National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

About NHTSA recalls

NHTSA regulates the safety of every motor vehicle sold in the US plus tires, child seats, and motor-vehicle equipment. Recalls are coordinated under a numbering scheme called the NHTSA Campaign Number — a string like 25V123000 where the first two digits are the year, V is for vehicle (T is for tires, C for child seats, E for equipment), and the rest identifies the campaign. Every vehicle in our database can be looked up by VIN to check whether any active campaigns affect it.

NHTSA recalls are unusual in two ways. First, the cause is usually a defined defect or non-compliance with a Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard rather than a pathogen or contamination event — so 'severity' tracks the consequence of the defect (does the airbag fail to deploy, does the steering lose assist, does the fuel tank leak) rather than reported illnesses. Second, every NHTSA recall is mandatory for the manufacturer to remedy at no charge to the owner, for as long as the vehicle is on the road. There's no expiration on a NHTSA campaign.

We enrich every recall with the full make / model / year-range affected so you can see at a glance whether your vehicle is in scope. If you're not sure, the VIN lookup decodes your specific vehicle and cross-references the database. The remedy is always free — usually a dealer visit for a part replacement, software update, or inspection.