Engine fires: what owners report, and what NHTSA acted on
Two records of the same thing, collected in completely different ways. Owners file complaints voluntarily. Recalls are defects the manufacturer confirmed and filed federally. Neither one alone proves much. Comparing them is more informative than either.
The recalls where NHTSA said to park outside
NHTSA issues this warning rarely. It means the defect can start a fire with the car switched off — so keeping it away from a house or garage matters. Model-level, covering 2015–2020 cars.
| Model | Recalls | Defect | Years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chevrolet Bolt | 5 | Electrical System › Propulsion System › Traction Battery | 2019–2020 |
| Jaguar I-pace | 4 | Electrical System › Propulsion System › Traction Battery | 2019–2020 |
| Hyundai Santa Fe | 3 | Service Brakes | 2015–2020 |
| Kia Optima | 3 | Service Brakes | 2015–2015 |
| Kia Sorento | 3 | Service Brakes | 2015–2020 |
| Kia Sportage | 3 | Service Brakes | 2015–2020 |
| Kia Telluride | 3 | Trailer Hitches | 2020–2020 |
| Genesis G80 | 2 | Service Brakes | 2017–2020 |
| Hyundai Genesis | 2 | Service Brakes | 2015–2016 |
| Hyundai Tucson | 2 | Service Brakes | 2015–2020 |
| INFINITI QX60 | 2 | Service Brakes | 2017–2019 |
| Kia Cadenza | 2 | Service Brakes | 2015–2019 |
| Nissan Maxima | 2 | Service Brakes | 2016–2018 |
| Nissan Murano | 2 | Service Brakes | 2015–2018 |
| Nissan Pathfinder | 2 | Service Brakes | 2017–2019 |
| BMW X3 | 1 | Electrical System › Starter Assembly › Relay | 2020–2020 |
| Chrysler Pacifica | 1 | Electrical System › Propulsion System › Traction Battery | 2020–2020 |
| Ford Expedition | 1 | Engine | 2020–2020 |
| Hyundai Accent | 1 | Service Brakes | 2015–2015 |
| Hyundai Elantra | 1 | Service Brakes | 2015–2015 |
| Hyundai Ioniq | 1 | Electrical System › Propulsion System › Traction Battery | 2020–2020 |
| Hyundai Veloster | 1 | Service Brakes | 2015–2015 |
| Jeep Cherokee | 1 | Electrical System › Wiring › Rear Compartment/Trunk | 2015–2016 |
| Jeep Wrangler | 1 | Electrical System › Propulsion System › Traction Battery | 2020–2020 |
| Kia RIO | 1 | Service Brakes | 2015–2017 |
| Kia Stinger | 1 | Service Brakes | 2018–2020 |
| Lincoln MKC | 1 | Engine | 2015–2019 |
| Lincoln Navigator | 1 | Engine | 2020–2020 |
| Subaru Ascent | 1 | Electrical System › Wiring › Interior/Under Dash | 2019–2020 |
Fire as a share of an engine's complaints
For each engine: of the complaints filed about it, what share mentioned a fire. This is a ratio inside a single engine, so how many were sold cancels out — which is why these can be compared with each other, unlike complaint totals. Ranked by the lower bound of a 95% confidence interval, so small samples can't top the list on a lucky streak.
all vehicles 1.20%
Do the two records agree?
Of the 29 models with a park-outside recall, 24 have an owner fire-complaint share above the 1.20% database average — typically around 2.5× it. Two records built by unrelated processes pointing the same way.
| Model | Fire share | vs average | Park-outside recalls |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kia RIO | 9.77% | 8.2× | 1 |
| Kia Sportage | 6.87% | 5.7× | 3 |
| Kia Stinger | 6.56% | 5.5× | 1 |
| Hyundai Accent | 5.53% | 4.6× | 1 |
| Hyundai Ioniq | 4.13% | 3.4× | 1 |
| Hyundai Genesis | 4.00% | 3.3× | 2 |
| Kia Sorento | 3.92% | 3.3× | 3 |
| Lincoln Navigator | 3.60% | 3.0× | 1 |
| BMW X3 | 3.41% | 2.8× | 1 |
| Hyundai Santa Fe | 3.23% | 2.7× | 3 |
| Kia Optima | 2.95% | 2.5× | 3 |
| Kia Cadenza | 2.94% | 2.5× | 2 |
| Chevrolet Bolt | 2.78% | 2.3× | 5 |
| Jaguar I-pace | 2.66% | 2.2× | 4 |
| Jeep Wrangler | 2.42% | 2.0× | 1 |
| Nissan Maxima | 2.27% | 1.9× | 2 |
| Lincoln MKC | 1.99% | 1.7× | 1 |
| Hyundai Tucson | 1.96% | 1.6× | 2 |
| Nissan Murano | 1.75% | 1.5× | 2 |
| Ford Expedition | 1.67% | 1.4× | 1 |
| Hyundai Elantra | 1.52% | 1.3× | 1 |
| Chrysler Pacifica | 1.49% | 1.2× | 1 |
| Hyundai Veloster | 1.23% | 1.0× | 1 |
| Kia Telluride | 1.22% | 1.0× | 3 |
| Subaru Ascent | 0.95% | 0.8× | 1 |
| Jeep Cherokee | 0.93% | 0.8× | 1 |
| INFINITI QX60 | 0.93% | 0.8× | 2 |
| Nissan Pathfinder | 0.47% | 0.4× | 2 |
| Genesis G80 | 0.00% | 0.0× | 2 |
The 5 that don't — and why that isn't a contradiction
A recall can be issued before fires show up in the field. Genesis G80 has two park-outside recalls and zero fire complaints in this data. That is not the data disagreeing with itself; that is what it looks like when a defect gets caught early. Low complaint share next to an active recall is as likely to mean the system worked as anything else.
Recall repairs are free at any franchised dealer, whatever the car's age or how many owners it has had.
Check a specific car by VIN at NHTSA →Method and limits
- Complaints: NHTSA public complaint database, model years 2015–2020, each decoded to its exact engine through the partial VIN it carries. Recalls: NHTSA recall database for the same vehicles.
- The denominator is complaints, not cars on the road. A 5% fire share means five of every hundred complaints about that engine mentioned a fire — not that 5% of those cars catch fire. Nobody publishes per-engine fleet numbers, so a true rate cannot be calculated here.
- Engines with fewer than 80 complaints are excluded. Fire is rare enough that one extra case would move the figure by more than a point.
- Complaints are self-reported and skew toward alarming events, and toward vehicles under active recall attention — which is precisely why the recall record is shown next to them rather than on its own.
- Recalls are issued per model and year, not per engine. A model's recall count is not comparable between manufacturers: it rises with sales volume, and a manufacturer that recalls promptly looks worse than one that stalls.