Interactive tool

Complaint report context tool

Summarize crash, fire, injury, and death flags in NHTSA complaint reports. It does not estimate a vehicle's defect, injury, or safety risk.

What these report flags can and cannot show

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the agency's Office of Defects Investigation holds consumer complaints filed with NHTSA. These are voluntary, self-reported records: a flag records what the filer reported, not an adjudicated finding that a vehicle defect caused a crash, fire, injury, or death. A single complaint can carry more than one flag, so adding flags does not produce a share of complaints or a safety score. This tool shows each flag separately per 100 submitted reports only when there are at least 50 reports. It cannot estimate a vehicle's defect, injury, or safety risk. Use the official NHTSA recall lookup and the specific recall notice for a vehicle-level safety decision.

Source data: NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation complaint records (1995–2026). Flag counts are voluntary report fields, not confirmed defects or vehicle-level safety rates. Methodology: /methodology.

Compiled by PlainCars

Every figure on PlainCars is rendered directly from NHTSA complaint and safety data, no number is typed in by an editor. This tool reports visitor-entered NHTSA complaint flags separately per 100 reports when the 50-report sample floor is met. It does not score vehicle safety or defect risk. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.