Original data journalism from the official U.S. recall record. Every analysis on this page is computed from government recall data and states the date of the data it was built from, so every published figure can be checked against the record as it stood.
Vehicle recall analysis
Do Not Drive Recall or Park Outside? The 2 Urgent Warnings
Most recalls come with an unhurried instruction: schedule a free repair when convenient. Two kinds do not — the do not drive recall and its park-outside sibling. A do-not-drive advisory means the vehicle shouldn’t be driven at all until it’s fixed. A park-outside advisory means it shouldn’t be parked in your garage — because the…
Your NHTSA Complaint Actually Matters — Here’s the Proof
You fill out a government web form about your car’s steering. It disappears into a database. Did anything just happen? Here is what the data says: yes. NHTSA complaints are the public’s half of the recall system, and in our analysis of 109 recalls across 11 popular vehicles, 63% were preceded by ten or more…
How to Check Your Car for Recalls (VIN, Free, 2 Minutes)
About one in five vehicles on U.S. roads is driving around with an open safety recall — 58.1 million vehicles with at least one unrepaired recall as of 2025, according to CARFAX. Here is how to check your car for recalls — by VIN, free, in about two minutes. The repair, if you need one,…
How Many Complaints Before a Recall? We Measured 242 Systems
Everyone who files a complaint with NHTSA wonders the same thing: does this actually do anything? Put differently: how many complaints before a recall actually happens? We measured that question with public data. Across the 11 popular vehicles in our study — every combination of vehicle and component system, 242 pairings in all — we…
Silverado Brake Recall: Two Campaigns, 144 Complaints
The complaints describe the same moment again and again: the pedal goes hard, the truck keeps moving. Backing a boat down a ramp. A deer in the headlights on a two-lane highway. A panic stop that takes too long. In the fall of 2019, the 2014 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 received two brake recalls seven weeks…
Food recall analysis
Coming with our food recall coverage (FDA & USDA FSIS data).
Drug recall analysis
Coming with our medication recall coverage (FDA data). Official FDA guidance is always quoted, never paraphrased.
Consumer product recall analysis
Coming with our consumer product recall coverage (CPSC data).
How these articles are made
Each analysis is computed from a dated snapshot of the official records described on our data sources & methodology page. The raw material is free to anyone: every record we analyze is available on the recall data downloads page, so our numbers can be independently reproduced.