42,518,965 vehicles still carry a recall repair nobody did.
The recall repairs that never happened
Across every recall campaign whose federal reporting window has closed, an estimated 42,518,965 vehicles are still carrying a repair nobody did.
How this was measured
Source: 49 CFR 573.7Manufacturers must report cumulative repair counts to NHTSA every quarter for six consecutive quarters, starting with the quarter owners were told a remedy was available. Then the obligation ends and the number stops moving.
That clock is why most published versions of this number are wrong. A recall filed last month sits at 3% because the parts shipped last week, not because anyone ignored it — so a “least repaired” list that does not control for age is topped by whatever was filed most recently, every time. Every campaign counted here has had its six quarters and closed.
Campaigns under 25,000 vehicles are excluded, because below that one dealership's paperwork moves the percentage. “Estimated unrepaired” is the potentially-affected count the manufacturer filed, multiplied by the share it never reported repaired. It is an estimate of vehicles, not of cars still on the road: some were scrapped, exported or written off, and NHTSA does not publish that.
What this is not
Not a ranking of how dangerous a vehicle is. A low completion rate usually says more about how hard owners were to reach — older cars, several owners deep, a repair that needs a dealer visit for a fault nobody can feel — than about the defect.
And not a verdict on one car
Whether any specific vehicle has an outstanding repair is the manufacturer’s record, which a franchised dealer reads from the VIN at no charge.
The 25 lowest, once the clock has run
Source: NHTSA| Repaired | Campaign | Manufacturer | Component | Vehicles | Est. unrepaired |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18% | 24V896000 | Chrysler (FCA US, LLC) | Service Brakes, Hydraulic | 317,630 | 260,457 |
| 20.8% | 24V031000 | Ford Motor Company | Structure | 1,889,110 | 1,495,419 |
| 25.7% | 22V420000 | Nissan North America, Inc | Latches/Locks/Linkages | 322,671 | 239,712 |
| 29.6% | 22V703000 | Kia America, Inc | Trailer Hitches | 70,887 | 49,940 |
| 30.7% | 24V834000 | Volkswagen Group of America, Inc | Air Bags | 248,330 | 171,993 |
| 32.4% | 23V652000 | Kia America, Inc | Service Brakes, Hydraulic | 1,730,192 | 1,170,129 |
| 32.5% | 24V146000 | Hyundai Motor America | Latches/Locks/Linkages | 186,588 | 125,854 |
| 33.1% | 23V093000 | Nissan North America, Inc | Electrical System | 712,458 | 476,563 |
| 33.2% | 23V775000 | Ford Motor Company | Latches/Locks/Linkages | 45,173 | 30,162 |
| 33.9% | 24V198000 | Chrysler (FCA US, LLC)… | Air Bags | 284,982 | 188,459 |
| 34.9% | 22V656000 | Porsche Cars North America, Inc | Exterior Lighting | 222,858 | 145,125 |
| 35% | 23V502000 | Ford Motor Company | Latches/Locks/Linkages | 112,225 | 72,980 |
| 36.7% | 22V723000 | Chrysler (FCA US, LLC) | Exterior Lighting | 83,453 | 52,801 |
| 38.3% | 19V446000 | Porsche Cars North America, Inc | Power Train | 99,665 | 61,453 |
| 38.8% | 22V137000 | General Motors, LLC | Exterior Lighting | 740,581 | 453,162 |
| 38.9% | 22V192000 | Ford Motor Company | Visibility | 39,720 | 24,269 |
| 41.3% | 24V608000 | BMW of North America, LLC | Engine And Engine Cooling | 720,796 | 422,963 |
| 41.6% | 23V487000 | Mazda North American Operations | Back Over Prevention | 236,100 | 137,788 |
| 42.4% | 23V734000 | Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufac… | Electrical System | 1,853,568 | 1,068,582 |
| 42.4% | 22V082000 | Ford Motor Company | Back Over Prevention | 330,784 | 190,399 |
| 44.4% | 19V392000 | Jaguar Land Rover North America, L… | Latches/Locks/Linkages | 65,385 | 36,367 |
| 44.5% | 25V091000 | Ford Motor Company | Visibility | 35,328 | 19,625 |
| 44.5% | 23V338000 | Chrysler (FCA US, LLC) | Electrical System | 132,099 | 73,315 |
| 44.7% | 23V162000 | Ford Motor Company | Service Brakes, Hydraulic | 1,280,726 | 708,626 |
| 46.6% | 20V279000 | Mitsubishi Motors North America, I… | Suspension | 141,200 | 75,415 |
Every campaign number links to its own page, with the manufacturer's filed defect, risk and remedy text in full.
