Know what owners
are reporting.
Look up car complaints by year, make and model. Explore reported components, review official records and prepare better questions for your mechanic.
Car Complaints & Problems Lookup
Choose a model year to load available makes.
Lists reflect NHTSA complaint data, not every vehicle sold. An absent vehicle does not mean it is problem-free.
Counts are not adjusted for vehicles sold, age or mileage. They are not a defect rate or reliability score.
Complaints are reports submitted to NHTSA, not verified diagnoses. One complaint may name several components, so category totals can exceed the number of records. These results do not establish the condition of a particular car.
Reported components
Number of unique complaints mentioning each category.
No complaint records were returned for this selection. That is not proof the vehicle has no problems or open recalls.
Complaint record references
Reference IDs and filed dates from NHTSA. VINs and free-text narratives are intentionally omitted here.
Research the model. Then check the car.
Complaints describe reports about a model. A vehicle-history report adds available history for an individual VIN; neither replaces a professional inspection.
A clearer starting point.
Not a safety clearance.
1. Choose the exact vehicle
Match the model year, make and model. Results are model-level, not VIN-specific.
2. Read reports in context
A high count alone does not mean a car is less reliable. Read official records before drawing conclusions.
3. Inspect the car you are buying
Check its service records, verify open recalls with NHTSA or the manufacturer, and arrange an independent inspection.
Good questions, straight answers.
Where does the data come from?
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) public complaints API. The preview retrieves data on demand and caches successful responses for up to 30 minutes. The retrieval timestamp is not a guarantee that all recent complaints are already in NHTSA's database.
Does this show every problem a car can have?
No. NHTSA primarily collects safety-related complaints for the US market. Not every owner reports a problem, and some complaints may be incomplete, duplicated or unverified. This is not a comprehensive repair database.
Can I compare reliability using the complaint count?
No. Counts lack a denominator such as the number of vehicles in use and are not adjusted for mileage or age. They must not be used alone as a reliability ranking.
Is this a Carfax report or a recall check?
No. It is a free model-level complaint lookup. It does not provide individual accident, title or odometer history, and it does not verify open recalls for a VIN.