State profile

Indiana vehicle complaints

18,793 NHTSA complaints filed by Indiana drivers across 50 vehicle models — the models your neighbors flag most.

Complaints
18,793
Crashes
900
Models
50

Indiana drivers have submitted 18,793 safety complaints to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration across 50 distinct vehicle models. Those filings include 900 crash reports , 380 fire incidents , and 55 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 Indiana with 5,381 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 Indiana right now is the FORD F-150 (1,010 complaints, model years 1991–2025). 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 Indiana 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 Indiana's fleet turnover over time — the same dataset federal regulators rely on when they open Preliminary Evaluations.

Severe outcomes reported in Indiana

900
Crash reports
380
Fire incidents
55
Reported fatalities
Most complained make in Indiana
FORD (5,381 complaints)

Most-complained vehicles in Indiana

Ranked by NHTSA complaints filed by in-state owners

complaints

What this shows The FORD F-150 draws the most NHTSA complaints from Indiana 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 Indiana

# Vehicle Complaints
1 FORD F-150 1,010
2 CHEVROLET MALIBU 986
3 FORD ESCAPE 909
4 FORD EXPLORER 747
5 FORD FUSION 733
6 JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE 679
7 CHRYSLER TOWN AND COUNTRY 574
8 FORD TAURUS 561
9 FORD FOCUS 558
10 CHEVROLET SILVERADO 1500 551
11 DODGE DURANGO 494
12 DODGE GRAND CARAVAN 484
13 FORD EDGE 453
14 CHEVROLET IMPALA 442
15 FORD WINDSTAR 410
16 CHEVROLET EQUINOX 392
17 JEEP WRANGLER 391
18 PONTIAC G6 380
19 HYUNDAI SONATA 350
20 JEEP CHEROKEE 348
21 HONDA ACCORD 348
22 DODGE RAM 1500 325
23 HONDA CR-V 304
24 CHRYSLER PACIFICA 288
25 RAM 1500 282
26 CHEVROLET BLAZER 278
27 CHEVROLET COBALT 277
28 JEEP LIBERTY 276
29 HONDA ODYSSEY 273
30 PONTIAC GRAND PRIX 265
31 CHEVROLET TRAILBLAZER 259
32 DODGE JOURNEY 253
33 CHEVROLET SILVERADO 252
34 DODGE CARAVAN 251
35 KIA SORENTO 237
36 HONDA CIVIC 237
37 TOYOTA CAMRY 231
38 NISSAN ALTIMA 231
39 GMC ACADIA 226
40 GMC SIERRA 1500 224
41 DODGE DAKOTA 216
42 PONTIAC GRAND AM 210
43 KIA OPTIMA 209
44 DODGE INTREPID 209
45 CHEVROLET TRAVERSE 200
46 CHEVROLET S10 198
47 VOLKSWAGEN JETTA 197
48 CHRYSLER 200 197
49 TOYOTA PRIUS 196
50 HONDA PILOT 192

Most-Complained Indiana 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 Indiana 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 Indiana's totals fairly, consider the per-capita complaint rate against the U.S. average — and check whether a specific model's share of Indiana 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 Indiana

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 Indiana resident about a vehicle they purchased in a neighboring state is still tagged to Indiana; conversely, an out-of-state visitor whose vehicle developed an issue while driving through Indiana 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 Indiana'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 Indiana?
Vehicle owners in Indiana have filed 18,793 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 Indiana?
The table above ranks the top 50 most-complained vehicles in Indiana 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.