3,951 complaints mention a software update. That is a small number, and its trajectory is the point.
| Complaints filed | Mentioning a software update |
|---|---|
| 2010–2014 | 277 |
| 2015–2019 | 865 |
| 2020–2024 | 1,458 |
| 2025 onward | 1,283 |
The 2025 figure covers a partial period and already approaches the whole of the preceding five years.
Two different things are being described
Some of these complaints are about an update as a remedy — the owner was told a calibration would resolve their fault. Others are about the update as the problem: a car that behaved differently, or worse, after receiving one.
The second category barely existed a decade ago and is now routine. It includes changes to throttle response, transmission shift logic, regenerative braking and driver assistance behaviour — all of which alter how the car drives without anything physical changing.
What it means that a recall can be a download
A software remedy is faster, cheaper and reaches vehicles that would never come to a dealer. Those are real advantages, and completion rates for over-the-air campaigns are far higher than for physical ones.
The problem is verification. A physical repair leaves evidence — a new part, a stamped record, something an inspection can find. A calibration leaves a version number in a module that nobody checks during a sale.
It also means the car in front of you may behave differently from the reviews written about it, because those reviews described a version of the software that no longer exists.
The question this raises for a used buyer
The recall register will tell you whether a campaign was completed. It will not tell you which software version the car is running, and there is no consumer-facing way to check.
That is a genuine and growing gap. One recall-related complaint in five already describes a fault returning after the repair, and a software remedy is the category where that is hardest for an owner to detect or dispute.
The practical step remains the same and is still worth the minute: check which campaigns are open on the VIN, and ask the seller directly whether any updates were applied and when.
Frequently asked questions
Are car recalls now fixed with software?
Increasingly. Complaints mentioning software updates grew from 277 in the 2010–2014 period to 1,458 in 2020–2024, with the partial 2025 period already at 1,283. Over-the-air remedies reach vehicles that would never visit a dealer.
Can a software update make a car worse?
Owners report exactly that. Updates can change throttle response, transmission shift logic, regenerative braking and driver assistance behaviour, altering how the car drives with nothing physical changed.
Can I check which software version a used car is running?
Not through any consumer-facing tool. The recall register shows whether a campaign was completed, but not the installed version. Checking open recalls on the VIN and asking the seller what was applied is currently the best available answer.
Denis Kataev is a serial solopreneur and the founder of ForCar. With 15+ years in software engineering and 10 years in SEO, he builds data-driven products end to end — backed by a sharp eye for design. At ForCar he mines proprietary vehicle datasets, turning raw numbers into buying advice you can actually trust.
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