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Car Safety DB

Data Methodology

Data Sources

All data is sourced from NHTSA's public APIs and data files:

  • Complaints API: api.nhtsa.gov/complaints/complaintsByVehicle - individual owner-reported complaints by make, model, and year.
  • FLAT_CMPL flat file: NHTSA's bulk complaint download, used as part of our complaint ingestion workflow.
  • Recalls API: api.nhtsa.gov/recalls/recallsByVehicle - official recall campaigns by make, model, and year.
  • Safety Ratings API: api.nhtsa.gov/SafetyRatings - NCAP crash test ratings by make, model, and year.
  • vPIC API: vpic.nhtsa.dot.gov/api - vehicle make and model identification.

Coverage

We currently track 66 makes and 567 models primarily covering model years 2000 through 2026, plus selected earlier model years where source records have been verified. Of those, 6,314 meet our data floor criteria and have published safety profile pages. The database contains 1,124,789 owner complaints, 5,944 recall campaigns, and 5,818 safety ratings sourced from NHTSA.

Indexability Criteria

A vehicle-year page is published only if it meets at least one of these data floor criteria:

  • At least 1 recall on record, OR
  • At least 5 complaints on record, OR
  • A safety rating is available AND at least 1 complaint or recall exists

Vehicle-years that don't meet these criteria are excluded to avoid publishing empty pages.

Complaint Data Disclaimer

Complaints are unverified consumer reports submitted directly to NHTSA. They may contain inaccuracies, duplicates, or subjective descriptions. A high complaint count does not necessarily indicate a safety defect - it may reflect a vehicle's popularity. Complaint counts on this site reflect the NHTSA data version currently stored in our database and may lag newly filed complaints until the next sync. Always consult a qualified mechanic for vehicle-specific safety concerns.

NCAP Configurations And Selection

We currently store one NHTSA NCAP record per model year, not a complete inventory of its trims, body styles or drivetrains. The importer selects the highest available overall star rating among the configurations it retrieves; equal ratings use the lower NCAP Vehicle ID. If no overall rating is available, individual test results may still be stored. This selection rule is not a recommendation or a claim that every version has that score.

Each vehicle page identifies the stored configuration using the original NHTSA description and NCAP Vehicle ID when those fields agree. Missing or inconsistent identity is labeled unverified, not inferred from the model name. Stars, rollover estimates, test photographs and equipment fields belong to that stored record. Confirm your vehicle's configuration with NHTSA before applying a result to it. Linked API records may have changed since our stored copy.

Model-year tables summarize these selected records, not all configurations or comparable safety rankings across years. NHTSA restricts overall and frontal score comparisons to vehicles in the same class and within 250 pounds of each other; test programs also change over time. See NHTSA's rating comparison guidance.

Extended Safety Data

For vehicles with NHTSA safety ratings, we display additional data from the detailed NCAP endpoint including:

  • Driver-side and passenger-side specific frontal crash ratings
  • Driver-side and passenger-side specific side crash ratings
  • Side barrier and side pole separate ratings
  • Rollover probability as a percentage
  • Official NHTSA crash test photographs (frontal and side impact images hosted by NHTSA)
  • Safety feature availability: Electronic Stability Control (ESC), Forward Collision Warning (FCW), and Lane Departure Warning (LDW)

Not all fields are available for every vehicle - display depends on what NHTSA has published for that specific model year and variant.

How Component Counts Work

Exact stored labels: These counts use each complete stored component label, including combined labels. They are not totals for the broader component groups linked from this page. For example, ENGINE and ENGINE,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM are different complete labels in this view. Combined labels are not split into additional reports.

Leading-label groups: Our 14 browsing groups are a site-defined mapping of NHTSA labels, not 14 official defect findings. This group counts stored reports whose component label starts with one of this site's matching prefixes, ignoring case. Each matching report counts once within the group. Components mentioned later in the label or only in the narrative are not searched. For example, ENGINE,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM matches the Engine prefix; ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE does not. Leading-label order is a browsing rule, not a finding about the main cause or severity of a complaint.

Labels can themselves contain commas, such as FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE. A comma alone is not a safe separator for reconstructing every component mentioned in a report. Blank or unsupported labels can remain in vehicle totals without an available component page. Group counts should not be added to exact-label counts.

Vehicle-year totals count stored complaint records. Global complaint totals deduplicate non-null NHTSA ODI identifiers; records without an identifier count individually. Reports are not counts of distinct owners, affected vehicles or confirmed defects. NHTSA's complaint file dictionary notes that an ODI identifier can occur in multiple component records. We do not sum those source lines as separate complaints.

Component-page totals use all matching stored records, but the displayed list loads at most 50 reports, ordered by incident date where available. List pagination only navigates that loaded set. The linked full vehicle complaint log is paginated across all categories, not filtered to the component group. Global component hubs show at most 30 published vehicle-year entries; their total can also include records without a published vehicle page.

Update Frequency

Vehicle pages record successful source checks separately for each dataset when that evidence exists. A check date is not the same as a content-change date. Missing check dates do not mean no records exist. The older vehicle import date is labeled separately and does not confirm that every source was refreshed. No site-wide refresh interval is guaranteed; newly filed complaints may appear in official NHTSA systems before they are visible here.

All data is sourced from NHTSA public records. This site is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or any government agency. Complaints are unverified consumer reports submitted to NHTSA and may not reflect confirmed defects. For official information, visit nhtsa.gov.

Latest vehicle import recorded anywhere on this site: Oct 8, 2026. Individual vehicles and datasets may have older records; this is not this page's update date.