AutoUtility currently tracks 33 official NHTSA owner defect complaints for the 2018 Buick Regal. Brakes & Traction Control issues are the most frequently reported category, appearing in 11 complaints (33.3% of submitted records). Among these NHTSA complaint records, 5 filings cite a crash, 3 report one or more injuries.

Key Problem Findings
  • Total NHTSA Complaints: 33 reports
  • #1 Reported Problem Area: Brakes & Traction Control (11 reports • 33.3% of submitted complaints)
  • Secondary Problem Areas: Engine & Cooling (8), Electrical System (6)
  • Crash-Citing Complaints: 5 filings
  • Fire-Citing Complaints: 0 filings
  • Complaints Reporting Injuries / Fatalities: 3 injury filings • 0 fatality filings
Reporting Methodology: Statistics describe unverified consumer submissions voluntarily filed with NHTSA. Complaint volume is not normalized for vehicle sales volume or miles driven. Multiple components can be cited within a single owner complaint submission.
Total Complaints
33
Submitted to NHTSA ODI
Crash-Citing Complaints
5
Filings citing a collision
Fire-Citing Complaints
0
Filings citing smoke or fire
Complaints Reporting Injuries
3
Filings citing one or more injuries
Complaints Reporting Fatalities
0
Consumer filings citing fatalities

Most Reported Problems for 2018 Buick Regal

Top automotive subsystem defect categories ranked by unique owner complaint volume in federal records

#1 Problem Area 33.3% of complaints

Brakes & Traction Control

11 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
⚠️ NHTSA Recall Context

NHTSA records list 2 official safety recall campaigns for this model year involving the same broad component area:

*Component overlap means an official recall exists for the same broad vehicle system. It does not establish that an individual owner complaint was caused by, covered by, or resolved through that recall.
⚠️ 4 crash reports 🩹 3 injury report entries
#2 Problem Area 24.2% of complaints

Engine & Cooling

8 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
#3 Problem Area 18.2% of complaints

Electrical System

6 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
#4 Problem Area 12.1% of complaints

Powertrain & Transmission

4 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
#5 Problem Area 12.1% of complaints

Driver Assistance & Safety Tech

4 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
⚠️ 1 crash report
Domain Share Note: Share percentage represents the proportion of unique complaint filings referencing each vehicle system. Because single complaints may cite multiple systems (such as engine and electrical simultaneously), domain percentages represent individual category incidence and may sum to over 100%.

Recent NHTSA Owner Reports for 2018 Buick Regal

Representative defect filings submitted by owners to the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation

Brakes & Traction Control NHTSA ODI ID: #11707350
Filed: 12/28/2025

"Front Passenger Brake Hose Failure by Crimp"

Incident Date: 12/23/2025 • Raw NHTSA Component: SERVICE BRAKES
Brakes & Traction Control NHTSA ODI ID: #11692646
Filed: 10/11/2025

"My car was part of recall number 22V465, which was supposed to fix a problem with the electronic brake assist system. The recall repair was done in 2023, but after my battery recently died, the same problem has come back — my brakes are very firm, and I have to press hard to stop. The car is..."

Incident Date: 10/11/2025 • Raw NHTSA Component: SERVICE BRAKES
Engine & Cooling NHTSA ODI ID: #11650765
Filed: 03/26/2025

"This issue is related to the gear shifter on the vehicle. When stopping the car and putting it into park the dashboard shows the message "Shift to Park." this vehicle has only 50,000 miles on it and this issue cause safety issues as the battery on the vehicle will drain as the car can't be turned..."

Incident Date: 03/01/2025 • Raw NHTSA Component: ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE
Engine & Cooling NHTSA ODI ID: #11633048
Filed: 12/30/2024

"Check engine light came on, reads reduced power and is causing problems accelerating"

Incident Date: 12/30/2024 • Raw NHTSA Component: ENGINE
Engine & Cooling NHTSA ODI ID: #11632118
Filed: 12/23/2024

"My check engine light came on along with my traction control light, and "Reduced Engine Power" popped up. This is connected to a recall on this vehicle for a connector at the throttle pedal."

Incident Date: 12/22/2024 • Raw NHTSA Component: UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE
Consumer Narrative Notice: Excerpts are sanitized text descriptions submitted by vehicle owners to the federal ODI database. They reflect the reporting consumer's observations at the time of filing and have not been independently confirmed by vehicle manufacturers or government investigators.

