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 · 93 figures, all from the federal record · rebuilt 3 weeks ago

The file opens in 1995 and now holds 2,159,197 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 1.6%

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 1.8%

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 3.8%

2021 68,096 3.2%

2022 75,198 3.5%

2023 90,334 4.2%

2024 96,400 4.5%

2025 108,128 5.0%

2026 83,083 3.8%

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

What the whole file is about

Engine & Cooling 289,593 13.4%

Electrical System 247,927 11.5%

Transmission & Drivetrain 217,883 10.1%

Brakes 196,879 9.1%

Airbags 155,744 7.2%

Steering 143,665 6.7%

Fuel & Propulsion 127,655 5.9%

Other & Unspecified 115,955 5.4%

Body & Structure 103,383 4.8%

Suspension 89,005 4.1%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 84,834 3.9%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 76,714 3.6%

Lights 64,889 3.0%

Driver Assist & Collision Avoidance 44,751 2.1%

Tires 40,365 1.9%

Seat Belts 38,689 1.8%

Seats 28,603 1.3%

Wheels 24,180 1.1%

Stability & Traction Control 23,940 1.1%

Equipment & Accessories 22,447 1.0%

Doors, Latches & Locks 20,553 1.0%

Child Seats 1,543 0.1%

Source — NHTSA complaint file, all 2,159,197 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.