About & Methodology
Every figure on this site comes from three official U.S. government sources: NHTSA's consumer complaint database (the ODI flat file, complaints received since January 1, 1995), NHTSA's safety recall campaigns, and NHTSA's formal safety investigations (the ODI investigations flat file). We rebuild the site weekly from a fresh copy of all three.
How the numbers are made
A "complaint" is one consumer report (one NHTSA ODI number), however many components it mentions. Component charts count how many complaints cite each of NHTSA's standard component categories, so percentages can sum past 100. Crash, fire, injury and death figures are counted once per complaint. Spelling variants in NHTSA's file (for example "F150" and "F-150") are merged into one page; hybrids and EV variants that NHTSA records separately get separate pages. Quoted excerpts are shortened, and scrubbed of phone numbers, emails, VINs and names; reports describing injuries are never quoted.
“Is this problem acknowledged?”
For each model-year we join the three sources by NHTSA's top-level component category to show, for every most-reported problem, whether officialdom has acted on it: Recalled (a safety recall covers that category, so a free repair exists), Under investigation (NHTSA has an open probe but no recall yet), Investigation closed, or No official action on file. This answers a question none of the three datasets answers alone.
Two cautions on the investigation status. First, a closed investigation is not a defect finding and does not mean a vehicle is either exonerated or defective: NHTSA can close a probe by opening a recall, without finding a defect, or by superseding it with another action. Where the data records that a closed investigation resulted in a recall campaign, we say so; otherwise we say only that it closed. Second, when recall or investigation data cannot be confirmed for a vehicle, we mark the status not available and never read that silence as “no action” — matching how we treat every other gap in the data.
What the numbers mean — and don't
Complaints are unverified reports: NHTSA does not confirm individual complaints, and a complaint is not proof a defect exists. Counts reflect what owners chose to report, not confirmed failure rates, and popular vehicles accumulate more reports simply because more of them are on the road. Recalls, by contrast, are official safety campaigns; repairs are free at authorized dealers, and the authoritative check for your exact vehicle is your VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls.
Contact
Corrections and questions: contact@carmodelproblems.com. This is an independent site, not affiliated with NHTSA or any vehicle manufacturer. See our Privacy and Mentions légales pages for data and publisher details.
