PlainCars

State profile

Iowa vehicle complaints

7,706 NHTSA complaints filed by Iowa drivers across 50 vehicle models, the models your neighbors flag most.

Complaints
7,706
Crashes
384
Models
50

Volume is not severity

According to NHTSA ODI filings attributed to Iowa drivers, the FORD F-150 leads complaint volume at 531 (#1 of 50 tracked models) but the TOYOTA CAMRY leads crash-linked reports at 19 (#1); the CHEVROLET SILVERADO 1500 leads reported fatalities at 1 (#1).

531
FORD F-150 complaints #1
19
TOYOTA CAMRY crashes #1
1
CHEVROLET SILVERADO 1500 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 (5.0%)

Crash-flagged vs other filings

Iowa filings in this extract split 5.0% crash-flagged (FLAG) versus other ODI rows, orthogonal to the make/model top-N bars below.

Iowa vs all jurisdictions by NHTSA complaint volume

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

14,831 34th of 51 higher than 17 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

Iowa has more filings than 17 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 Iowa drivers. See our methodology.

Iowa drivers have submitted 7,706 safety complaints to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration across 50 distinct vehicle models. Those filings include 384 crash reports , 169 fire incidents , and 4 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 Iowa

384
Crash reports
169
Fire incidents
4
Reported fatalities
Most complained make in Iowa
FORD (2,492 complaints)

Most-complained vehicles in Iowa

Ranked by NHTSA complaints filed by in-state owners

complaints

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

# Vehicle Complaints
1 FORD F-150 531
2 CHEVROLET MALIBU 338
3 FORD EXPLORER 325
4 FORD ESCAPE 302
5 CHRYSLER TOWN AND COUNTRY 280
6 JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE 279
7 FORD FUSION 275
8 CHEVROLET IMPALA 272
9 CHEVROLET SILVERADO 1500 262
10 FORD TAURUS 261
11 FORD WINDSTAR 238
12 DODGE GRAND CARAVAN 230
13 FORD FOCUS 195
14 FORD EDGE 187
15 DODGE DURANGO 175
16 JEEP CHEROKEE 163
17 CHEVROLET EQUINOX 160
18 CHRYSLER PACIFICA 141
19 JEEP WRANGLER 125
20 RAM 1500 124
21 CHEVROLET SILVERADO 120
22 KIA SORENTO 119
23 HONDA CR-V 119
24 HONDA ACCORD 113
25 DODGE DAKOTA 112
26 HYUNDAI SONATA 111
27 DODGE RAM 1500 111
28 PONTIAC GRAND PRIX 110
29 PONTIAC G6 108
30 GMC ACADIA 106
31 CHEVROLET BLAZER 104
32 NISSAN ALTIMA 103
33 HONDA ODYSSEY 101
34 FORD RANGER 101
35 TOYOTA CAMRY 90
36 DODGE CARAVAN 88
37 HONDA CIVIC 87
38 DODGE JOURNEY 87
39 HYUNDAI SANTA FE 86
40 CHEVROLET TRAVERSE 84
41 GMC SIERRA 1500 83
42 CHEVROLET TRAILBLAZER 83
43 TOYOTA PRIUS 82
44 SUBARU OUTBACK 82
45 PONTIAC GRAND AM 82
46 CHEVROLET COBALT 78
47 FORD F-250 77
48 MERCURY SABLE 76
49 CHEVROLET S10 72
50 TOYOTA COROLLA 68

Nearest ODI volume peers

Closest owner-attributed complaint totals to Iowa's 14,831 filings (LIGHT band) - NHTSA ODI volume stamps, not an alphabetical state strip.

Mississippi

15,388 · FULL · Δ557

Kansas

15,668 · FULL · Δ837

West Virginia

13,816 · LIGHT · Δ1,015

Nevada

16,067 · FULL · Δ1,236
Compare FORD F-150 vs CHEVROLET MALIBU →

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 Iowa compares to the national picture

Iowa sits #34 of 51 jurisdictions on owner-attributed ODI volume (LIGHT; 17 jurisdictions file fewer). Absolute counts track population and reporting culture more than per-vehicle defect rates, pair Iowa's FLAG crash-flag share (5.0%) with model-level national rankings before treating a local leaderboard as a reliability verdict. Inside this extract the FORD F-150 leads Iowa 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 Iowa. A an Iowa 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 Iowa'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 Iowa drivers (7,706 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.