State profile

Kansas vehicle complaints

7,444 NHTSA complaints filed by Kansas drivers across 50 vehicle models — the models your neighbors flag most.

Complaints
7,444
Crashes
340
Models
50

Kansas drivers have submitted 7,444 safety complaints to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration across 50 distinct vehicle models. Those filings include 340 crash reports , 177 fire incidents , and 16 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 Kansas with 2,667 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 Kansas right now is the FORD F-150 (443 complaints, model years 1991–2023). 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 Kansas 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 Kansas's fleet turnover over time — the same dataset federal regulators rely on when they open Preliminary Evaluations.

Severe outcomes reported in Kansas

340
Crash reports
177
Fire incidents
16
Reported fatalities
Most complained make in Kansas
FORD (2,667 complaints)

Most-complained vehicles in Kansas

Ranked by NHTSA complaints filed by in-state owners

complaints

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

# Vehicle Complaints
1 FORD F-150 443
2 FORD EXPLORER 373
3 FORD ESCAPE 321
4 FORD FUSION 309
5 FORD FOCUS 297
6 JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE 268
7 CHEVROLET MALIBU 235
8 FORD EDGE 220
9 FORD TAURUS 215
10 CHRYSLER TOWN AND COUNTRY 208
11 DODGE DURANGO 192
12 FORD WINDSTAR 190
13 CHEVROLET SILVERADO 1500 190
14 HYUNDAI SONATA 181
15 JEEP WRANGLER 177
16 DODGE RAM 1500 161
17 DODGE GRAND CARAVAN 158
18 HONDA ACCORD 156
19 TOYOTA CAMRY 135
20 NISSAN ALTIMA 135
21 KIA SORENTO 128
22 HONDA CR-V 123
23 FORD F-250 123
24 RAM 1500 118
25 JEEP CHEROKEE 113
26 CHRYSLER PACIFICA 113
27 HONDA CIVIC 112
28 CHEVROLET COBALT 110
29 HONDA ODYSSEY 106
30 CHEVROLET IMPALA 105
31 DODGE CARAVAN 97
32 CHEVROLET SUBURBAN 97
33 PONTIAC GRAND PRIX 93
34 CHEVROLET TAHOE 93
35 SUBARU OUTBACK 92
36 DODGE INTREPID 92
37 GMC SIERRA 1500 89
38 FORD RANGER 89
39 FORD MUSTANG 87
40 CHEVROLET SILVERADO 87
41 VOLKSWAGEN JETTA 86
42 PONTIAC G6 86
43 KIA OPTIMA 85
44 HYUNDAI ELANTRA 83
45 CHEVROLET TRAVERSE 83
46 GMC ACADIA 80
47 CHEVROLET EQUINOX 80
48 DODGE CHARGER 78
49 TOYOTA PRIUS 77
50 JEEP LIBERTY 75

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

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 Kansas resident about a vehicle they purchased in a neighboring state is still tagged to Kansas; conversely, an out-of-state visitor whose vehicle developed an issue while driving through Kansas 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 Kansas'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 Kansas?
Vehicle owners in Kansas have filed 7,444 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 Kansas?
The table above ranks the top 50 most-complained vehicles in Kansas 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.