State profile
South Carolina vehicle complaints
14,646 NHTSA complaints filed by South Carolina drivers across 50 vehicle models, the models your neighbors flag most.
- Complaints
- 14,646
- Crashes
- 888
- Models
- 50
Volume is not severity
According to NHTSA ODI filings attributed to South Carolina drivers, the FORD F-150 leads complaint volume at 746 (#1 of 50 tracked models) but the HONDA ACCORD leads crash-linked reports at 58 (#1); the FORD EXPLORER leads reported fatalities at 5 (#1).
- 746
- FORD F-150 complaints #1
- 58
- HONDA ACCORD crashes #1
- 5
- 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
South Carolina filings in this extract split 6.1% crash-flagged (FLAG) versus other ODI rows, orthogonal to the make/model top-N bars below.
South Carolina vs all jurisdictions by NHTSA complaint volume
Where this state's owner-attributed ODI complaint count sits among every state and DC on PlainCars
31,082 22nd of 51 higher than 29 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
South Carolina has more filings than 29 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 South Carolina drivers. See our methodology.
South Carolina drivers have submitted 14,646 safety complaints to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration across 50 distinct vehicle models. Those filings include 888 crash reports , 324 fire incidents , and 30 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 South Carolina
Most-complained vehicles in South Carolina
Ranked by NHTSA complaints filed by in-state owners
- FORD F-150
FORD F-150
746 complaints
- FORD EXPLORER
FORD EXPLORER
660 complaints
- JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE
JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE
627 complaints
- FORD FUSION
FORD FUSION
554 complaints
- HONDA ACCORD
HONDA ACCORD
524 complaints
- FORD ESCAPE
FORD ESCAPE
514 complaints
- FORD FOCUS
FORD FOCUS
437 complaints
- CHEVROLET SILVERADO 1500
CHEVROLET SILVERADO 1500
426 complaints
- HYUNDAI SONATA
HYUNDAI SONATA
425 complaints
- CHEVROLET MALIBU
CHEVROLET MALIBU
422 complaints
What this shows The FORD F-150 draws the most NHTSA complaints from South Carolina 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 South Carolina
Nearest ODI volume peers
Closest owner-attributed complaint totals to South Carolina's 31,082 filings (FULL 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 South Carolina compares to the national picture
South Carolina sits #22 of 51 jurisdictions on owner-attributed ODI volume (FULL; 29 jurisdictions file fewer). Absolute counts track population and reporting culture more than per-vehicle defect rates, pair South Carolina's FLAG crash-flag share (6.1%) with model-level national rankings before treating a local leaderboard as a reliability verdict. Inside this extract the FORD F-150 leads South Carolina 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 South Carolina. A a South Carolina 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 South Carolina's FULL 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 South Carolina drivers (14,646 filings across 50 models; vintage August 2026; FULL/FLAG). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of August 2026.