Data · Vehicle complaints
Vehicle safety complaints, state by state and make by make
How many owners in each state tell the federal safety regulator that their car, truck or SUV has a safety problem, which makes and model years they name, which part failed, and how often the complaint involves a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. We count every complaint in NHTSA's own file once, match it to the recall file, and recount the totals with a second program before each release.
What is in this dataset?
Safety complaints about cars, trucks, SUVs, motorcycles and RVs that owners filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), counted from its Office of Defects Investigation complaint file for the ten most recent model years, by the complainant's state, the make, the model year and the part of the vehicle named (engine, brakes, air bags, steering and the other NHTSA component groups). Each record gives the complaints, how many report a crash, a fire, an injury or a death, the people reported injured and killed, the complaints filed in the last twelve months, and how many concern a make, model and year that has a safety recall (and a recall of the same system), joined from NHTSA's recall file. State records list every make; make records add the model year by component table and each model's counts; national make records add each model by model year and the number of recall campaigns. A complaint is counted once however many parts it names. Only counts are kept: no narrative, VIN, city, name or complaint number.
Use it to size the lemon-law and vehicle product-liability market in the states a firm serves: how many owners there complain about each make and model year, which systems they name, how many complaints involve a crash, a fire or an injury, and how many concern vehicles that were recalled. Look up a state to get every make, compare up to ten states, or search for a make such as Ford or a model such as Wrangler. Complaints are unverified owner reports, so read them as a signal of where owners have trouble, not as proof of a defect.
- Records
- 4,040
- Look up by
- 57
- state or territory
- Primary source
- 4,040
The letters are explained in what P, S, D and U mean.
Where does the data come from?
NHTSA's ODI complaint flat file (FLAT_CMPL.zip, one row per component a complaint names) is read in full each month; vehicle complaints for the ten most recent model years are counted once per ODI number by the complainant's state, make, model, model year and component group, with crash, fire, injury and death flags, and joined to the ODI recall file (FLAT_RCL_POST_2010.zip) by make, model and model year. Totals are recounted from the file by a second parser and checked against NHTSA's public complaints API.
- Period covered
- January 1, 2017 to October 28, 2026
- Places
- The whole US and states
- How often we refresh it
- Every month
- Records read
- October 28, 2026
Official sources
- National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (U.S. Department of Transportation), Office of Defects Investigation, by bulk download. U.S. Government work, listed on data.transportation.gov as 'NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) - Complaints' (DOT-81) with Rights 'public': public domain (17 U.S.C. 105). Only counts are published; narratives, VINs, cities and names in the file are never read into the dataset..
- National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (U.S. Department of Transportation), Office of Defects Investigation, by bulk download. U.S. Government work, listed on data.transportation.gov as 'NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) - Recalls' (DOT-83) with Rights 'public': public domain (17 U.S.C. 105)..
The sources the records cite most
- NHTSA ODI recalls flat file (FLAT_RCL_POST_2010.zip): 4,040 records
- NHTSA ODI vehicle complaints flat file (FLAT_CMPL.zip): 4,040 records
What does a record look like?
-
United States: 229,354 vehicle safety complaints to NHTSA about model years 2018 to 2027 (10,175 with a crash, 2,529 with a fire, 6,041 with someone injured, 145 with a death; 8,367 people injured and 179 killed as reported), 57,654 of them filed in the last 12 months. Systems named most: engine 50,689; electrical system 46,884; power train 34,641. 217,783 concern a make, model and year with a safety recall (110,074 a recall of the same system). Makes named most: FORD 35,073, HONDA 25,535, CHEVROLET 17,971, JEEP 16,692, TOYOTA 15,071. Unverified owner reports, not proven defects (NHTSA complaint file as of 2026-10-28).
Status P · checked October 28, 2026 · source: NHTSA ODI vehicle complaints flat file (FLAT_CMPL.zip)
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California: 27,208 vehicle safety complaints to NHTSA about model years 2018 to 2027 from residents of California (1,719 with a crash, 325 with a fire, 986 with someone injured, 24 with a death; 1,436 people injured and 34 killed as reported), 6,359 of them filed in the last 12 months. Systems named most: electrical system 6,028; engine 4,992; power train 3,381. 25,709 concern a make, model and year with a safety recall (13,316 a recall of the same system). Makes named most: HONDA 3,453, TESLA 3,272, FORD 2,786. Unverified owner reports, not proven defects (NHTSA complaint file as of 2026-10-28).
Status P · checked October 28, 2026 · source: NHTSA ODI vehicle complaints flat file (FLAT_CMPL.zip)
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Texas: 20,509 vehicle safety complaints to NHTSA about model years 2018 to 2027 from residents of Texas (886 with a crash, 222 with a fire, 573 with someone injured, 16 with a death; 785 people injured and 21 killed as reported), 5,274 of them filed in the last 12 months. Systems named most: engine 4,873; electrical system 4,019; power train 3,082. 19,544 concern a make, model and year with a safety recall (10,101 a recall of the same system). Makes named most: FORD 3,719, HONDA 1,968, CHEVROLET 1,731. Unverified owner reports, not proven defects (NHTSA complaint file as of 2026-10-28).
Status P · checked October 28, 2026 · source: NHTSA ODI vehicle complaints flat file (FLAT_CMPL.zip)
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Florida: 18,411 vehicle safety complaints to NHTSA about model years 2018 to 2027 from residents of Florida (863 with a crash, 199 with a fire, 540 with someone injured, 15 with a death; 720 people injured and 17 killed as reported), 4,655 of them filed in the last 12 months. Systems named most: engine 4,084; electrical system 3,695; power train 2,529. 17,514 concern a make, model and year with a safety recall (9,066 a recall of the same system). Makes named most: FORD 2,680, HONDA 2,045, CHEVROLET 1,472. Unverified owner reports, not proven defects (NHTSA complaint file as of 2026-10-28).
