Guides
Plain-English guides to vehicle recalls, NHTSA safety ratings and official lookup tools, checked against NHTSA and federal rules.
- How to Check Your Car for Open Recalls (and Get Them Fixed Free)
How to check any car, truck or motorcycle for open safety recalls with NHTSA’s VIN or license plate lookup, what the search misses, and how to get a recall repaired free at a dealer. - What to Do When a Recall Repair Isn’t Available Yet
What NHTSA says to do when a safety recall is announced but the repair is not ready yet: interim safety instructions, a required second notice when the remedy is available, and who to call if a dealer will not help. - How to Report a Vehicle Safety Problem to NHTSA
How to file a vehicle, tire, car-seat or equipment safety complaint with NHTSA online or by phone, what counts as a safety defect, and what happens after you submit a Vehicle Owner’s Questionnaire. - How to Check a Car Seat for Recalls (and Register It)
How to register a car seat or booster with the manufacturer, check NHTSA for car-seat recalls, and get official alerts through SaferCar and NHTSA email notices. - How to Look Up NHTSA 5-Star Safety Ratings (and Compare Them Fairly)
How to search NHTSA’s 5-Star Safety Ratings, what frontal, side and rollover tests measure, when you can compare vehicles, and what “Not Rated” and the warning symbol mean. - How to Find Your VIN and Decode It with NHTSA’s Official Tool
Where federal rules say a VIN must be readable, how to decode a 17-character VIN on NHTSA’s official decoder, and why that lookup is not a recall check or a vehicle-history report. - How to Check Tires for Recalls (and Find the DOT Tire Identification Number)
How to find the DOT Tire Identification Number on a tire sidewall, what the last four digits mean, and how to use NHTSA’s official tire-recall search — which returns general results, not a VIN-style lookup. - How to Check a Used Car for Open Recalls Before You Buy
How to run NHTSA’s official VIN or license-plate recall search on a used car, what that search will and will not show, and that a free dealer repair is the official remedy when a safety recall is open. - How to Get NHTSA Recall Alerts with the SaferCar App
How to use NHTSA’s official SaferCar app and recall email alerts to get notices about vehicle, car-seat, tire and equipment recalls. - Takata Air Bag Recalls: What NHTSA Says to Do
What NHTSA’s official Takata air bag recall spotlight says to do if your vehicle is affected, how to check by VIN, and why a free dealer repair is the official remedy. - How to Get a Car Seat Inspection (and Install It the NHTSA Way)
How to find a NHTSA car-seat inspection station or virtual inspector, what certified technicians will check, and NHTSA’s official rules for lower anchors, seat belts, tethers, and lower-anchor weight limits. - How to Look Up NHTSA Complaints and Defect Investigations
How to search NHTSA complaints, defect investigations, and manufacturer communications on official NHTSA pages, what investigation types mean, and how that differs from filing a new safety complaint.