PlainCars

State profile

Montana vehicle complaints

2,735 NHTSA complaints filed by Montana drivers across 50 vehicle models, the models your neighbors flag most.

Complaints
2,735
Crashes
174
Models
50

Volume is not severity

According to NHTSA ODI filings attributed to Montana drivers, the FORD F-150 leads complaint volume at 188 (#1 of 50 tracked models) but the DODGE DAKOTA leads crash-linked reports at 8 (#1); the DODGE CARAVAN leads reported fatalities at 9 (#1).

188
FORD F-150 complaints #1
8
DODGE DAKOTA crashes #1
9
DODGE CARAVAN 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.

ODI volume LIGHT Crash-flag FLAG (6.4%)

Crash-flagged vs other filings

Montana filings in this extract split 6.4% crash-flagged (FLAG) versus other ODI rows, orthogonal to the make/model top-N bars below.

Montana vs all jurisdictions by NHTSA complaint volume

Where this state's owner-attributed ODI complaint count sits among every state and DC on PlainCars

5,088 47th of 51 higher than 4 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

Montana has more filings than 4 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 Montana drivers. See our methodology.

Montana drivers have submitted 2,735 safety complaints to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration across 50 distinct vehicle models. Those filings include 174 crash reports , 70 fire incidents , and 13 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 Montana

174
Crash reports
70
Fire incidents
13
Reported fatalities
Most complained make in Montana
FORD (821 complaints)

Most-complained vehicles in Montana

Ranked by NHTSA complaints filed by in-state owners

complaints

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

# Vehicle Complaints
1 FORD F-150 188
2 DODGE RAM 2500 144
3 SUBARU OUTBACK 110
4 JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE 104
5 FORD F-250 97
6 CHEVROLET SILVERADO 1500 93
7 RAM 1500 91
8 FORD EXPLORER 90
9 DODGE RAM 3500 81
10 FORD ESCAPE 74
11 FORD TAURUS 73
12 DODGE RAM 1500 72
13 CHEVROLET IMPALA 67
14 FORD EDGE 66
15 DODGE DURANGO 66
16 JEEP CHEROKEE 62
17 FORD F-350 62
18 FORD FOCUS 59
19 DODGE GRAND CARAVAN 51
20 JEEP WRANGLER 50
21 SUBARU FORESTER 49
22 CHEVROLET SUBURBAN 49
23 TOYOTA TUNDRA 47
24 HONDA CR-V 47
25 CHEVROLET MALIBU 47
26 GMC SIERRA 1500 43
27 DODGE RAM 43
28 DODGE DAKOTA 42
29 CHEVROLET SILVERADO 42
30 TOYOTA TACOMA 40
31 DODGE CARAVAN 40
32 CHEVROLET EQUINOX 37
33 RAM 2500 35
34 CHEVROLET BLAZER 34
35 FORD EXPEDITION 33
36 CHRYSLER TOWN AND COUNTRY 31
37 TOYOTA RAV4 30
38 CHEVROLET TRAILBLAZER 29
39 RAM 3500 28
40 HONDA CIVIC 28
41 FORD WINDSTAR 28
42 SUBARU LEGACY 27
43 PONTIAC GRAND AM 27
44 NISSAN PATHFINDER 27
45 HONDA PILOT 26
46 FORD F-350 SD 26
47 KIA SEPHIA 25
48 HYUNDAI SANTA FE 25
49 FORD FUSION 25
50 CHEVROLET COBALT 25

Nearest ODI volume peers

Closest owner-attributed complaint totals to Montana's 5,088 filings (LIGHT band) - NHTSA ODI volume stamps, not an alphabetical state strip.

Vermont

5,320 · LIGHT · Δ232

Alaska

4,406 · THIN · Δ682

Hawaii

6,648 · LIGHT · Δ1,560

South Dakota

3,445 · THIN · Δ1,643
Compare FORD F-150 vs DODGE RAM 2500 →

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 Montana compares to the national picture

Montana sits #47 of 51 jurisdictions on owner-attributed ODI volume (LIGHT; 4 jurisdictions file fewer). Absolute counts track population and reporting culture more than per-vehicle defect rates, pair Montana's FLAG crash-flag share (6.4%) with model-level national rankings before treating a local leaderboard as a reliability verdict. Inside this extract the FORD F-150 leads Montana 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 Montana. A a Montana 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 Montana's LIGHT 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 Montana drivers (2,735 filings across 50 models; vintage August 2026; LIGHT/FLAG). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of August 2026.