More Than 29.2 Million Vehicles Were Recalled in 2025, and Yours Could Be One

• NHTSA counted 997 vehicle and equipment safety recalls in 2025, covering more than 29.2 million vehicles, nearly 745,000 car seats and more than 145,000 tires.
• A license plate or VIN search at nhtsa.gov/recalls shows any open recall on your vehicle, and the dealer repair costs nothing.
• NHTSA tells owners to check twice a year, and the clock change on Sunday, November 1 is a date that is easy to remember.

Your Car Could Carry an Open Recall Nobody Has Told You About

Open nhtsa.gov/recalls, type in your license plate number or your 17-character vehicle identification number, and the tool tells you whether the vehicle has a safety recall that nobody has repaired. If it does, the dealer for your brand fixes it at no charge.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued the reminder on October 30, timed to the end of daylight saving time. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) puts the 2026 change at 2 a.m. local time on Sunday, November 1, when clocks fall back to 1 a.m. and that hour repeats. Daylight saving time began at 2 a.m. on March 8 under the Energy Policy Act of 2005 schedule. Two clock changes a year give you two dates for the two recall checks a year that NHTSA recommends.

The agency’s count for 2025 is 997 vehicle and equipment safety recalls, with more than 29.2 million vehicles recalled. Safety recalls also reached vehicle equipment, including nearly 745,000 car seats and more than 145,000 tires. The Recalls Lookup Tool also searches car seats, tires and other equipment.

How a Defect Becomes a Recall, and Who Has to Tell You

A recall starts with a complaint. Owners report a problem to NHTSA, and the agency removes personal details and adds the report to a public database. When similar reports pile up about the same product, NHTSA screens them, analyzes any petitions, and can open an investigation. An investigation closes when the agency notifies the manufacturer of recall recommendations or finds no safety-related defect. NHTSA then monitors the recall, including the notices filed with the agency, the way manufacturers contact owners and the completion rate of each campaign.

NHTSA says most decisions to conduct a recall are made voluntarily by manufacturers before the agency steps in. A recall is issued when a manufacturer or NHTSA determines that a vehicle, equipment item, car seat or tire creates an unreasonable safety risk or fails to meet minimum safety standards. The manufacturer must then repair the problem, replace the part, offer a refund or, in rare cases, repurchase the vehicle.

The duty to tell you sits with the manufacturer. Automakers must notify registered owners by first-class mail within 60 days of telling NHTSA about a recall decision. A letter goes to the registered owner, so a car that changed hands or an owner who moved can leave a recall unnoticed, and an open recall stays open until a dealer completes the repair. The lookup tool is the owner’s side of the arrangement. NHTSA’s own safety tips tell owners to register their vehicles, tires, car seats and equipment and to check recalls twice a year.

Run the Check in Five Steps

Step one is finding the VIN. It sits on the lower left of the windshield, and it also appears on the registration card and sometimes on the insurance card. Step two is opening nhtsa.gov/recalls and choosing the vehicle search. Step three is entering the plate number or the VIN.

Step four is reading the result. A vehicle with no open recall returns this message: “0 unrepaired recalls associated with this VIN.” An open recall shows up as a repair the car still needs. Step five is setting up alerts: NHTSA’s free SaferCar app, available for iOS and Android, sends a notice to your phone when it discovers a recall for a vehicle or equipment item you entered, and the agency also runs a general email alert list.

The tool accepts up to 100 VINs in one search, which helps a household with several cars, a small business with a few vans or a shopper comparing used cars on a lot. A recent example of what the search turns up is the recall of 228,367 Toyota Sienna Hybrid minivans from the 2022 through 2026 model years, announced on October 27. An owner of one of those minivans sees the recall in a VIN search once the vehicle’s number is loaded, and keeps seeing it until a dealer finishes the work.

What a Clean Result Does Not Tell You

The plate and VIN search shows one thing: an unrepaired recall for a vehicle from certain manufacturers. NHTSA lists what it leaves out, and a clean screen is only as complete as that list allows.

A safety recall that was already repaired drops off the screen. So do some recently announced recalls for which the manufacturer has not yet identified every affected VIN; NHTSA adds VINs continuously and asks owners to check regularly. Safety recalls more than 15 years old stay out, except where a manufacturer offers more coverage. Recalls by small vehicle manufacturers, including some ultra-luxury brands and specialty applications, are missing too. Customer service campaigns and other non-safety programs never appear, and neither does a recall involving an international vehicle.

The plate search carries one more catch. Plate information comes from state departments of motor vehicles, so a plate can pull up a vehicle you owned before, not the car you drive now. NHTSA tells owners in that spot to contact their state DMV to update the vehicle record and to search by VIN in the meantime.

Buying a used car? Search by VIN, not plate. Run the number before you pay, read a clean result as a snapshot of the recalls loaded that day, and run it again after the purchase. A repaired recall will not show, so the search tells you what is open now and nothing about the car’s repair history.

What to Do When the Search Shows an Open Recall

Call the local dealership for your automaker and book the repair. NHTSA’s consumer alert states the cost plainly: “Recall repairs are FREE at your vehicle manufacturer’s dealership.” NHTSA urges owners with an open recall to call the dealership immediately to schedule the repair.

Read the manufacturer’s instructions before you drive again. Some recalls carry “do not drive” or “park outside” warnings, and NHTSA tells owners to follow them.

If a dealer refuses to do the repair described in the recall letter, NHTSA says to notify the manufacturer immediately and to file a complaint with the agency, giving as many details as possible, including the name of the dealership and any staff involved.

A defect that no recall covers goes to NHTSA directly. File online or call the Vehicle Safety Hotline at 888-327-4236, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern. The report goes into the public complaint database, and similar reports from a number of people about the same product can point to a safety-related defect and an investigation.

Takata Air Bags and the Case for Checking Twice a Year

Takata shows why NHTSA repeats the twice-a-year advice. About 67 million Takata air bags are under recall across tens of millions of vehicles from 19 manufacturers, and long exposure to high heat and humidity can make these air bags explode when they deploy. NHTSA has confirmed 28 deaths in the United States and counts at least 400 alleged injuries. Carfax data published September 28 put the number of unrepaired Takata airbags still on American roads at about 4.7 million.

Some of these vehicles carry do-not-drive warnings. Ford and Mazda told some owners of model year 2006 Rangers and B-Series trucks not to drive them and offered towing and loaner vehicles. Owners of certain 2001 through 2003 Honda and Acura vehicles are told to call Honda at 844-758-9245 or a dealer and to drive only to the dealership for the repair.

NHTSA also warns against one shortcut: asking a dealer to disable the air bag while you wait for parts. The agency says an air bag that is purposely disabled has a 100-percent chance of failing to provide protection in a crash, while a recalled air bag is far more likely to work than to cause harm.

The lookup page gives a second reason to repeat the check. Some recently announced recalls do not yet list every affected VIN, and NHTSA adds VINs continuously. A clean result in the spring says nothing about a recall announced over the summer. Owners who want the full walkthrough can read the step-by-step guide on how to check a Takata airbag.

Interim repairs also count. A small number of manufacturers swap an old Takata air bag for a newly made version of the same part, and NHTSA tells owners to take that repair when it is offered: an older air bag is more likely to explode than a newer one. A vehicle that gets an interim air bag moves down the priority list for the final repair, and the owner stays entitled to a free permanent fix.

NHTSA’s advice comes to three habits: run the lookup twice a year, sign up for recall alerts and call the dealer the day a recall shows. The clocks went back on November 1. Pick the date for the next check now, before the spring change takes it off your mind.

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