Car Complaint Statistics and Datasets You Can Cite
Every complaint figure on this site comes from the datasets on this page: NHTSA's public owner complaints, counted once per make, model and model year, and the carmakers' own documents. Each file is free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with a credit and a link.
By Iqbal Taher (ORCID)Data as of Aug 25, 2026Reports updated quarterlyLicense CC BY 4.0
- 1 2010 Ford Fusion 5,126
- 2 2012 Ford Focus 3,763
- 3 2011 Hyundai Sonata 3,374
Datasets and reports
Everything here is free to quote and republish. Credit Oil & Miles and link to the page you took it from.
Text, charts and data. Credit Oil & Miles and link here.
Cite the data
Credit Oil & Miles, link to the page you took the figure from, and give the date you took the data. Complaint counts grow every month, so a figure without a date will quietly stop being true. The complaints themselves are a federal record that nobody owns. The license covers our counting, naming and arrangement, and the full terms are on our permissions page.
Source: Oil & Miles, NHTSA owner complaints by make, model and model year, 2010 to 2025, snapshot of August 25, 2026, oilandmiles.com/data
Taher, I. (2026). Most Complained-About Vehicles: NHTSA Owner Complaints by Make, Model and Model Year, 2010-2025 (Q3 2026 Edition) [Data set]. Oil & Miles. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23685716
@dataset{taher_2026_most_complained,
author = {Taher, Iqbal},
title = {Most Complained-About Vehicles: NHTSA Owner Complaints by Make, Model and Model Year, 2010-2025 (Q3 2026 Edition)},
year = {2026},
publisher = {Oil \& Miles},
version = {2026-Q3-r2},
doi = {10.5281/zenodo.23685716},
url = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23685716}
}
JSON API
The same records come as free static JSON files, with no key or sign-up: trouble codes, coolant by car, repair costs per car and warranty coverage by make, model and year. Every answer carries its license and the page it comes from. The API docs list every endpoint.
How the counts are made
Complaint figures come from NHTSA's owner complaints, read through its API at api.nhtsa.gov by make, model and model year, or from its bulk complaint file when a question spans makes. It's a public database and you can run the same queries yourself. The warranty report reads the carmakers' own documents, and the car-year scores also use NHTSA's recalls and investigations.
The totals are a union over model-years, not a sum. Two of the scans below both read the Honda CR-V 2017, and adding them would put those 1,762 records into the total twice. We count each car-year once no matter how many charts use it.
Complaints are written by owners, in their own words, and we match them with keyword filters. Owner-written free text, so approximate in both directions: the filter misses a complaint that describes fuel in the oil without using the word, and counts one that mentions it in passing.
Editions and changes
Reports are updated every quarter, and each edition keeps its own address for citation. Corrections are made in place and noted here with the date.
- November 2026 Carmaker warranty extensions report and dataset v1.0 published, with every row checked against the carmaker's own document.
- October 27, 2026 Most complained-about cars, Q3 2026: wording corrected, DOI, mirrors and citation added. Rankings unchanged.
- September 14, 2026 Most complained-about cars, Q3 2026 edition published.
Figures used in our articles
Three scans back figures in published articles. Complaints read is the pool a row was counted from: every complaint owners filed against those model-years, except in the oil-burn table, where it is the complaints that state a rate. Matched is how many of them stated the thing we counted.
Oil dilution in the Honda CR-V 1.5T
Every complaint filed against the 2017-2022 CR-V, all engines, counting those that name fuel dilution or describe it: fuel smell in the oil, a rising dipstick level, oil thinning in cold weather. Not every CR-V of those years has the 1.5T, so the share is a floor.
| Model year | Complaints read | Matched | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 1,762 | 173 | 9.8% |
| 2018 | 2,133 | 172 | 8.1% |
| 2019 | 1,091 | 34 | 3.1% |
| 2020 | 352 | 6 | 1.7% |
| 2021 | 328 | 4 | 1.2% |
| 2022 | 255 | 2 | 0.8% |
Wet belt failures in the Ford EcoSport 1.0
Complaints against the 2018-2020 EcoSport, all engines, that name the timing belt, the belt-driven oil pump, or the debris path between them. Not every EcoSport of those years has the 1.0, so the share is a floor.
| Model year | Complaints read | Matched | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 726 | 74 | 10.2% |
| 2019 | 459 | 42 | 9.2% |
| 2020 | 394 | 51 | 12.9% |
How fast owners say their engines burn oil
Complaints that state a consumption rate in quarts per distance, set against the rate in GM's own service bulletin as one reference line. Other carmakers publish their own.
| Group | Complaints read | Matched | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Faster than 1 qt / 500 mi | 94 | 36 | 38.3% |
| 1 qt per 500-1,000 mi | 94 | 40 | 42.6% |
| 1 qt per 1,000-2,000 mi | 94 | 13 | 13.8% |
| Within GM's accepted rate | 94 | 5 | 5.3% |
Figures taken 2026-09-15 and not restated since. Complaint counts rise over time, so treat these as a reading on that date rather than a current total. See the disclaimer.