Getting behind the wheel of a car that is new to you can be exciting, but it can also be full of frustrating surprises.
While it may seem like this is an issue for used car shoppers only, the truth is that drivers of new and used cars alike are all at risk of discovering problems with their vehicle.
At the Lemon Law Experts, we work closely with drivers who have cars that require constant repairs. That’s why we take consumer complaints seriously.
While we see our fair share of lemon law claims and vehicle recalls, we wanted to dive into complaint data to learn which cars are causing Americans the most stress.
To do this, we collected more than one million consumer complaints filed between 2015 to 2026 from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
We then analyzed this data and ranked the cars with the most complaints overall. In addition to our individual car rankings, we also uncovered the types of complaints most frequently made.
Read on to learn which cars are really grinding drivers’ gears.
Key Takeaways
- Chrysler Town & Country and Ford Focus are the best-selling cars with the most complaints.
- Mazda CX-5 and Mercedes-Benz GLE are the best-selling cars with the least complaints.
- Ford and Jeep have the most cars in the top 50 for most complaints.
- Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep are the brands that get the most complaints. Mazda, Audi, and Toyota get the fewest.
- The Hyundai Sonata and Ford Edge are the best-selling cars still in production that get the most complaints.
- Engines, electrical systems, and air bags get the most complaints.
Best-Selling Cars That Drivers Complain About the Most
While it’s possible some cars were removed from production due to frequent issues, we decided to keep the best-selling vehicles that have been discontinued due to their heavy circulation on the roads and on used car lots.
We then discovered that discontinued vehicles claim 6 of the top 10 cars with the most complaints.
Topping the list is the Chrysler Town & Country with 2,309 complaints per 100,000 sales. Discontinued in 2016, the Chrysler Town & Country had 413,839 sales over the last decade and more than 9,500 complaints from drivers.
Coming in second place is a recently discontinued car, the Ford Focus, which was removed from production for global markets in November 2025. With more than 1.1 million sales since 2015, there have been 1,427 complaints per 100,000 sales.
Up next are two more Chrysler vehicles with the Chrysler 300 in third place for complaints, followed by the Chrysler 200 in fourth place.
Wrapping up the top 5 is another Ford vehicle, the Ford Fusion, which had the most sales of any car in the top 10 at 1,839,864 sales since 2015. The Fusion ranks fifth for the most complaints at 1,242 per 100,000 sales.
This brings us to the first vehicle that remains in production — the Hyundai Sonata, which ranks sixth for the most complaints (1,114).
This is followed by two more cars that are still being made, the Ford Edge (1,100) and the GMC Yukon (1,065), claiming seventh and eighth place, respectively.
Among the top 100 best-selling cars, we also found that many have significantly lower complaints. Leading the way with the least complaints is the Mazda CX-5 (176), followed by the Mercedes-Benz GLE (186) and the Toyota Highlander (199) in second and third place.
When looking at cars by manufacturer, we found Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep are the brands that get the most complaints.
Drivers of Mazda, Audi, and Toyota vehicles are likely to have the least headaches as the manufacturers rank for the least complaints.
Top Car Complaints Among Americans
After uncovering the best-selling cars with the most complaints, we wanted to dig into the specific parts of vehicles most frequently criticized. Leading the way with 134,016 total complaints over the past decade are engine complaints.
When looking at the cars most commonly associated with engine complaints, we found Kia Optima was the most common with 309.6 complaints per 100,000 sales. This is followed by the Hyundai Sonata (307.4) and Kia Sorento (288.2) in second and third place, respectively.
The second most common area of complaint is electrical systems with 122,563 total complaints. This includes complaints about the car battery, starter, or alternator. Up next, with 95,617 complaints overall, air bags are the third most common area of complaint.
By car, the Chrysler 300 (299.6), Volkswagen Passat (278.5), and Chrysler Town & Country (255.2) have the most air bag complaints per 100,000 sales.
Coming in fourth for types of complaints is the vehicle power train (92,630), which includes the engine, transmission, driveshaft, axles, and differential in a car. Rounding out the top 5 is vehicle steering with 71,829 total complaints since 2015.
Conclusion
Cars play a major role in our everyday lives. Whether it’s going to and from work, swinging by the grocery store, or stopping at a friend’s house, having a functioning car is crucial to ensuring a stress-free life.
If you find yourself constantly making repeat trips to a car repair shop, it’s likely more than just a string of bad luck.
As Lemon Law Experts, we advocate for consumers like you so that you can get the compensation you deserve while saying goodbye to constant vehicle repairs. If you think you might be driving a lemon, get started today by sending our team details for a free case evaluation.
Methodology
In January 2026, we set out to learn which cars people complain about most in the U.S. To do this, we collected 1.02 million consumer complaints between 2015 to 2026 from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in January 2026.
Then, to establish the top 100 best-selling vehicles in the U.S., we used data from Good Car Bad Car reflecting sales from 2013 to 2022. We then used these two datasets to determine which cars sold and operated in the U.S. incur the highest rate of consumer complaints.
In our primary rankings, we chose to include discontinued models that were top sellers over the past decade because they are both highly prevalent in the complaints data, and more importantly, actively operated on roads and frequently sold used.
To exclude these models would be to ignore a large segment of vehicles currently driven in the U.S. Finally, after ranking cars with the most and least consumer complaints, we ranked the most common types of complaints and the cars that topped each category of complaints.