Complaint History for Buick Regal

Reported defect complaint volume across sibling model years (2015–2020)

Model Year NHTSA Complaints Crash Reports Safety Recalls Detailed Report
2015 Buick Regal 33 1 0 View 2015 Problems →
2016 Buick Regal 41 0 1 View 2016 Problems →
2017 Buick Regal 20 1 0 View 2017 Problems →
2018 Buick Regal Current Page 33 5 3 Current
2019 Buick Regal 18 0 3 View 2019 Problems →
2020 Buick Regal 5 0 2 View 2020 Problems →
Comparative Disclaimer: Complaint totals are unadjusted historical counts and are not normalized for vehicles sold, active fleet size, or total road mileage. Newer model years naturally have had less calendar exposure time to accumulate owner filings.

Detailed NHTSA Component Breakdown for 2018 Buick Regal

Complete distribution of consumer defect reports across all 25 granular NHTSA system and subsystem classifications

Vehicle Component / System Total Complaints Crash Reports Fire Reports Reported Injury Entries Reported Fatality Entries
Service Brakes NHTSA category: SERVICE BRAKES 5 2 0 1 0
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE 2 0 0 0 0
Engine NHTSA category: ENGINE 2 0 0 0 0
Service Brakes NHTSA category: SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC 2 0 0 0 0
Other / Uncategorized NHTSA category: UNKNOWN OR OTHER 2 0 0 0 0
Air Bags NHTSA category: AIR BAGS 1 1 0 1 0
Electrical System NHTSA category: ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 1 0 0 0 0
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,BACK OVER PREVENTION 1 0 0 0 0
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,SERVICE BRAKES 1 0 0 0 0
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER 1 0 0 0 0
LANE DEPARTURE,BACK OVER PREVENTION 1 0 0 0 0
Powertrain NHTSA category: POWER TRAIN 1 0 0 0 0
POWER TRAIN,ENGINE 1 0 0 0 0
POWER TRAIN,ENGINE,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM 1 0 0 0 0
SEAT BELTS,SERVICE BRAKES,AIR BAGS 1 1 0 2 0
Seats & Restraints NHTSA category: SEATS 1 0 0 0 0
STEERING,POWER TRAIN,VISIBILITY/WIPER 1 0 0 0 0
Structure & Body NHTSA category: STRUCTURE 1 0 0 0 0
Tires NHTSA category: TIRES 1 0 0 0 0
UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE 1 0 0 0 0
UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE,VISIBILITY/WIPER 1 0 0 0 0
UNKNOWN OR OTHER,SERVICE BRAKES,ENGINE 1 0 0 0 0
Vehicle Speed Control NHTSA category: VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL 1 0 0 0 0
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES 1 1 0 0 0
Wheels & Hubs NHTSA category: WHEELS 1 0 0 0 0
Data Attribution & Reporting Methodology: Complaints are unverified voluntary submissions to the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI). Because multiple vehicle components can be cited within a single owner complaint submission, component-level rollups may sum to more than the unique complaint count (33). Injury and fatality entries in the detailed table reflect raw values entered by reporting consumers across individual submissions; they are not deduplicated casualty statistics and may include duplicate or unverified entries. Complaint volume is not normalized for sales volume or vehicle mileage and does not represent an audited component failure rate.

Official NHTSA Defect Investigations (1)

1 OPEN

Formal safety defect inquiries and engineering analyses opened by the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI)

Official Federal Inquiries: NHTSA opens a defect investigation when safety screening or consumer defect trends indicate a potential unreasonable safety risk. An open investigation is a formal inquiry and does not by itself confirm a defect or result in a mandatory recall.
OPEN Engineering Analysis (EA) ODI Action #EA21002
Opened: 2021-09-17 • Currently Active

Desiccated Air Bag Inflator Rupture

Affected Component: AIR BAGS:FRONTAL:DRIVER SIDE:INFLATOR MODULE

From 2000 through 2017, Takata produced millions of air bag inflators using two types of phase-stabilized ammonium nitrate ("PSAN") propellant -- propellant 2004 and propellant 2004L. After prolonged exposure to high temperature cycles and humidity, inflators using propellant 2004 can degrade, causing the propellant to burn too quickly when ignited. The rapid burning can cause the inflator to rupture during deployment, potentially causing serious...

Active federal investigation. Official NHTSA File →
Official US Government Data Provenance

The complaint records on this page are retrieved directly from the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) public database.

Local Production Store Compiled: August 2026 • Deterministic Audited Dataset • Zero Dynamic External API Runtime Latency.