State profile

Louisiana vehicle complaints

12,990 NHTSA complaints filed by Louisiana drivers across 50 vehicle models — the models your neighbors flag most.

Complaints
12,990
Crashes
873
Models
50

Louisiana drivers have submitted 12,990 safety complaints to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration across 50 distinct vehicle models. Those filings include 873 crash reports , 348 fire incidents , and 36 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 Louisiana with 3,643 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 Louisiana right now is the FORD F-150 (872 complaints, model years 1990–2024). 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 Louisiana 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 Louisiana's fleet turnover over time — the same dataset federal regulators rely on when they open Preliminary Evaluations.

Severe outcomes reported in Louisiana

873
Crash reports
348
Fire incidents
36
Reported fatalities
Most complained make in Louisiana
FORD (3,643 complaints)

Most-complained vehicles in Louisiana

Ranked by NHTSA complaints filed by in-state owners

complaints

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

# Vehicle Complaints
1 FORD F-150 872
2 FORD EXPLORER 575
3 CHEVROLET MALIBU 523
4 HONDA ACCORD 487
5 CHEVROLET SILVERADO 1500 486
6 TOYOTA CAMRY 407
7 JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE 407
8 FORD FUSION 391
9 NISSAN ALTIMA 380
10 FORD FOCUS 338
11 DODGE RAM 1500 333
12 FORD ESCAPE 321
13 GMC SIERRA 1500 317
14 CHEVROLET TAHOE 308
15 RAM 1500 276
16 FORD F-250 276
17 JEEP WRANGLER 253
18 JEEP CHEROKEE 252
19 HYUNDAI SONATA 246
20 FORD TAURUS 245
21 FORD EXPEDITION 245
22 DODGE DURANGO 245
23 CHEVROLET SILVERADO 218
24 HONDA CIVIC 210
25 CHEVROLET SUBURBAN 210
26 FORD MUSTANG 205
27 DODGE GRAND CARAVAN 197
28 KIA SORENTO 193
29 HONDA CR-V 189
30 GMC YUKON 189
31 DODGE CHARGER 187
32 TOYOTA COROLLA 185
33 TOYOTA TUNDRA 182
34 NISSAN PATHFINDER 180
35 HONDA ODYSSEY 176
36 FORD EDGE 175
37 CHEVROLET IMPALA 175
38 DODGE CARAVAN 173
39 KIA OPTIMA 168
40 RAM 2500 164
41 GMC ACADIA 160
42 JEEP LIBERTY 151
43 CHRYSLER TOWN AND COUNTRY 150
44 NISSAN MAXIMA 148
45 HONDA PILOT 146
46 DODGE JOURNEY 141
47 CHEVROLET EQUINOX 139
48 CHEVROLET TRAILBLAZER 137
49 NISSAN SENTRA 133
50 CHEVROLET COBALT 126

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

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 Louisiana resident about a vehicle they purchased in a neighboring state is still tagged to Louisiana; conversely, an out-of-state visitor whose vehicle developed an issue while driving through Louisiana 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 Louisiana'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 Louisiana?
Vehicle owners in Louisiana have filed 12,990 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 Louisiana?
The table above ranks the top 50 most-complained vehicles in Louisiana 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.