Status P · checked October 28, 2026 · source: NHTSA ODI vehicle complaints flat file (FLAT_CMPL.zip)
The full records add the dates, the quoted source text and every field in the CSV and JSON files below.
What each of the 25 main columns means
jurisdiction- Two-letter code of the complainant's state or territory, or US (national records and complaints with no U.S. state)
level- us, state, state-not-given (complaints whose state is blank, military mail or outside the states and territories), make (one make in one state) or us-make (one make nationally)
stateName- State or territory name
make- Vehicle make as NHTSA writes it (FORD, HONDA, TESLA ...); empty on state and US totals
value- Complaints (same as complaints)
complaints- Vehicle safety complaints about the model years in the window, counted once per ODI number however many components they name
crash- Complaints that report a crash
fire- Complaints that report a fire
injury- Complaints that report at least one person injured
death- Complaints that report at least one death
injured- People reported injured in those complaints (a value of 99, the field's maximum, is treated as unknown and left out)
died- People reported killed in those complaints (99 treated as unknown, as for injured)
recalled- Complaints about a make, model and model year that has at least one NHTSA vehicle recall campaign
recalled_component- Complaints about a make, model and model year with a recall campaign for one of the component groups the complaint names
last_12m- Complaints NHTSA received in the twelve months before the file date
modelYearsFrom- First model year in the window
modelYearsTo- Last model year in the window (next year's models, on sale from the autumn)
measureFields- The order of the measures in every array: complaints, crash, fire, injury, death, injured, died, recalled, recalled_component, last_12m
modelYears- {model year: [measures]} for each model year in the window
components- {component group: [measures]}. A complaint naming two groups counts in both, so groups add up to more than the complaints
cube- Make records: {model year: {component group: [complaints, crash, fire, injury, death]}} (order in cubeFields)
models- Make records: {model: [measures]} over the window, for that make in that state
makes- State, US and not-given records: {make: [measures]} over the window
modelsByYear- National make records: {model: {model year: [measures]}}
recallCampaigns- National make records: {model year: number of NHTSA vehicle recall campaigns covering that make and model year}
How do I use it in my own tools?
vehiclecomplaints_lookup- For one two-letter state or territory code, or US: vehicle safety complaints filed with NHTSA about the ten most recent model years, for the state and every make, with crash, fire, injury and death counts, model years, component groups, models and the recall match.
vehiclecomplaints_compare- Vehicle safety complaint records for up to 10 states or territories (two-letter codes) or US side by side, with each make's complaints, crashes, fires, injuries, deaths and recall match.
vehiclecomplaints_search- Vehicle safety complaint records whose text matches the words given, such as a make ("Ford"), a model ("Wrangler"), a component ("air bags") or a state name.
How to cite this dataset
You can reuse, adapt and republish this data, including commercially, under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (CC BY 4.0). The only condition is that you credit Probative and link to the source.
- Version
- 1.0.0, released October 28, 2026
- Every version
- 10.5281/zenodo.23744213 (always points to the newest)
- License
- CC BY 4.0
Download the data
- CSV: vehicle-complaints.csv 3838 KB · one row per record (columns in README.txt)
- JSON: vehicle-complaints.json 14609 KB · every record with its sources
Free, no email or login. The files are hosted on this site and Zenodo, a public research archive.
Suggested citation
Probative. (2026). Vehicle safety complaints by state, make and model year (NHTSA complaint file) (Version 1.0.0) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23744214
Credit line for a chart, table or article
Source: Probative, Vehicle safety complaints by state, make and model year (NHTSA complaint file), version 1.0.0, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23744214, licensed CC BY 4.0.
Add to a reference manager (Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote)
Not legal advice. These are counts of unverified complaints that vehicle owners filed with NHTSA, kept for research and marketing planning. A complaint is not a finding that a vehicle is defective, and a count says nothing about whether any owner has a lemon-law or injury claim. Rights and deadlines are for your own counsel.
What changed recently?
- 2026-10-28 · NHTSA vehicle safety complaints about model years 2018 to 2027 by state, make, model year and component, with crash, fire, injury and death counts and the recall match, from the ODI complaint and recall files. (source)
The full log is in changes.json.
What are the limits?
- Complaints are unverified reports from owners. NHTSA does not confirm them one by one, so a complaint is not proof of a defect, and a count is not a count of lemon-law or injury claims.
- Popular vehicles draw more complaints simply because more of them are on the road. The file has no sales or registration figures, so compare makes and models with care and read a high count as a reason to look closer, not as a defect rate.
- The state is where the owner lives, as they gave it in the complaint, not where the problem happened. Complaints with no state, a military mail address or an address abroad count in the US total only.
- Only the ten most recent model years are kept, and only vehicles: complaints about tires, child seats and loose equipment are left out. The window moves forward each January.
- The recall match joins on make, model and model year as NHTSA writes them. A complaint about a recalled model may concern a different problem than the recall, and NHTSA sometimes names the same model differently in the two files.
- Owners keep filing complaints about older vehicles, and NHTSA updates the file every day, so recent counts rise over time. We re-read the whole file every month and log any change to a published figure.
- Only counts are published. The narratives, VINs, cities, names and complaint numbers in NHTSA's file never enter this dataset.
- Records older than 45 days since their last check are marked
stalein the files until we re-check them. Every confirmed error we fix is listed in the data corrections log.
Found a wrong value? Report an error with the record id and the source that shows the right value.
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