GUIDE
What NHTSA complaints actually mean.
They are owner-submitted reports, not verified diagnoses. Read for patterns and severity, not just a big number.
A complaint is one owner telling the government something went wrong.
Anyone can file. NHTSA records the report but does not inspect the car or confirm the cause. Treat a complaint as a signal, not a verdict.
Volume is not the same as severity.
A model with 800 complaints is not necessarily worse than one with 80. Popular, high-volume models collect more reports simply because more were sold. Look at how often the same component comes up, and whether reports mention a crash, fire, or injury.
Patterns matter more than any single report.
One complaint about a transmission is noise. Two hundred complaints about the same transmission, around the same mileage, is a pattern worth a mechanic’s attention.
Serious incidents are flagged separately.
NHTSA records whether a complaint involved a crash, a fire, injuries, or deaths. VINly surfaces those counts so a handful of fire reports does not hide inside a big total.
HOW TO USE THEM
Read complaints like a buyer, not a statistician.
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Sort by the component, not the total. Find the parts owners report most for this year and model.
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Check whether the top reports cluster at a mileage you would be buying into.
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Note any crashes, fires, or injuries. Those outrank raw volume.
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Take the top one or two components to a pre-purchase inspection and ask a mechanic to check them.
Source: the NHTSA complaints database (nhtsa.gov). VINly reads it directly and groups reports by component. We do not edit, verify, or score the reports.
See the complaints for a specific car.
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