Trends and geography

What Thirty Years of Complaints Show

The shape of the whole file: when people complain, about what, and how that has changed since 1995.

2 min read · 115 figures, all from the federal record · rebuilt 3 hours ago

The file opens in 1995 and now holds 2,151,276 complaints. It is not a steady stream: filings spike when a defect reaches the press, when a recall lands, and when a class action starts advertising.

The heaviest year on record is 2014, with 111,754 complaints filed.

Complaints filed each year

1995 28,164 1.3%

1996 35,610 1.7%

1997 28,383 1.3%

1998 32,389 1.5%

1999 59,471 2.8%

2000 62,948 2.9%

2001 56,604 2.6%

2002 54,411 2.5%

2003 54,537 2.5%

2004 62,254 2.9%

2005 49,007 2.3%

2006 37,262 1.7%

2007 39,914 1.9%

2008 45,695 2.1%

2009 45,057 2.1%

2010 79,034 3.7%

2011 60,962 2.8%

2012 56,108 2.6%

2013 71,910 3.3%

2014 111,754 5.2%

2015 103,909 4.8%

2016 94,474 4.4%

2017 90,384 4.2%

2018 89,883 4.2%

2019 104,996 4.9%

2020 82,838 3.9%

2021 68,096 3.2%

2022 75,198 3.5%

2023 90,334 4.2%

2024 96,400 4.5%

2025 108,129 5.0%

2026 75,161 3.5%

By the year the complaint reached NHTSA, not the model year of the car.

What the whole file is about

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%

Lights 64,754 3.0%

Driver Assist & Collision Avoidance 43,924 2.0%

Tires 40,309 1.9%

Seat Belts 38,602 1.8%

Seats 28,521 1.3%

Wheels 24,127 1.1%

Stability & Traction Control 23,937 1.1%

Equipment & Accessories 22,421 1.0%

Doors, Latches & Locks 20,516 1.0%

Child Seats 1,525 0.1%

Source — NHTSA complaint file, all 2,151,276 records.

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.