What breaks

Which Cars Have the Most Door, Latch and Lock Problems

Every complaint filed about this part since 1995, by model, by model year, and by the mileage it failed at.

3 min read · 291 figures, all from the federal record · rebuilt 3 hours ago

Owners have filed 20,516 complaints with NHTSA about the doors, latches and locks — 1.0% of every complaint in the file. This is where those complaints land.

The heaviest single model year is the 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan, with 339 complaints about this part alone, 25% of everything reported about that car.

Where owners recorded an odometer reading, the typical doors, latches and locks failure on this list happened at about 67,000 miles.

Worst model years

Vehicle	Complaints	Share of that year	Median failure	Crashes	Fires
C 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan	339	25%	60,725 mi	0	0
C 2004 Toyota Sienna	309	12%	75,000 mi	0	0
C 2007 Honda Cr-V	236	20%	82,500 mi	0	0
A 2000 Ford Focus	204	4%	71,550 mi	6	2
C 2005 Dodge Caravan	203	29%	65,000 mi	0	0
B 2008 Honda Cr-V	201	16%	72,000 mi	0	0
A 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee	163	6%	59,000 mi	1	0
A 2016 Hyundai Tucson	157	7%	63,000 mi	0	0
B 2005 Toyota Sienna	136	10%	58,756 mi	0	0
A 2012 Ford Focus	133	3%	67,000 mi	2	0
A 2005 Nissan Murano	119	10%	69,000 mi	0	0
C 2000 Honda Odyssey	107	14%	73,000 mi	0	0
C 1992 Toyota Camry	89	14%	—	0	2
A 2013 Ford Fusion	87	4%	67,000 mi	0	2
A 2011 Ford Edge	85	3%	54,733 mi	0	0
A 2003 Ford Focus	83	7%	66,666 mi	0	1
A 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee	81	4%	65,000 mi	0	1
C 2004 KIA Optima	81	26%	92,000 mi	0	0
B 1999 Honda Odyssey	78	12%	78,050 mi	0	1
A 2013 Ford Edge	77	2%	47,000 mi	0	0
A 2008 Chevrolet Malibu	71	5%	49,000 mi	0	0
A 2006 Chevrolet HHR	70	5%	56,663 mi	0	0
A 1998 Ford Explorer	69	3%	98,000 mi	0	0
A 2001 Ford Focus	67	3%	78,500 mi	0	0
A 2006 Toyota Sienna	67	5%	55,623 mi	0	0

By brand

Across whole ranges rather than single years. On Ford vehicles this part accounts for 1% of everything owners reported about the brand.

Ford 4,090 23.8%

1% of all Ford complaints, across 76 models

Chevrolet 2,398 13.9%

1% of all Chevrolet complaints, across 89 models

Dodge 2,031 11.8%

1% of all Dodge complaints, across 52 models

Toyota 1,586 9.2%

1% of all Toyota complaints, across 36 models

Honda 1,432 8.3%

1% of all Honda complaints, across 21 models

Nissan 920 5.3%

1% of all Nissan complaints, across 30 models

Jeep 766 4.5%

1% of all Jeep complaints, across 19 models

KIA 620 3.6%

1% of all KIA complaints, across 18 models

Hyundai 600 3.5%

1% of all Hyundai complaints, across 26 models

BMW 575 3.3%

1% of all BMW complaints, across 65 models

Chrysler 523 3.0%

1% of all Chrysler complaints, across 26 models

GMC 481 2.8%

1% of all GMC complaints, across 44 models

Plymouth 415 2.4%

3% of all Plymouth complaints, across 11 models

Volkswagen 403 2.3%

1% of all Volkswagen complaints, across 21 models

Pontiac 371 2.2%

1% of all Pontiac complaints, across 20 models

Complaints about this part, by make.

Where this sits in the whole record

Engine & Cooling 288,020 13.4%

Electrical System 246,872 11.5%

Transmission & Drivetrain 216,960 10.1%

Brakes 196,407 9.1%

Airbags 155,546 7.2%

Steering 143,306 6.7%

Fuel & Propulsion 127,175 5.9%

Other & Unspecified 115,162 5.4%

Body & Structure 103,108 4.8%

Suspension 88,852 4.1%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 84,656 3.9%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 76,576 3.6%

Every complaint in the file, by part.

Source — NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation complaint file.

How this was made. Nobody wrote this article and left it to age. It is generated by a query against the complaint database, and rebuilt every time the data is — so the numbers in the sentences above are the numbers as they stand today, not as they stood when somebody last had time to update them. How the grading works.