About our data

What this site is

ProblemsByVin aggregates safety recall and owner-complaint data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and presents it in a format owners and buyers can actually use. We index the data by year, make, and model, group complaints into trouble-spot clusters, and surface the patterns that matter when you're deciding whether to buy a particular vehicle, fix one you already own, or extend warranty coverage.

Where the data comes from

Every recall on this site is sourced from the NHTSA recallsByVehicle public API. Every owner complaint comes from the NHTSA complaintsByVehicle API. Both are works of the U.S. federal government and are in the public domain. Our database refreshes weekly via an automated sync that pulls the latest filings.

Vehicle model lists come from NHTSA's vPIC (Vehicle Product Information Catalog) — the same dataset behind most VIN decoders.

How we score reliability

Each vehicle gets a reliability score from 1.0 (worst) to 5.0 (best) — displayed on each page as a 0-10 gauge for familiarity. The score is a composite that weights:

• Number of active recalls (especially critical-severity campaigns)
• Volume of owner complaints relative to the segment
• Severity distribution — a vehicle with one critical issue scores worse than one with several moderate issues
• Concentration of issues by component category — many issues in one system signals a systemic flaw

Severity tags (critical, severe, moderate) are assigned by classifying the recall's NHTSA "consequence" text and component category. Our scoring rubric isn't perfect, but it's deterministic, repeatable, and grounded in the same data NHTSA uses to decide whether to open an investigation.

Editorial commentary

"Stories from the shop" sections are written by ProblemsByVin contributors — including ASE-certified mechanics with hands-on diagnosis experience on the vehicles being discussed. Where commentary appears, it supplements the data with patterns we've seen across actual repair work: which complaints turn into expensive jobs, which ones are easy fixes mistaken for big problems, and which trim levels or option packages show up disproportionately.

Affiliate disclosures

We participate in affiliate programs for extended auto warranties and parts retailers. When you click an affiliate link and complete a quote or purchase, we may earn a commission. This does not affect our scoring, our editorial commentary, or which vehicles we cover. NHTSA is the source of truth for the data; affiliate programs are how we keep the lights on.

What we are not

We are not affiliated with any vehicle manufacturer. We are not lawyers and nothing on this site is legal advice. We do not own or operate a repair shop. We are not a substitute for a pre-purchase inspection from a qualified mechanic.

If you spot a data issue or have feedback, the contact page has the details.