State profile

Missouri vehicle complaints

18,888 NHTSA complaints filed by Missouri drivers across 50 vehicle models — the models your neighbors flag most.

Complaints
18,888
Crashes
1,138
Models
50

Missouri drivers have submitted 18,888 safety complaints to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration across 50 distinct vehicle models. Those filings include 1,138 crash reports , 457 fire incidents , and 42 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 Missouri with 6,560 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 Missouri right now is the FORD F-150 (1,126 complaints, model years 1987–2024). 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 Missouri 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 Missouri's fleet turnover over time — the same dataset federal regulators rely on when they open Preliminary Evaluations.

Severe outcomes reported in Missouri

1,138
Crash reports
457
Fire incidents
42
Reported fatalities
Most complained make in Missouri
FORD (6,560 complaints)

Most-complained vehicles in Missouri

Ranked by NHTSA complaints filed by in-state owners

complaints

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

# Vehicle Complaints
1 FORD F-150 1,126
2 FORD ESCAPE 917
3 FORD EXPLORER 887
4 CHEVROLET MALIBU 841
5 FORD FUSION 786
6 FORD FOCUS 736
7 JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE 556
8 FORD TAURUS 545
9 CHEVROLET SILVERADO 1500 490
10 CHRYSLER TOWN AND COUNTRY 489
11 DODGE GRAND CARAVAN 487
12 DODGE DURANGO 485
13 JEEP CHEROKEE 445
14 FORD WINDSTAR 434
15 CHEVROLET IMPALA 422
16 FORD EDGE 419
17 JEEP WRANGLER 372
18 HYUNDAI SONATA 360
19 CHEVROLET COBALT 336
20 HONDA ACCORD 335
21 CHEVROLET EQUINOX 332
22 DODGE CARAVAN 330
23 PONTIAC GRAND AM 313
24 DODGE RAM 1500 312
25 NISSAN ALTIMA 305
26 RAM 1500 301
27 DODGE DAKOTA 269
28 PONTIAC G6 267
29 TOYOTA CAMRY 266
30 FORD RANGER 264
31 KIA SORENTO 256
32 CHEVROLET SILVERADO 249
33 JEEP LIBERTY 246
34 KIA OPTIMA 239
35 HONDA CR-V 237
36 HONDA ODYSSEY 235
37 FORD F-250 234
38 CHEVROLET S10 228
39 HONDA CIVIC 227
40 GMC SIERRA 1500 227
41 CHEVROLET BLAZER 223
42 GMC ACADIA 213
43 CHEVROLET CAVALIER 213
44 FORD MUSTANG 212
45 CHRYSLER PACIFICA 210
46 CHEVROLET TRAVERSE 206
47 DODGE RAM 2500 204
48 DODGE JOURNEY 203
49 CHEVROLET TRAILBLAZER 201
50 HYUNDAI ELANTRA 198

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

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 Missouri resident about a vehicle they purchased in a neighboring state is still tagged to Missouri; conversely, an out-of-state visitor whose vehicle developed an issue while driving through Missouri 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 Missouri'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 Missouri?
Vehicle owners in Missouri have filed 18,888 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 Missouri?
The table above ranks the top 50 most-complained vehicles in Missouri 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.