State profile

Arkansas vehicle complaints

7,921 NHTSA complaints filed by Arkansas drivers across 50 vehicle models — the models your neighbors flag most.

Complaints
7,921
Crashes
633
Models
50

Arkansas drivers have submitted 7,921 safety complaints to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration across 50 distinct vehicle models. Those filings include 633 crash reports , 249 fire incidents , and 31 reported fatalities — every one of those events self-reported by the vehicle owner through NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation intake form.

FORD carries the highest cumulative complaint volume in Arkansas with 2,338 filings, a concentration that typically reflects both registered-vehicle share and component-specific defect clusters already tracked in federal investigations. The single most-complained vehicle in Arkansas right now is the FORD F-150 (462 complaints, model years 1991–2024). Concentration is a useful first lens, but a high-volume make in one state usually signals that the brand is popular there — not necessarily more defective. The crash, fire, and fatality counters in the table below isolate the filings that rose to a serious safety event.

State-level NHTSA data is geocoded from the owner's self-reported ZIP, so climate, road salt exposure, tow-load patterns, and emissions-testing regimes in Arkansas all shape which defects surface here versus elsewhere. Use this page to triage which models your neighbors flag most often, then drill into each model's component breakdown and recall history on its detail page. Filings stay public for the life of the database, which means you can track a given nameplate's complaint curve against Arkansas's fleet turnover over time — the same dataset federal regulators rely on when they open Preliminary Evaluations.

Severe outcomes reported in Arkansas

633
Crash reports
249
Fire incidents
31
Reported fatalities
Most complained make in Arkansas
FORD (2,338 complaints)

Most-complained vehicles in Arkansas

Ranked by NHTSA complaints filed by in-state owners

complaints

What this shows The FORD F-150 draws the most NHTSA complaints from Arkansas drivers. State-level volume reflects how common a model is locally as much as its defect rate.

Source NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation As of 2026

Full ranking: top 50 most-complained vehicles in Arkansas

# Vehicle Complaints
1 FORD F-150 462
2 CHEVROLET MALIBU 336
3 FORD EXPLORER 307
4 CHEVROLET SILVERADO 1500 289
5 JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE 271
6 FORD ESCAPE 244
7 FORD FUSION 237
8 FORD FOCUS 235
9 GMC SIERRA 1500 229
10 HONDA ACCORD 220
11 RAM 1500 211
12 JEEP CHEROKEE 195
13 DODGE RAM 1500 191
14 NISSAN ALTIMA 190
15 TOYOTA CAMRY 176
16 DODGE DURANGO 174
17 JEEP WRANGLER 165
18 CHEVROLET SILVERADO 156
19 FORD F-250 153
20 FORD EDGE 148
21 CHEVROLET IMPALA 145
22 CHEVROLET TAHOE 144
23 HONDA CIVIC 143
24 HYUNDAI SONATA 141
25 KIA SORENTO 138
26 CHRYSLER TOWN AND COUNTRY 136
27 RAM 2500 127
28 CHEVROLET EQUINOX 125
29 DODGE GRAND CARAVAN 121
30 CHEVROLET TRAILBLAZER 121
31 FORD TAURUS 119
32 KIA OPTIMA 116
33 FORD EXPEDITION 115
34 FORD MUSTANG 114
35 FORD WINDSTAR 113
36 HONDA CR-V 111
37 GMC ACADIA 109
38 DODGE CHARGER 105
39 DODGE CARAVAN 104
40 GMC YUKON 98
41 HYUNDAI ELANTRA 96
42 CHEVROLET BLAZER 92
43 FORD RANGER 91
44 CHEVROLET SUBURBAN 91
45 HONDA ODYSSEY 89
46 CHEVROLET COBALT 89
47 PONTIAC G6 86
48 DODGE JOURNEY 86
49 DODGE RAM 2500 85
50 TOYOTA TUNDRA 82

Most-Complained Arkansas Vehicles

Sources: NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) complaints database, with fatality-linked filings cross-checked against NHTSA FARS and crash-test ratings drawn from NHTSA NCAP. State is self-reported by the vehicle owner.

How Arkansas compares to the national picture

State-level complaint counts in the NHTSA database are heavily shaped by population, registered-vehicle density, and reporting culture. Larger states like California, Texas, and Florida sit at the top of the ranked list almost regardless of model mix, because the absolute number of vehicles on the road there dwarfs smaller jurisdictions. To use Arkansas's totals fairly, consider the per-capita complaint rate against the U.S. average — and check whether a specific model's share of Arkansas complaints is significantly higher than that model's national share. When the local share is disproportionate, that's a stronger signal of a regional defect pattern (weather-related corrosion, fuel-formulation interactions, terrain-related wear) than a generic country-wide design flaw.

Other PlainCars data for Arkansas

Beyond this state-level vehicle complaint roll-up, PlainCars surfaces national-level views you can use to triangulate a model that caught your eye:

A note on self-reported state data

The state field on each NHTSA complaint is supplied by the consumer at the time of filing — there is no mandatory validation that the owner is filing from their state of registration, nor that the incident occurred in that state. In practice this means a complaint filed by a Arkansas resident about a vehicle they purchased in a neighboring state is still tagged to Arkansas; conversely, an out-of-state visitor whose vehicle developed an issue while driving through Arkansas but who filed from their home state will not appear in this view. NHTSA does not deduplicate by VIN across years, so multi-year complaints from the same vehicle accumulate in the totals. When using this page as a starting point for buying-decision research, treat Arkansas's ranking as directional, not absolute, and pair it with the model-level rankings linked above.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many vehicle complaints have been filed in Arkansas?
Vehicle owners in Arkansas have filed 7,921 complaints with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). These complaints cover a wide range of safety issues including mechanical failures, electrical problems, and crash-related incidents.
What are the most complained-about vehicles in Arkansas?
The table above ranks the top 50 most-complained vehicles in Arkansas by total NHTSA complaint count. Each entry shows the make and model along with reported crashes, fires, and deaths to help you identify vehicles with the most safety concerns.
Where does the state vehicle complaint data come from?
All data comes from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) complaints database. Vehicle owners self-report their state when filing a complaint, and PlainCars aggregates this data to show state-level safety trends.
Can I file a vehicle complaint for my state?
Yes. You can file a vehicle safety complaint directly with NHTSA at nhtsa.gov/report-a-safety-problem. Filing a complaint helps NHTSA identify safety defects and can lead to recalls that protect other drivers.