State profile
Virginia vehicle complaints
32,609 NHTSA complaints filed by Virginia drivers across 50 vehicle models, the models your neighbors flag most.
- Complaints
- 32,609
- Crashes
- 1,828
- Models
- 50
Volume is not severity
According to NHTSA ODI filings attributed to Virginia drivers, the FORD EXPLORER leads complaint volume at 1,598 (#1 of 50 tracked models) but the TOYOTA CAMRY leads crash-linked reports at 148 (#1); the DODGE GRAND CARAVAN leads reported fatalities at 7 (#1).
- 1,598
- FORD EXPLORER complaints #1
- 148
- TOYOTA CAMRY crashes #1
- 7
- DODGE GRAND CARAVAN 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
Virginia filings in this extract split 5.6% crash-flagged (FLAG) versus other ODI rows, orthogonal to the make/model top-N bars below.
Virginia vs all jurisdictions by NHTSA complaint volume
Where this state's owner-attributed ODI complaint count sits among every state and DC on PlainCars
69,295 10th of 51 higher than 41 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
Virginia has more filings than 41 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 Virginia drivers. See our methodology.
Virginia drivers have submitted 32,609 safety complaints to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration across 50 distinct vehicle models. Those filings include 1,828 crash reports , 648 fire incidents , and 59 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 Virginia
Most-complained vehicles in Virginia
Ranked by NHTSA complaints filed by in-state owners
- FORD EXPLORER
FORD EXPLORER
1,598 complaints
- JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE
JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE
1,462 complaints
- FORD F-150
FORD F-150
1,304 complaints
- FORD ESCAPE
FORD ESCAPE
1,266 complaints
- HONDA ACCORD
HONDA ACCORD
1,246 complaints
- FORD FOCUS
FORD FOCUS
1,044 complaints
- FORD FUSION
FORD FUSION
975 complaints
- HONDA CR-V
HONDA CR-V
846 complaints
- TOYOTA CAMRY
TOYOTA CAMRY
828 complaints
- JEEP WRANGLER
JEEP WRANGLER
823 complaints
What this shows The FORD EXPLORER draws the most NHTSA complaints from Virginia 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 Virginia
Nearest ODI volume peers
Closest owner-attributed complaint totals to Virginia's 69,295 filings (HEAVY 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 Virginia compares to the national picture
Virginia sits #10 of 51 jurisdictions on owner-attributed ODI volume (HEAVY; 41 jurisdictions file fewer). Absolute counts track population and reporting culture more than per-vehicle defect rates, pair Virginia's FLAG crash-flag share (5.6%) with model-level national rankings before treating a local leaderboard as a reliability verdict. Inside this extract the FORD EXPLORER leads Virginia 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 Virginia. A a Virginia 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 Virginia's HEAVY 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 Virginia drivers (32,609 filings across 50 models; vintage August 2026; HEAVY/FLAG). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of August 2026.