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Vehicle Safety Recalls

Search 30,039 NHTSA recall campaigns covering every vehicle sold in the United States since 1966.

30,039 Recall Campaigns
24,137 Vehicle Models
233 Vehicle Makes
1966–2026 Year Range

What is a vehicle safety recall?

A vehicle safety recall is issued when a manufacturer or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) determines that a defect in a motor vehicle creates an unreasonable risk to safety, or that the vehicle fails to meet a federal motor vehicle safety standard. Once a recall is issued, the manufacturer is required by federal law (49 U.S.C. § 30120) to repair, replace, or refund the vehicle without charge to the owner. The repair obligation lasts at least 15 years from the date the vehicle was first sold, regardless of mileage, ownership history, or warranty status.

The list below contains every recall campaign in NHTSA's official database — over 30,039 campaigns covering tens of millions of individual vehicles dating back to 1966. Each entry includes the official NHTSA campaign number (used to schedule the repair at any franchised dealer), the affected component, the defect description, the consequence of the failure, and the manufacturer's remedy. You can filter by make, model year, or keyword. To check whether a specific vehicle has an open recall, use the VIN lookup; to read every recall ever issued for a particular brand, use browse by make.

How to read a recall entry

Each recall card on this page surfaces the four pieces of information that matter most to vehicle owners:

  • Component. The system or part affected by the defect — brakes, airbags, fuel system, electrical, etc. NHTSA uses a standardized component taxonomy.
  • Summary. Plain-English description of the defect and what is expected to fail.
  • Consequence. The actual safety risk — fire, loss of brakes, airbag rupture, sudden stalling. This is the most important field for understanding severity.
  • Remedy. What the dealer will do to fix the vehicle. This tells you how long the repair will take and whether parts are likely to be available.

A small share of recalls — typically less than 3 percent — also carry severity flags such as "Park Outside" or "Do Not Drive." When a recall has one of these flags, NHTSA is recommending that owners take additional precautions until the repair is performed. Park Outside means the defect can ignite a fire even when the vehicle is parked; Do Not Drive means the failure mode is severe enough that NHTSA cannot recommend continuing to operate the vehicle. We have a deeper explainer at Understanding Recall Severity.

Where this data comes from

This page is built on NHTSA's recall flat-file database, which we re-import on the first day of every month. Each individual recall record is sourced directly from NHTSA's public files — we don't paraphrase, summarize, or alter the official descriptions. The summaries you see are the manufacturer's own filings as submitted to NHTSA, lightly reformatted for readability. For the most current status of any specific VIN, the authoritative source is nhtsa.gov/recalls; this page is most useful for browsing patterns across models and years rather than checking the status of one specific car.

Read more from our blog

How to Check If Your Car Has an Open Recall › What to Do If Your Car Is Recalled › Why Recall Repairs Are Always Free › Used Car: 7 Recall Checks to Run First › The Takata Airbag Recall: Full Story › All Articles ›
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Showing 1 recall for MERCEDES

09E012000 Apr 7, 2009
MERCEDES E CLASS (1985) — EXTERIOR LIGHTING
SABERSPORT IS RECALLING 16,270 COMBINATION CORNER AND BUMPER LAMP ASSEMBLIES OF VARIOUS PART NUMBERS SOLD FOR USE AS AFTERMARKET EQUIPMENT FOR VARIOUS PASSENGER VEHICLES. THESE HEADLAMPS FAIL TO CONFORM TO THE REQUIREMENTS OF FEDERAL MOTOR VEHICLE SAFETY STANDARD NO. 108, "LAMPS, REFLECTIVE DEVICES, AND ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT." THESE LAMPS DO NOT CONTAIN THE REQUIRED AMBER SIDE REFLECTORS.
16,270 vehicles affected Manufacturer: SABERSPORT
Consequence: DECREASED LIGHTING VISIBILITY MAY RESULT IN A VEHICLE CRASH.
Remedy: SABERSPORT WILL NOTIFY OWNERS AND OFFER A FULL REFUND FOR THE NONCOMPLIANT COMBINATION LAMPS. THE SAFETY RECALL BEGAN ON MAY 11, 2009. OWNERS MAY CONTACT SABERSPORT AT 1-909-598-7589.