Vehicles With the Most Complaints and No Recall

Failure patterns owners report in volume that regulators never forced a fix for — every row cross-checked against the live NHTSA recalls database, so vehicles that were in fact recalled for the component are excluded.

Across model years 2005–2025, 1,035 distinct vehicle-and-component failure patterns have drawn enough NHTSA owner complaints to clear our threshold without a single recall for that component. The largest gap: the 2018 Ford Escape engine, with 1,142 complaints and no recall on record.

year	make	model	component	complaints	severity	source
2,018	Ford	Escape	engine	1,142	moderate	view ›
2,009	Nissan	Altima	steering	858	moderate	view ›
2,019	Ford	F-250	steering	768	moderate	view ›
2,017	Ford	Edge	engine	746	moderate	view ›
2,005	Nissan	Maxima	powertrain	738	moderate	view ›
2,017	Ford	F-250	steering	717	moderate	view ›
2,015	Chrysler	200	powertrain	664	moderate	view ›
2,005	Ford	Freestar	powertrain	654	moderate	view ›
2,016	Ford	Focus	powertrain	652	moderate	view ›
2,008	Chevrolet	Silverado	airbags	627	critical	view ›
2,012	Ford	F-150	powertrain	617	moderate	view ›
2,016	Jeep	Cherokee	powertrain	602	moderate	view ›
2,013	RAM	1500	steering	599	moderate	view ›
2,005	Chevrolet	Trailblazer	fuel-system	598	moderate	view ›
2,005	Chevrolet	Trailblazer	electrical	590	moderate	view ›
2,016	Kia	Sorento	engine	543	moderate	view ›
2,008	Honda	Accord	brakes	541	moderate	view ›
2,015	Ford	Focus	powertrain	535	moderate	view ›
2,016	Hyundai	Tucson	powertrain	509	moderate	view ›
2,007	Chevrolet	Silverado	airbags	503	critical	view ›
2,008	Toyota	Prius	lighting	494	moderate	view ›
2,013	Honda	Accord	steering	492	critical	view ›
2,013	Dodge	Dart	powertrain	483	critical	view ›
2,014	RAM	1500	steering	481	severe	view ›
2,018	Ford	Edge	engine	475	moderate	view ›

Showing the top 25 of 1,035 unrecalled failure patterns. The full dataset is free to download and republish with attribution:

Download full CSV Download JSON All datasets ›

Methodology

Candidates are (vehicle, component) clusters with no recall for that component in our DB and ≥ the complaint threshold. Each candidate vehicle is then queried against the live NHTSA recalls-by-vehicle API; any cluster whose component is in fact covered by a real NHTSA recall is REMOVED. Survivors are genuine recall gaps as of the verification date. Complaints are unverified consumer reports; absence of a recall is per NHTSA records on the verification date.

Source: US NHTSA owner complaints + recalls (public record), MY 2005–2025. License: CC BY 4.0 — cite as ProblemsByVin (https://problemsbyvin.com). Computed from the database snapshot dated 2026-05-31.

Reporters: we'll pull a custom cut of this — by make, model year, state, or component — and our reliability analyst can speak to methodology on the record. Get in touch ›