PlainCars

State profile

Hawaii vehicle complaints

3,053 NHTSA complaints filed by Hawaii drivers across 50 vehicle models, the models your neighbors flag most.

Complaints
3,053
Crashes
146
Models
50

Volume is not severity

According to NHTSA ODI filings attributed to Hawaii drivers, the TOYOTA TACOMA leads both complaint volume and crash-linked reports at 177 complaints and 13 crash reports (#1 each), but the MAZDA TRIBUTE leads reported fatalities at 2 (#1).

177
TOYOTA TACOMA complaints #1
13
TOYOTA TACOMA crashes #1
2
MAZDA TRIBUTE 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.

ODI volume LIGHT Crash-flag FLAG (4.8%)

Crash-flagged vs other filings

Hawaii filings in this extract split 4.8% crash-flagged (FLAG) versus other ODI rows, orthogonal to the make/model top-N bars below.

Hawaii vs all jurisdictions by NHTSA complaint volume

Where this state's owner-attributed ODI complaint count sits among every state and DC on PlainCars

6,648 45th of 51 higher than 6 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

Hawaii has more filings than 6 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 Hawaii drivers. See our methodology.

Hawaii drivers have submitted 3,053 safety complaints to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration across 50 distinct vehicle models. Those filings include 146 crash reports , 72 fire incidents , and 6 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 Hawaii

146
Crash reports
72
Fire incidents
6
Reported fatalities
Most complained make in Hawaii
TOYOTA (694 complaints)

Most-complained vehicles in Hawaii

Ranked by NHTSA complaints filed by in-state owners

complaints

What this shows The TOYOTA TACOMA draws the most NHTSA complaints from Hawaii 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 Hawaii

# Vehicle Complaints
1 TOYOTA TACOMA 177
2 HONDA CR-V 118
3 FORD F-150 105
4 TOYOTA PRIUS 104
5 HONDA CIVIC 101
6 JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE 98
7 FORD EXPLORER 97
8 TOYOTA CAMRY 93
9 TOYOTA COROLLA 92
10 DODGE CARAVAN 91
11 FORD ESCAPE 85
12 NISSAN FRONTIER 82
13 HONDA ACCORD 78
14 NISSAN ALTIMA 76
15 JEEP WRANGLER 75
16 FORD FOCUS 75
17 HONDA ODYSSEY 72
18 DODGE DURANGO 67
19 TOYOTA SIENNA 61
20 JEEP CHEROKEE 60
21 HYUNDAI SONATA 60
22 DODGE GRAND CARAVAN 59
23 TOYOTA 4RUNNER 55
24 DODGE RAM 1500 53
25 TOYOTA RAV4 49
26 HONDA PILOT 49
27 FORD FUSION 49
28 SUBARU FORESTER 47
29 CHEVROLET SILVERADO 1500 44
30 CHEVROLET MALIBU 43
31 CHEVROLET COLORADO 43
32 NISSAN ROGUE 42
33 MAZDA TRIBUTE 42
34 NISSAN PATHFINDER 41
35 HYUNDAI ELANTRA 41
36 FORD RANGER 41
37 DODGE DAKOTA 40
38 NISSAN MURANO 38
39 TESLA MODEL 3 37
40 NISSAN LEAF 37
41 RAM 1500 36
42 NISSAN SENTRA 36
43 KIA SOUL 36
44 CHEVROLET CORVETTE 35
45 NISSAN MAXIMA 34
46 KIA SORENTO 34
47 TOYOTA HIGHLANDER 32
48 NISSAN TITAN 32
49 TOYOTA TUNDRA 31
50 VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT 30

Nearest ODI volume peers

Closest owner-attributed complaint totals to Hawaii's 6,648 filings (LIGHT band) - NHTSA ODI volume stamps, not an alphabetical state strip.

District of Columbia

6,811 · LIGHT · Δ163

Rhode Island

6,911 · LIGHT · Δ263

Idaho

7,511 · LIGHT · Δ863

Delaware

7,850 · LIGHT · Δ1,202
Compare TOYOTA TACOMA vs HONDA CR-V →

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 Hawaii compares to the national picture

Hawaii sits #45 of 51 jurisdictions on owner-attributed ODI volume (LIGHT; 6 jurisdictions file fewer). Absolute counts track population and reporting culture more than per-vehicle defect rates, pair Hawaii's FLAG crash-flag share (4.8%) with model-level national rankings before treating a local leaderboard as a reliability verdict. Inside this extract the TOYOTA TACOMA leads Hawaii 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 Hawaii. A a Hawaii 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 Hawaii'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 Hawaii drivers (3,053 filings across 50 models; vintage August 2026; LIGHT/FLAG). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of August 2026.