State profile
Rhode Island vehicle complaints
3,435 NHTSA complaints filed by Rhode Island drivers across 50 vehicle models, the models your neighbors flag most.
- Complaints
- 3,435
- Crashes
- 214
- Models
- 50
Volume is not severity
According to NHTSA ODI filings attributed to Rhode Island drivers, the JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE leads complaint volume at 197 (#1 of 50) but the TOYOTA CAMRY leads crash-linked reports at 26 (#1).
- 197
- JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE complaints #1
- 26
- TOYOTA CAMRY crashes #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
Rhode Island filings in this extract split 6.2% crash-flagged (FLAG) versus other ODI rows, orthogonal to the make/model top-N bars below.
Rhode Island vs all jurisdictions by NHTSA complaint volume
Where this state's owner-attributed ODI complaint count sits among every state and DC on PlainCars
6,911 43rd of 51 higher than 8 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
Rhode Island has more filings than 8 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 Rhode Island drivers. See our methodology.
Rhode Island drivers have submitted 3,435 safety complaints to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration across 50 distinct vehicle models. Those filings include 214 crash reports , 87 fire incidents , and 4 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 Rhode Island
Most-complained vehicles in Rhode Island
Ranked by NHTSA complaints filed by in-state owners
- JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE
JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE
197 complaints
- FORD F-150
FORD F-150
139 complaints
- JEEP WRANGLER
JEEP WRANGLER
136 complaints
- HONDA ACCORD
HONDA ACCORD
128 complaints
- NISSAN ALTIMA
NISSAN ALTIMA
113 complaints
- TOYOTA CAMRY
TOYOTA CAMRY
109 complaints
- HYUNDAI SONATA
HYUNDAI SONATA
108 complaints
- FORD TAURUS
FORD TAURUS
107 complaints
- VOLKSWAGEN JETTA
VOLKSWAGEN JETTA
94 complaints
- HONDA CR-V
HONDA CR-V
87 complaints
What this shows The JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE draws the most NHTSA complaints from Rhode Island 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 Rhode Island
Nearest ODI volume peers
Closest owner-attributed complaint totals to Rhode Island's 6,911 filings (LIGHT 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 Rhode Island compares to the national picture
Rhode Island sits #43 of 51 jurisdictions on owner-attributed ODI volume (LIGHT; 8 jurisdictions file fewer). Absolute counts track population and reporting culture more than per-vehicle defect rates, pair Rhode Island's FLAG crash-flag share (6.2%) with model-level national rankings before treating a local leaderboard as a reliability verdict. Inside this extract the JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE leads Rhode Island 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 Rhode Island. A a Rhode Island 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 Rhode Island'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 Rhode Island drivers (3,435 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.