wiring, diagnostic port, and structural elements are visible. The selling dealer's initial reaction was that there should be a panel there, but they had not noted it as missing in their inspection. Another, closer, dealer saw photos and agree to install the panel, but did not h... Read more

Incident date: Mar 4, 2023

Drove to the carwash today a couple miles away to see if its just emergency vehicles the car doesn't see but its not seeing any vehicles in the right lane or passenger side of the car until they are about 150ft ahead of me. To clarify the cars vision system is NOT seeing ANY emergency vehicles (driver side, passenger side, ahead, behind, moving away, moving towards) like they don't even exist (inv... Read more

Incident date: Jun 1, 2023

I have had multiple issues with this SUV. The main issue I am writing this for is because the car was hit stopped at a red light by another car going over 40 mph. The car rolled back then slammed into my car again going just as fast. The airbags did not deploy and the seatbelts did not lock. The impact actually broke the seats the passenger and I were sitting in. There were extensive injuries that... Read more

Crash 1 injured

Incident date: Jun 1, 2023

Crash 1 injured

Incident date: Jun 1, 2023

The power steering keeps going out and the car becomes almost impossible to control. I have to turn the car off and on several times for it to work again. I am scared to drive it because I do not want to wreck. No warnings it just goes out. This has happened on numerous occasions. I noticed recalls on this for the same reason on the same vehicle. Why does my car not have the same recall?

Incident date: Jun 4, 2023

Was parked outside and came home and put car in garage and found a huge crack in windshield, I did not have an accident or was windshield hit with anything this happened spontaneously!

Incident date: Jun 4, 2023

Failure of rear subframe causes car to lose control. Only found out about the problem after I received a Mercedes extended Warranty in mail March 2023, roughly 6 months after OEM Undercarriage failed and forced me to purchase another Undercarriage in cash/no insurance involved because part back ordered for many months. Car thus inoperable for roughly 4 months. At moment of the OEM failure, total ... Read more

Incident date: Jun 4, 2023

After filling up vehicle (not overfilled) it stalls when I come to a stop or slow down for a turn. This just started today after filling up from the same fuel station I always use. The Jeep restarts after a few seconds after turning it completely off.

Incident date: Jun 4, 2023

UNKNOWN MY VEHICLE HAVE SUDDENLY STOPPED TWICE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE HIGHWAY MY DEALERSHIP HAS STATED THEY COULD NOT FIND THE PROBLEM MEAN WHILE I HAVE TO CONTINUE TO DRIVE THIS VEHICLE AND WHEN THE VEHICLE IS IN FOR THE ISSUES I AM TOLD THEY ARE OUT OF LOANERS WHEN MY VEHICLE IS WITHIN WARRANTY

Incident date: Jun 4, 2023

For the second time, my ABS hydraulic control unit has failed.

Incident date: Apr 5, 2023

I am so sadden and broke. My Kia 2021 Forte was stollen.The car has just about 8k miles. The thieves had busted rear passenger side glass, torn down steering column, opened electric wiring Skelton and taken away the car. Police said they found my damaged car. I was also told that my damaged car was towed and was kept at auto body shop. I'm so depressed, upset. Its difficult to express in words how... Read more

Incident date: Jun 2, 2023

The gas gauge will show full then without warning quickly drop to “E” and the low fuel indicator will ding and the light will come on then just as quickly as it started it will go back to full or 2/3rds the slow creep back to the full position. (The tank was not full) While driving all the electrical components start going wild, everything goes on and off quickly. The accelerator will rev(whi... Read more

Incident date: May 11, 2023

Piston Connecting Rod broke and left the engine making holes in both sides of the block; Mercedes Benz rejected any responsibility because the car has a branded title. Currently a new engine (brand new) is being installed, my concern is that what will happen if the new engine has the same defective part and blew up again.

Incident date: May 11, 2023

The contact owns a 2016 Ram 1500. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle started to decelerate and lost motive power. The check engine warning light was illumined. The contact stated that upon research, he discovered that the VIN was included in NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V406000 (Fuel System, Diesel) however, the parts to do the recall repair were not yet availab... Read more

Incident date: Jun 2, 2023

was driving on Wa-18 highway going to Snowqualmie Falls with my family. Suddenly I heard a snap from the front and at the same moment the car start shaking from the front so I slowed down trying to go to the right lane so I could stop when i see a chance because I was in an area where there is no emergency curve. The car died couple of seconds after the snap and because the cars were going too fas... Read more

Incident date: Jun 2, 2023

Power steering and stabilitrak keep going out while driving. The electrical stuff on the screen on the dash goes out too

Incident date: May 31, 2023

The contact owns a 2014 Audi A7. The contact took the vehicle to the local dealer for routine maintenance and was informed that the motor mounts needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer had not been informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 63,000.

