What a recall count by model year actually means

2026-09-13 (September 13, 2026)

A recall count for a vehicle model year is the number of distinct campaigns in the source snapshot that affect that year. It is not the number of recalls announced in that calendar year.

One campaign can cover several years

If one campaign covers three model years, each year receives one campaign in its own report. The all-model total counts that campaign once. Adding the year-by-year bars produces a different number because it repeats shared campaigns.

Use the Honda CR-V recall report to compare model years and inspect shared campaign numbers. Each entry links to its NHTSA record.

A smaller count is not a safety ranking

Campaigns differ in scope, consequence and remedy. Newer vehicles have also had less time to accumulate recalls. Counts alone do not establish how likely a specific vehicle is to fail.

For an individual vehicle, use the NHTSA recall lookup and the vehicle's VIN. The model-year report is a research starting point, not a replacement for that check.

Check the snapshot date

Vehicle Signal reports show the source snapshot date. Campaigns published after that date will not appear until the data is updated. Read the methodology for counting rules and the NHTSA datasets page for the original data.