State profile
District of Columbia vehicle complaints
3,001 NHTSA complaints filed by District of Columbia drivers across 50 vehicle models, the models your neighbors flag most.
- Complaints
- 3,001
- Crashes
- 270
- Models
- 50
Volume is not severity
According to NHTSA ODI filings attributed to District of Columbia drivers, the FORD FOCUS leads complaint volume at 121 (#1 of 50 tracked models) but the TOYOTA CAMRY leads crash-linked reports at 30 (#1); the CHRYSLER TOWN AND COUNTRY leads reported fatalities at 6 (#1).
- 121
- FORD FOCUS complaints #1
- 30
- TOYOTA CAMRY crashes #1
- 6
- CHRYSLER TOWN AND COUNTRY deaths #1
Counts sum NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation complaints self-reported by owners in this state. Crash and fatality flags come from those filings, not a separate crash registry.
Crash-flagged vs other filings
District of Columbia filings in this extract split 9.0% crash-flagged (CRASH-HEAVY) versus other ODI rows, orthogonal to the make/model top-N bars below.
District of Columbia vs all jurisdictions by NHTSA complaint volume
Where this state's owner-attributed ODI complaint count sits among every state and DC on PlainCars
6,811 44th of 51 higher than 7 of 51 jurisdictions
States and DC, banded by owner-attributed NHTSA ODI complaint count
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more jurisdictions. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source NHTSA ODI owner-reported state field · 2026-08-08
District of Columbia has more filings than 7 of 51 jurisdictions in this extract. Absolute volume tracks population and reporting culture; it is not a per-vehicle defect rate.
Data updated August 2026. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), more than 2,000,000 owner filings sit in the national ODI file; this page counts the subset attributed to District of Columbia drivers. See our methodology.
District of Columbia drivers have submitted 3,001 safety complaints to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration across 50 distinct vehicle models. Those filings include 270 crash reports , 109 fire incidents , and 25 reported fatalities , each self-reported through NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation intake form.
State is geocoded from the owner's self-reported ZIP. The table below ranks models by complaint count; crash, fire, and death columns isolate filings that reported a serious outcome.
Severe outcomes reported in District of Columbia
Most-complained vehicles in District of Columbia
Ranked by NHTSA complaints filed by in-state owners
- FORD FOCUS
FORD FOCUS
121 complaints
- CHEVROLET MALIBU
CHEVROLET MALIBU
119 complaints
- TOYOTA CAMRY
TOYOTA CAMRY
118 complaints
- HONDA ACCORD
HONDA ACCORD
116 complaints
- FORD EXPLORER
FORD EXPLORER
115 complaints
- DODGE DURANGO
DODGE DURANGO
115 complaints
- JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE
JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE
107 complaints
- TOYOTA PRIUS
TOYOTA PRIUS
103 complaints
- FORD TAURUS
FORD TAURUS
95 complaints
- NISSAN ALTIMA
NISSAN ALTIMA
86 complaints
What this shows The FORD FOCUS draws the most NHTSA complaints from District of Columbia drivers. State-level volume reflects how common a model is locally as much as its defect rate.
Full ranking: top 50 most-complained vehicles in District of Columbia
Nearest ODI volume peers
Closest owner-attributed complaint totals to District of Columbia's 6,811 filings (LIGHT band) - NHTSA ODI volume stamps, not an alphabetical state strip.
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 District of Columbia compares to the national picture
District of Columbia sits #44 of 51 jurisdictions on owner-attributed ODI volume (LIGHT; 7 jurisdictions file fewer). Absolute counts track population and reporting culture more than per-vehicle defect rates, pair District of Columbia's CRASH-HEAVY crash-flag share (9.0%) with model-level national rankings before treating a local leaderboard as a reliability verdict. Inside this extract the FORD FOCUS leads District of Columbia volume; check whether that nameplate's local share exceeds its national share before calling a regional pattern.
A note on self-reported state data
The state field on each NHTSA complaint is supplied by the consumer at filing, there is no mandatory check that the owner filed from their registration state, nor that the incident occurred in District of Columbia. A a District of Columbia resident reporting a purchase made elsewhere still tags here; a visitor who filed from another home state will not. NHTSA does not deduplicate by VIN across years, so multi-year filings from the same vehicle accumulate. Treat District of Columbia's LIGHT ranking as directional and open the model pages linked above.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Every figure on PlainCars is rendered directly from NHTSA complaint and safety data, no number is typed in by an editor. State totals sum NHTSA ODI complaints attributed to District of Columbia drivers (3,001 filings across 50 models; vintage August 2026; LIGHT/CRASH-HEAVY). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of August 2026.