Frequently asked questions

Safety recalls for vehicles, tires, equipment, and child seats, plus NHTSA investigations that can lead to a recall. Coverage currently starts from 2016 onward.

All recall and investigation data comes from public, government sources — primarily the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). CarsApp is an independent project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by NHTSA.

Recall status and remedies can change after our data is last synced. For VIN-specific, up-to-the-minute results, always confirm with your vehicle's VIN on the manufacturer's website before relying on this site for a safety decision.

The Recent Recalls list shows the 20 most recent recalls and refreshes once a week, every Tuesday.

Use Search to find recalls or investigations by keyword, manufacturer, or make/model. If you already know a recall or investigation ID, go straight to it at /recall/[id] or /investigation/[id]. You can also browse by manufacturer or by vehicle make from their respective listing pages.

The Stats page (“Safety Pulse”) covers recalls and investigations over the last 1–3 years, including how many investigations are currently open, how long investigations typically take to close, and which manufacturers have the most recalls. A dedicated manufacturer breakdown digs deeper into that last metric.

Some recalls originate from an NHTSA investigation. When NHTSA's data directly ties an investigation to the recall campaign it led to, we surface that connection on both the recall page and the investigation page so you can see the full history. Not every recall has a linked investigation, and not every investigation results in a recall.

To keep pages fast and easy to scan, a few areas of the site only show a limited number of results rather than the full history — for example, manufacturer pages show their most recent items rather than every recall or investigation on record.