State profile

Vermont vehicle complaints

2,683 NHTSA complaints filed by Vermont drivers across 50 vehicle models — the models your neighbors flag most.

Complaints
2,683
Crashes
162
Models
50

Vermont drivers have submitted 2,683 safety complaints to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration across 50 distinct vehicle models. Those filings include 162 crash reports , 65 fire incidents , and 5 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 Vermont with 649 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 Vermont right now is the FORD F-150 (140 complaints, model years 1991–2023). 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 Vermont 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 Vermont's fleet turnover over time — the same dataset federal regulators rely on when they open Preliminary Evaluations.

Severe outcomes reported in Vermont

162
Crash reports
65
Fire incidents
5
Reported fatalities
Most complained make in Vermont
FORD (649 complaints)

Most-complained vehicles in Vermont

Ranked by NHTSA complaints filed by in-state owners

complaints

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

# Vehicle Complaints
1 FORD F-150 140
2 SUBARU OUTBACK 115
3 JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE 113
4 TOYOTA TACOMA 105
5 TOYOTA TUNDRA 90
6 FORD FOCUS 87
7 FORD EXPLORER 81
8 FORD ESCAPE 80
9 FORD WINDSTAR 79
10 JEEP WRANGLER 75
11 CHEVROLET SILVERADO 1500 69
12 DODGE DAKOTA 67
13 TOYOTA COROLLA 66
14 HONDA CR-V 66
15 SUBARU FORESTER 61
16 TOYOTA 4RUNNER 60
17 JEEP CHEROKEE 58
18 FORD RANGER 57
19 VOLKSWAGEN JETTA 56
20 FORD TAURUS 56
21 DODGE GRAND CARAVAN 54
22 TOYOTA RAV4 53
23 TOYOTA PRIUS 53
24 CHEVROLET SILVERADO 50
25 DODGE CARAVAN 48
26 HONDA ACCORD 46
27 SUBARU IMPREZA 45
28 FORD FUSION 43
29 TOYOTA SIENNA 42
30 CHEVROLET MALIBU 41
31 HONDA CIVIC 40
32 CHRYSLER TOWN AND COUNTRY 40
33 SUBARU LEGACY 39
34 GMC SIERRA 1500 37
35 JEEP LIBERTY 33
36 GMC SIERRA 33
37 TOYOTA CAMRY 32
38 CHEVROLET EQUINOX 32
39 NISSAN ROGUE 31
40 NISSAN ALTIMA 31
41 CHEVROLET IMPALA 31
42 CHEVROLET COBALT 31
43 KIA SPORTAGE 30
44 VOLKSWAGEN TIGUAN 29
45 CHEVROLET BLAZER 28
46 KIA SORENTO 26
47 HYUNDAI SONATA 26
48 FORD ESCORT 26
49 DODGE DURANGO 26
50 CHEVROLET CAVALIER 26

Most-Complained Vermont Vehicles

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

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 Vermont resident about a vehicle they purchased in a neighboring state is still tagged to Vermont; conversely, an out-of-state visitor whose vehicle developed an issue while driving through Vermont 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 Vermont'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 Vermont?
Vehicle owners in Vermont have filed 2,683 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 Vermont?
The table above ranks the top 50 most-complained vehicles in Vermont 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.