Most-Reported Problems by Brand

Add up every owner complaint in the federal file, brand by brand, and a clear order emerges. Ford owners have filed the most reports by far - which mostly proves Ford has sold a great many vehicles. Read this as a map of where owners spoke up, and how often - not as a reliability score.

293,095Complaints naming Ford - the most of any brandSource: NHTSA Complaints File

267Reports per model year for Tesla - the highest rate on this listAverages out how many model years a brand has on file

1,598,458Distinct owner complaints in the full fileSource: NHTSA Complaints File

30Brands ranked - every brand with 1,000 or more complaintsComputed from the full file

The Ranking

Complaints and model years cover the full federal file, going back decades. "Vehicles covered" adds up the recall campaigns that named each brand; campaigns overlap, so treat it as the size of the brand's recall footprint, not a count of distinct cars.

#	Brand	Complaints	Model Years	Per Model Year	Recall Campaigns	Vehicles Covered	Investigations
1	Ford	293,095	1,817	161	1,760	226,895,184	655
2	Chevrolet	185,804	2,030	92	1,203	178,331,287	434
3	Dodge	111,474	871	128	829	100,027,250	264
4	Toyota	108,086	916	118	427	79,189,925	110
5	Honda	95,322	873	109	424	81,098,295	109
6	Jeep	87,813	337	261	385	52,106,473	121
7	Nissan	72,363	600	121	388	42,995,120	97
8	Hyundai	56,115	415	135	300	29,062,008	72
9	GMC	48,480	1,108	44	725	103,821,086	184
10	Chrysler	46,699	376	124	308	65,786,706	143
11	Kia	44,099	331	133	210	17,562,624	67
12	Volkswagen	34,584	441	78	383	25,760,255	90
13	BMW	29,693	1,607	18	544	15,631,549	53
14	Pontiac	28,436	289	98	339	97,462,070	183
15	Subaru	26,839	310	87	180	16,629,897	38
16	Mazda	22,735	378	60	215	11,849,609	67
17	Mercury	22,374	252	89	319	100,508,542	180
18	Buick	20,673	307	67	356	75,753,613	122
19	Ram	20,409	104	196	198	39,286,145	20
20	Saturn	15,531	164	95	83	19,018,859	47
21	Cadillac	15,323	380	40	277	50,392,479	78
22	Lincoln	14,285	276	52	346	110,959,554	72
23	Mercedes-benz	13,923	742	19	514	10,853,860	13
24	Tesla	13,908	52	267	94	13,463,458	30
25	Acura	13,155	221	60	124	48,419,072	31
26	Audi	12,144	546	22	255	11,614,365	37
27	Lexus	11,983	611	20	122	31,354,717	20
28	Plymouth	10,959	155	71	264	36,702,614	107
29	Mercedes Benz	10,934	735	15	144	5,658,763	35
30	Mitsubishi	10,819	359	30	165	17,911,482	38

What This Can and Cannot Say

A complaint count is not a failure rate. Brands that sold more vehicles collect more complaints, and sales figures by model year are not public data - so we never turn these counts into reliability rankings, here or anywhere on this site. The per-model-year column takes out one distortion (how long a brand has been around and how many models it sells) but not the big one (how many of each it sold). What the table does show honestly: where reports concentrate, which brands draw federal investigations, and how large each brand's recall footprint is. See also: The Biggest Recalls Ever.

How to Read These Counts: complaint counts are owner reports to NHTSA, not failure rates. Older and higher-volume vehicles accumulate more reports, and counts are not adjusted for vehicles sold - no per-sales rate or reliability ranking is shown, because the public data does not support one.

Data as of November 1, 2026. Sources: NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation complaints, recalls, and investigations files (U.S. Government public domain). DefectRecord is not affiliated with NHTSA or any manufacturer. For your specific vehicle, use NHTSA's VIN lookup. Report an error.