PlainCars

State profile

Ohio vehicle complaints

42,200 NHTSA complaints filed by Ohio drivers across 50 vehicle models — the models your neighbors flag most.

Complaints
42,200
Crashes
2,230
Models
50

Ohio drivers have submitted 42,200 safety complaints to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration across 50 distinct vehicle models. Those filings include 2,230 crash reports , 828 fire incidents , and 39 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 Ohio with 13,704 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 Ohio right now is the FORD ESCAPE (2,321 complaints, model years 2001–2024). 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 Ohio 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 Ohio's fleet turnover over time — the same dataset federal regulators rely on when they open Preliminary Evaluations.

Severe outcomes reported in Ohio

2,230
Crash reports
828
Fire incidents
39
Reported fatalities
Most complained make in Ohio
FORD (13,704 complaints)

Most-complained vehicles in Ohio

Ranked by NHTSA complaints filed by in-state owners

complaints

What this shows The FORD ESCAPE draws the most NHTSA complaints from Ohio 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 Ohio

# Vehicle Complaints
1 FORD ESCAPE 2,321
2 FORD F-150 2,055
3 CHEVROLET MALIBU 1,745
4 FORD FUSION 1,586
5 FORD TAURUS 1,566
6 FORD EXPLORER 1,534
7 FORD FOCUS 1,519
8 JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE 1,479
9 FORD WINDSTAR 1,398
10 HONDA ACCORD 1,142
11 CHRYSLER TOWN AND COUNTRY 1,104
12 JEEP CHEROKEE 1,013
13 CHEVROLET SILVERADO 1500 978
14 DODGE GRAND CARAVAN 965
15 HYUNDAI SONATA 909
16 CHEVROLET IMPALA 904
17 JEEP WRANGLER 869
18 CHEVROLET EQUINOX 821
19 HONDA CR-V 811
20 DODGE DURANGO 806
21 HONDA CIVIC 779
22 FORD EDGE 776
23 CHEVROLET COBALT 707
24 HONDA ODYSSEY 695
25 DODGE CARAVAN 661
26 TOYOTA CAMRY 656
27 PONTIAC G6 640
28 CHRYSLER PACIFICA 640
29 CHEVROLET SILVERADO 625
30 NISSAN ALTIMA 624
31 CHEVROLET BLAZER 624
32 JEEP LIBERTY 608
33 PONTIAC GRAND AM 583
34 KIA SORENTO 559
35 DODGE RAM 1500 550
36 CHEVROLET TRAILBLAZER 550
37 FORD RANGER 539
38 RAM 1500 512
39 VOLKSWAGEN JETTA 501
40 PONTIAC GRAND PRIX 500
41 DODGE INTREPID 487
42 TOYOTA COROLLA 448
43 CHEVROLET CAVALIER 448
44 DODGE DAKOTA 440
45 HONDA PILOT 435
46 HYUNDAI ELANTRA 429
47 CHEVROLET S10 429
48 CHEVROLET CRUZE 422
49 FORD MUSTANG 410
50 MERCURY SABLE 398

Most-Complained Ohio Vehicles

FORD ESCAPE

2,321 complaints

FORD F-150

2,055 complaints

4 deaths

CHEVROLET MALIBU

1,745 complaints

FORD FUSION

1,586 complaints

FORD TAURUS

1,566 complaints

3 deaths
Compare FORD ESCAPE vs FORD F-150 →

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

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 Ohio resident about a vehicle they purchased in a neighboring state is still tagged to Ohio; conversely, an out-of-state visitor whose vehicle developed an issue while driving through Ohio 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 Ohio'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 Ohio?
Vehicle owners in Ohio have filed 42,200 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 Ohio?
The table above ranks the top 50 most-complained vehicles in Ohio 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.

Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.