Latest recalls
The most recent filings in NHTSA’s record, as of 18 September 2026.
Most recent Do Not Drive advisories
The strongest warning NHTSA and a manufacturer issue: the vehicle should not be driven at all until the repair is done. The repair is free.
Browse
- 3,414makesEvery make on a US recall filing, A–Z, each with a year-by-year breakdown.
- 37part groupsNHTSA’s defect categories, from air bags and brakes to fuel systems and steering.
- 61years of filings1966 to 2026, each year with a page of its own.
- 30,320recalls analysedWhat the whole record shows: trends, the largest ever issued, and how much never gets repaired.
Recalls filed each year
2010 to 2025. The busiest year on record is 2021, with 1,094 campaigns.
The part most recall sites leave out
A recall being issued is not the same as a car being fixed. Where manufacturers report progress, 161,929,740 vehicles covered by US safety recalls have still not been repaired.
- 60.7%Repaired295,887,902 vehicles
- 33.2%Still unrepaired161,929,740 vehicles
- 3.7%Scrapped or exported17,965,707 vehicles
- 2.3%Owner untraceable11,449,074 vehicles
Those quarterly figures are published by NHTSA and mostly ignored. Where a recall has them, they are on its page, alongside the defect, the consequence and the remedy.
The repair is free
Under 49 U.S.C. § 30120 a manufacturer must remedy a safety defect at no charge — parts, labour and diagnosis — and it makes no difference whether you are the original owner or bought the car second-hand.
There is a limit, which is often left out: the obligation applies where the vehicle was first sold less than 15 years before the recall was announced, or 5 years for tires. Past that many manufacturers still do the work free, but they are no longer required to.
Where this comes from
Every figure on this site is compiled from NHTSA’s published recall files, which are US government open data, and rebuilt daily. This is an independent index — not affiliated with NHTSA, the US Department of Transportation, or any manufacturer.
For a definitive answer on one specific vehicle, including whether a repair has already been carried out, check the VIN at nhtsa.gov. That query reaches the manufacturer’s own records; no public dataset can answer it.