Part 573 Report

What It Means

Part 573 refers to 49 CFR Part 573, the federal regulation that governs how manufacturers report safety defects and noncompliance with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. When a manufacturer, importer, or replacement equipment maker determines that a defect creates an unreasonable safety risk, they must file a Part 573 report with NHTSA within five business days of that decision. The report is a structured disclosure containing the manufacturer's name and address, the vehicle or equipment description, the make/model/year range and production dates, the estimated number of affected units, a detailed defect description, the safety consequence, the corrective remedy, the estimated percentage of vehicles believed to contain the defect, a chronology of how the manufacturer became aware of the issue, and the planned owner notification schedule. Part 573 reports are public documents posted to nhtsa.gov within days of filing, which is why defect descriptions on RecallCheck often read in engineering-heavy legal language, the site pulls directly from the manufacturer's filed report. The TREAD Act of 2000 dramatically increased Part 573 enforcement by criminalizing knowing false reporting, with penalties of up to 15 years imprisonment for individuals who deliberately conceal safety defects that result in death or serious injury. The GM ignition switch scandal, where engineers knew about a defective ignition that could shut off airbags but the company failed to file a timely Part 573 report for roughly a decade, led to a $900 million fine and a deferred prosecution agreement in 2015. Toyota paid $1.2 billion in 2014 for similar late-reporting violations tied to unintended acceleration. Part 573 filings are the primary-source document feeding every recall row on RecallCheck vehicle pages.

Frequently Asked Questions