State profile
Kentucky vehicle complaints
13,835 NHTSA complaints filed by Kentucky drivers across 50 vehicle models, the models your neighbors flag most.
- Complaints
- 13,835
- Crashes
- 859
- Models
- 50
Volume is not severity
According to NHTSA ODI filings attributed to Kentucky drivers, the FORD F-150 leads both complaint volume and crash-linked reports at 842 complaints and 54 crash reports (#1 each), but the FORD TAURUS leads reported fatalities at 4 (#1).
- 842
- FORD F-150 complaints #1
- 54
- FORD F-150 crashes #1
- 4
- FORD TAURUS 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
Kentucky filings in this extract split 6.2% crash-flagged (FLAG) versus other ODI rows, orthogonal to the make/model top-N bars below.
Kentucky vs all jurisdictions by NHTSA complaint volume
Where this state's owner-attributed ODI complaint count sits among every state and DC on PlainCars
27,522 26th of 51 higher than 25 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
Kentucky has more filings than 25 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 Kentucky drivers. See our methodology.
Kentucky drivers have submitted 13,835 safety complaints to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration across 50 distinct vehicle models. Those filings include 859 crash reports , 278 fire incidents , and 18 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 Kentucky
Most-complained vehicles in Kentucky
Ranked by NHTSA complaints filed by in-state owners
- FORD F-150
FORD F-150
842 complaints
- FORD ESCAPE
FORD ESCAPE
635 complaints
- FORD EXPLORER
FORD EXPLORER
626 complaints
- FORD FUSION
FORD FUSION
617 complaints
- CHEVROLET MALIBU
CHEVROLET MALIBU
594 complaints
- JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE
JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE
475 complaints
- FORD FOCUS
FORD FOCUS
454 complaints
- CHEVROLET SILVERADO 1500
CHEVROLET SILVERADO 1500
425 complaints
- FORD EDGE
FORD EDGE
374 complaints
- FORD TAURUS
FORD TAURUS
373 complaints
What this shows The FORD F-150 draws the most NHTSA complaints from Kentucky 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 Kentucky
Nearest ODI volume peers
Closest owner-attributed complaint totals to Kentucky's 27,522 filings (FULL 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 Kentucky compares to the national picture
Kentucky sits #26 of 51 jurisdictions on owner-attributed ODI volume (FULL; 25 jurisdictions file fewer). Absolute counts track population and reporting culture more than per-vehicle defect rates, pair Kentucky's FLAG crash-flag share (6.2%) with model-level national rankings before treating a local leaderboard as a reliability verdict. Inside this extract the FORD F-150 leads Kentucky 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 Kentucky. A a Kentucky 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 Kentucky's FULL 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 Kentucky drivers (13,835 filings across 50 models; vintage August 2026; FULL/FLAG). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of August 2026.