Are these complaints verified by NHTSA?

No. They are unverified reports filed by vehicle owners describing problems they experienced. NHTSA collects them to spot trends that may justify an investigation or recall, but an individual complaint is one person's account rather than a confirmed defect.

Yes. It uses the public NHTSA complaints API, which has open CORS and requires no API key or account. The request goes directly from your browser to the U.S. government service.

How should I read a high complaint count?

A component with many complaints is a useful warning sign, especially for a used purchase, but raw counts favour high-volume models. Read the summaries for severity, and cross-reference recalls and technical service bulletins before drawing conclusions.

Why do I need the exact make and model?

The API matches on the make and model strings NHTSA uses, so a near-miss like Chevy instead of Chevrolet, or a trim name instead of the base model, can return nothing. Use the manufacturer's full name and the base model name for the most complete results.

What do the crash and fire flags mean?

Each complaint records whether the incident involved a crash or a fire and whether anyone was injured or killed. The tool highlights those flags so the most serious reports stand out from routine quality complaints.

What is the NHTSA Complaints Lookup?

Queries the keyless NHTSA complaints API for a given year, make, and model and lists each complaint with its component, summary, and crash or fire flags. Groups complaints by component so you can spot problem areas at a glance before buying or repairing a vehicle. It runs free in your browser on Gera Tools, with nothing uploaded.

NHTSA Complaints Lookup

Name: NHTSA Complaints Lookup
Creator: Gera Tools
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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NHTSA collects consumer complaints to surface emerging vehicle problems. This tool queries that database for any year, make, and model, lists every complaint, and groups them by component so a pattern jumps out — invaluable when shopping for a used car or diagnosing a recurring fault.

How it works

The lookup calls one keyless NHTSA endpoint and processes the results in the browser:

complaintsByVehicle?make=&model=&modelYear=  -> array of complaints

For each complaint the service returns the affected components, a free-text summary, the crash and fire flags, any injuries or deaths, and the filing date. The tool tallies complaints per component into a summary table and then lists the individual reports, highlighting any that involved a crash, fire, injury, or fatality.

When complaints data is most useful

Before buying a used vehicle — a search here takes under a minute and can surface a pattern of failures that would cost thousands to repair. If a specific model year of a vehicle has dozens of complaints about the transmission or a specific electrical system, that is worth investigating before you commit. Cross-reference with the recall lookup to check if any of those issues were covered under a formal campaign.

Diagnosing a recurring problem — if you already own a vehicle and keep experiencing the same fault, searching complaints can confirm whether other owners report the same issue. A common problem with similar descriptions suggests it is a known defect rather than a one-off. Some recurring complaints eventually lead to Technical Service Bulletins (TSBs) or recalls, which may be covered even if the vehicle is out of warranty.

Tracking crash and fire risk — complaints that report crashes or fires are flagged separately. These represent the most serious safety signals. A small number of crash-involved complaints on a specific component is worth more attention than a large volume of routine quality complaints.

How to read the component summary table

The tool groups complaints by the component the owner identified. The component names come from the NHTSA taxonomy and include systems like POWER TRAIN:AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION, ELECTRICAL SYSTEM, STEERING, and AIR BAGS. A high complaint count on a single component is a useful signal, but the count is also influenced by how common the vehicle is — a best-selling truck model will accumulate far more raw complaints than a low-volume one. Read the complaint summaries for pattern and severity, not just the number.

Tips and notes

Use the exact manufacturer name and base model name — Chevrolet rather than Chevy — to avoid empty results. Complaints are owner-submitted and unverified; treat them as signals rather than confirmed defects. Pair this with the NHTSA recall lookup and safety-ratings lookup for a complete picture of a vehicle’s record before purchase.