Incident date: Apr 1, 2021

AT 26,469 miles the harmonic balancer separated into two pieces while driving causing sudden loss of power steering. I contacted Subaru for assistance with this know problem. They refused a free repair. I have been a Master ASE mechanic for over 25 years at a dealership and know repairs of this type are usually done in house under a goodwill policy, otherwise swept under the rug so there is no rec... Read more

Incident date: May 7, 2023

The contact owns a 2010 Ford Escape. The contact stated while driving 40 MPH, the vehicle jolted and then lost motive power. The contact stated that fuel was leaking from the vehicle, with the check engine warning light illuminated. The contact stated that the vehicle was taken to the dealer however, the vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The contact stated that the manufacturer was made aware... Read more

Incident date: May 7, 2023

The contact owns a 2018 Ford F-150. The contact stated that there was an abnormal rattling sound coming from the engine while starting the vehicle. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer and the contact was informed that the cam phasers where defective and needed to be replaced. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and the contact was referred to the NH... Read more

Incident date: May 7, 2023

All the double panes windows in the motorhome have fogged in between the glass and blocked vision. Most importantly we cannot see out of the drivers window to view the mirrors.

Incident date: May 31, 2023

The contact owned a 2015 Fiat 500C being towed by a 2005 Ford E-450. The contact stated that while driving approximately 70 MPH, the Fiat detached from the Ford at the tow bar without warning. No other vehicles were struck due to the failure. There were no injuries were reported. There was no police report filed. The 2015 Fiat 500C was removed from the tow bar and the vehicle was towed to an indep... Read more

Incident date: May 24, 2023

2 weeks after our warranty expired for the power train we experienced failure with a misfire of Cylinder 1. We replaced all of the spark plugs at around 41,000 miles. 1 month into replacement cyclinder 1 misfired again, we replaced the spark plug thinking it was that and also the coil. 2 months after we are having the same issue, replaced the spark plug again, and the code will not go away, the ch... Read more

Incident date: May 24, 2023

I drive a 2018 Mazda CX5. My "infotainment system" which contains radio, phone, and GPS controls began making random unprompted selections while I would not touch it. This is an ongoing issue. The name for this issue is called "ghost touch" While the Mazda system "locks" the touch screen while the car is moving, the issue continues as soon as you come to a red traffic light. Without putting the ... Read more

Incident date: May 24, 2023

While traveling a major highway (70 mph) over the holiday weekend, I experienced a loss of engine power. The RPM's went up to 5 while I decreased speed. I had gone from 75 MPH down to 35 while trying to maintain speed up a hill. I pulled over to the break down lane to let traffic pass and when it was safe, I tried to engage the vehicle to speed. It would slip gears and continue to lose momentu... Read more

Incident date: Mar 29, 2023

Prior to receiving recall notice via email I noticed that the van didn’t fully engage being in “park” some of the time. I had to stop it from rolling.

Incident date: May 30, 2023

The contact owns a 2017 Ford Escape. The contact stated while driving 35 MPH, the check engine warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic, and it was stated that cylinder #3 was misfiring, and that coolant was leaking into the engine and that the engine needed to be replaced. The contact was advised to contact the local dealer. The dealer was contacted and stated t... Read more

Incident date: May 30, 2023

The contact owns a 2015 GMC Acadia. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V334000 (Air Bags) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The dealer was made aware of the issue and confirmed that parts were not yet available. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue and confirmed that parts were not yet available. The contact had not experienced a fa... Read more

Incident date: May 30, 2023

Last July I had to have my AC condenser and compressor replaced due to one side of the air conditioner working. Bad part was i had to pay to have a recall fixed after the fact and now im trying to get American Honda to reimburse me my money. After 1 year the problem came back and now they are saying it's my evaporate coil. Honda is not taking this seriously and expecting people to pay several thou... Read more

Incident date: May 31, 2023

This car constantly stops in mid traffic. I have taken it everywhere and they can’t seem to find anything wrong. I’ve call ford a hundred times and nothing.

Incident date: Mar 8, 2023

The defective part is the Transmission molded leadframe, their was a recall issued on Truck which I was not told until the problem occurred when I drivinh the truck I have taken truck in and told them the issue on the Transmission which I looked up and found the recall we contacted Ford Motor Company back in March 2023 and was told a letter would be sent to me for this recall to be done which I n... Read more

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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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