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
Volume is not severity
According to NHTSA ODI filings attributed to Ohio drivers, the FORD ESCAPE leads complaint volume at 2,321 (#1 of 50 tracked models) but the TOYOTA CAMRY leads crash-linked reports at 121 (#1); the FORD EXPLORER leads reported fatalities at 4 (#1).
- 2,321
- FORD ESCAPE complaints #1
- 121
- TOYOTA CAMRY crashes #1
- 4
- FORD EXPLORER 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.
Crash-flagged vs other filings
Ohio filings in this extract split 5.3% crash-flagged (FLAG) versus other ODI rows, orthogonal to the make/model top-N bars below.
Ohio vs all jurisdictions by NHTSA complaint volume
Where this state's owner-attributed ODI complaint count sits among every state and DC on PlainCars
87,662 6th of 51 higher than 45 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
Ohio has more filings than 45 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 Ohio drivers. See our methodology.
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 , 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 Ohio
Most-complained vehicles in Ohio
Ranked by NHTSA complaints filed by in-state owners
- FORD ESCAPE
FORD ESCAPE
2,321 complaints
- FORD F-150
FORD F-150
2,055 complaints
- CHEVROLET MALIBU
CHEVROLET MALIBU
1,745 complaints
- FORD FUSION
FORD FUSION
1,586 complaints
- FORD TAURUS
FORD TAURUS
1,566 complaints
- FORD EXPLORER
FORD EXPLORER
1,534 complaints
- FORD FOCUS
FORD FOCUS
1,519 complaints
- JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE
JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE
1,479 complaints
- FORD WINDSTAR
FORD WINDSTAR
1,398 complaints
- HONDA ACCORD
HONDA ACCORD
1,142 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.
Full ranking: top 50 most-complained vehicles in Ohio
Nearest ODI volume peers
Closest owner-attributed complaint totals to Ohio's 87,662 filings (DENSE band) - NHTSA ODI volume stamps, not an alphabetical state strip.
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
Ohio sits #6 of 51 jurisdictions on owner-attributed ODI volume (DENSE; 45 jurisdictions file fewer). Absolute counts track population and reporting culture more than per-vehicle defect rates, pair Ohio's FLAG crash-flag share (5.3%) with model-level national rankings before treating a local leaderboard as a reliability verdict. Inside this extract the FORD ESCAPE leads Ohio 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 Ohio. A an Ohio 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 Ohio's DENSE 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 Ohio drivers (42,200 filings across 50 models; vintage August 2026; DENSE/FLAG). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of August 2026.