State profile
Illinois vehicle complaints
34,626 NHTSA complaints filed by Illinois drivers across 50 vehicle models, the models your neighbors flag most.
- Complaints
- 34,626
- Crashes
- 1,913
- Models
- 50
Volume is not severity
According to NHTSA ODI filings attributed to Illinois drivers, the JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE leads complaint volume at 1,611 (#1 of 50 tracked models) but the TOYOTA CAMRY leads crash-linked reports at 147 (#1); the FORD FOCUS leads reported fatalities at 5 (#1).
- 1,611
- JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE complaints #1
- 147
- TOYOTA CAMRY crashes #1
- 5
- FORD FOCUS 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
Illinois filings in this extract split 5.5% crash-flagged (FLAG) versus other ODI rows, orthogonal to the make/model top-N bars below.
Illinois vs all jurisdictions by NHTSA complaint volume
Where this state's owner-attributed ODI complaint count sits among every state and DC on PlainCars
74,798 8th of 51 higher than 43 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
Illinois has more filings than 43 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 Illinois drivers. See our methodology.
Illinois drivers have submitted 34,626 safety complaints to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration across 50 distinct vehicle models. Those filings include 1,913 crash reports , 826 fire incidents , and 36 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 Illinois
Most-complained vehicles in Illinois
Ranked by NHTSA complaints filed by in-state owners
- JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE
JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE
1,611 complaints
- FORD ESCAPE
FORD ESCAPE
1,567 complaints
- CHEVROLET MALIBU
CHEVROLET MALIBU
1,501 complaints
- FORD EXPLORER
FORD EXPLORER
1,356 complaints
- FORD F-150
FORD F-150
1,259 complaints
- FORD TAURUS
FORD TAURUS
1,105 complaints
- CHRYSLER TOWN AND COUNTRY
CHRYSLER TOWN AND COUNTRY
1,044 complaints
- FORD FUSION
FORD FUSION
1,034 complaints
- FORD WINDSTAR
FORD WINDSTAR
1,017 complaints
- FORD FOCUS
FORD FOCUS
998 complaints
What this shows The JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE draws the most NHTSA complaints from Illinois 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 Illinois
Nearest ODI volume peers
Closest owner-attributed complaint totals to Illinois's 74,798 filings (HEAVY 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 Illinois compares to the national picture
Illinois sits #8 of 51 jurisdictions on owner-attributed ODI volume (HEAVY; 43 jurisdictions file fewer). Absolute counts track population and reporting culture more than per-vehicle defect rates, pair Illinois's FLAG crash-flag share (5.5%) with model-level national rankings before treating a local leaderboard as a reliability verdict. Inside this extract the JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE leads Illinois 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 Illinois. A an Illinois 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 Illinois's HEAVY 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 Illinois drivers (34,626 filings across 50 models; vintage August 2026; HEAVY/FLAG). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of August 2026.