State profile

Minnesota vehicle complaints

15,011 NHTSA complaints filed by Minnesota drivers across 50 vehicle models — the models your neighbors flag most.

Complaints
15,011
Crashes
688
Models
50

Minnesota drivers have submitted 15,011 safety complaints to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration across 50 distinct vehicle models. Those filings include 688 crash reports , 314 fire incidents , and 15 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 Minnesota with 4,550 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 Minnesota right now is the FORD F-150 (921 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 Minnesota 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 Minnesota's fleet turnover over time — the same dataset federal regulators rely on when they open Preliminary Evaluations.

Severe outcomes reported in Minnesota

688
Crash reports
314
Fire incidents
15
Reported fatalities
Most complained make in Minnesota
FORD (4,550 complaints)

Most-complained vehicles in Minnesota

Ranked by NHTSA complaints filed by in-state owners

complaints

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

# Vehicle Complaints
1 FORD F-150 921
2 FORD ESCAPE 646
3 JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE 619
4 FORD EXPLORER 581
5 FORD TAURUS 551
6 CHEVROLET MALIBU 519
7 CHRYSLER TOWN AND COUNTRY 500
8 DODGE GRAND CARAVAN 449
9 FORD FUSION 448
10 CHEVROLET SILVERADO 1500 437
11 FORD FOCUS 434
12 CHEVROLET IMPALA 428
13 FORD WINDSTAR 426
14 FORD EDGE 373
15 DODGE DURANGO 361
16 HONDA CR-V 333
17 HONDA ACCORD 295
18 JEEP CHEROKEE 289
19 SUBARU OUTBACK 287
20 RAM 1500 276
21 DODGE CARAVAN 276
22 CHEVROLET EQUINOX 270
23 TOYOTA CAMRY 262
24 HYUNDAI SONATA 245
25 CHEVROLET SILVERADO 239
26 TOYOTA PRIUS 237
27 NISSAN ALTIMA 213
28 PONTIAC G6 202
29 CHEVROLET TAHOE 199
30 KIA SORENTO 197
31 JEEP WRANGLER 195
32 PONTIAC GRAND AM 194
33 CHRYSLER PACIFICA 193
34 CHEVROLET BLAZER 189
35 PONTIAC GRAND PRIX 188
36 DODGE RAM 1500 187
37 CHEVROLET TRAVERSE 184
38 CHEVROLET TRAILBLAZER 184
39 HONDA ODYSSEY 180
40 TOYOTA RAV4 176
41 HONDA CIVIC 174
42 GMC SIERRA 1500 172
43 FORD EXPEDITION 170
44 HONDA PILOT 169
45 TOYOTA SIENNA 166
46 CHEVROLET SUBURBAN 161
47 SUBARU FORESTER 158
48 MERCURY SABLE 156
49 GMC ACADIA 154
50 DODGE DAKOTA 148

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

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 Minnesota resident about a vehicle they purchased in a neighboring state is still tagged to Minnesota; conversely, an out-of-state visitor whose vehicle developed an issue while driving through Minnesota 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 Minnesota'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 Minnesota?
Vehicle owners in Minnesota have filed 15,011 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 Minnesota?
The table above ranks the top 50 most-complained vehicles in Minnesota 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.