2017 BUICK ENCORE — Complaint #1499514
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about STRUCTURE:BODY filed September 14, 2018
NHTSA complaint #1499514 (ODI reference 11129615) concerns a 2017 BUICK ENCORE and was filed on September 14, 2018. The owner reports the failure occurred on August 31, 2018. The vehicle had 13,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Michigan based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as structure:body, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same BUICK ENCORE cohort independently describe similar structure:body failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2017 BUICK ENCORE shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
THIS VEHICLE HAS A KEYLESS IGNITION SYSTEM. TWICE MY WIFE ACCIDENTALLY TURNED OFF THE VEHICLE, ONCE AT A STOP, THE OTHER TIME ON A FREEWAY AT 70 MPH. SHE WAS UNAWARE THE VEHICLE COULD BE STARTED IN NEUTRAL THINKING SHE NEEDED TO BE IN PARK. THE VEHICLE CONTINUED COASTING ALLOWING HER TO MOVE TO THE SIDE OF THE FREEWAY. THERE SHE WAS ABLE TO PUT THE VEHICLE IN PARK, PRESS ON THE BRAKE AND RESTART THE CAR. SHE DID NOT REALIZE THE VEHICLE ENGINE WAS OFF UNTIL SHE.PRESSED ON THE GAS TO MAINTAIN SPEED. SHE PANICKED AND TURNED TO ME AS AN ENGINEER WITH 40 YEARS IN THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY. I KEPT HER CALM AND INSTRUCTED HER WHAT TO DO. ONLY WHEN WE WERE ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD DID WE DETERMINE SHE HAD ACCIDENTALLY TURNED OFF THE ENGINE WHEN TUNING THE RADIO. WITH NO WARNING OR INDICATION THE ENGINE WAS OFF THE RESULTS COULD HAVE BEEN CATASTROPHIC. HER COLLEAGUE AT WORK ALSO DID THIS IN HIS LEXUS. THE PROXIMITY OF THE START\STOP BUTTON TO OTHER SIMILAR CONTROLS APPEARS TO BE A FACTOR IN THES
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1499514 |
| ODI Number | 11129615 |
| Date Filed | September 14, 2018 |
| Failure Date | August 31, 2018 |
| VIN | KL4CJCSB7HB |
Similar STRUCTURE:BODY Complaints for 2017 BUICK ENCORE
Rear passenger doors fail to engage internal lock when Child-Lock feature is on, door can still be opened from interior. Rear door locks fail to properly engage when locking and unlocking vehicle
This car is not mine but someone somehow fraudulently registered it in my name. I got the VIN # from truth finder when I did a search on myself. Please help.
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.