By manufacturer
Source: NHTSAMean completion across each manufacturer's closed campaigns, for the 16 manufacturers with at least 15 of them. Read it as a measure of how reachable a maker's owners are — fleet-heavy and older-fleet brands sit lower, and a manufacturer with a single enormous hard-to-reach campaign is dragged down by it.
| Manufacturer | Mean repaired | Campaigns | Est. unrepaired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kia Motors America | 75% | 17 | 757,518 |
| Nissan North America, Inc | 76.3% | 37 | 4,277,213 |
| Kia America, Inc | 77.8% | 29 | 1,836,732 |
| Ford Motor Company | 78.1% | 136 | 11,473,749 |
| Chrysler (FCA US, LLC) | 81.1% | 55 | 2,141,216 |
| Mazda North American Operations | 81.4% | 16 | 597,755 |
| Chrysler (FCA US LLC) | 82.5% | 55 | 4,529,637 |
| General Motors, LLC | 84.7% | 32 | 2,003,354 |
| Volkswagen Group of America, Inc | 85.7% | 62 | 1,741,905 |
| Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing | 85.9% | 50 | 3,809,198 |
| Hyundai Motor America | 86.7% | 42 | 961,613 |
| General Motors LLC | 87% | 31 | 1,834,209 |
| Honda (American Honda Motor Co.) | 88.1% | 50 | 3,299,627 |
| Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC | 89.2% | 29 | 491,232 |
| Subaru of America, Inc | 90.8% | 23 | 605,784 |
| Tesla, Inc | 97.7% | 24 | 123,967 |
By what was wrong
Source: NHTSAThe same figure grouped by the component NHTSA filed the campaign under. What sits at the bottom is the more interesting half: a fault an owner can feel gets fixed, and one they cannot does not.
| Component | Mean repaired | Campaigns |
|---|---|---|
| Latches/Locks/Linkages | 70.8% | 37 |
| Air Bags | 77.4% | 72 |
| Seats | 79% | 15 |
| Exterior Lighting | 79% | 34 |
| Structure | 80.8% | 35 |
| Power Train | 80.8% | 72 |
| Suspension | 82.5% | 16 |
| Service Brakes, Hydraulic | 83.2% | 46 |
| Seat Belts | 83.8% | 36 |
| Visibility | 84.4% | 43 |
| Electrical System | 85.8% | 107 |
| Engine And Engine Cooling | 86.2% | 34 |
| Fuel System, Gasoline | 86.5% | 46 |
| Back Over Prevention | 86.5% | 59 |
| Steering | 87% | 33 |
| Equipment | 87.9% | 17 |
The data behind this
Everything above, as files. No key, no form, no attribution beyond the line below — if it is useful, use it.
How to cite
WhichTrim, “The recall repairs that never happened”, 2026-11-04. https://whichtrim.com/studies/unrepaired-recalls/
The underlying records are U.S. federal public-domain data from NHTSA. The joins, the filtering and the arithmetic are ours, and we would rather be credited than not — but the figures are checkable from the source either way, which is the point.
Questions about this study
Source: NHTSA and 49 CFR 573.7Does a low completion rate mean the car is dangerous?
No, and the correlation is weaker than it looks. A campaign's completion rate mostly measures how reachable the owners were — an eight-year-old car three owners deep, with a fault nobody can feel, needing a dealer appointment. The severity of the defect is a separate field, on each campaign's own page.
Why exclude recent recalls?
Because including them would make the study wrong. Repair counts climb for six quarters after owners are notified and then stop being reported. A recent campaign's low number is the parts pipeline, not neglect. Every campaign counted here has had its six quarters.
Are these cars still on the road?
Some are not. The figure is the manufacturer's potentially-affected count minus what it reported repaired, and vehicles get scrapped, exported and written off without anyone telling NHTSA. Treat it as vehicles never recorded as fixed, which is what the federal record actually says.
Is the recall repair free?
Yes. Federal law requires the manufacturer to remedy a safety defect at no charge for vehicles up to 15 years old, measured from first sale. A dealer charging for a recall repair is in the wrong.
Can I use these numbers?
Please do. The full table is on this page as CSV and JSON, the underlying records are federal public-domain data, and every campaign links to its own page so you can check us against NHTSA directly.