The Lemon IndexCar complaint statistics.
906,476 U.S. owner complaints to the government, broken down by system, brand and model.
Key numbers
- 906,476 owner complaints are in our dataset for the 126 models we track by model year.
- Owners reported 46,629 crashes, 16,882 fires, 29,556 injuries and 906 deaths in those complaints. These are owner reports, not verified counts.
- Owners reported 31,672 vehicles towed.
- We track 3,645 different recall campaigns across those models.
- The most reliable brand by owner complaints is Lexus, with a Lemon Index of 30. The highest is Tesla at 322. 100 is the average car.
- The most reliable popular model is the Toyota 4Runner at 26. The highest is the Tesla Model S at 430.
- The Ford EcoSport drew the most check engine light complaints per vehicle sold, at 139.9 per 100,000.
Most complained-about systems
| System | Complaints | Share |
|---|---|---|
| electrical | 31,621 | 17.9% |
| engine | 29,523 | 16.7% |
| transmission & drivetrain | 28,646 | 16.2% |
| unknown or other | 21,227 | 12.0% |
| steering | 15,354 | 8.7% |
Model years 2010 to 2022, whole-model data. One complaint can name more than one system.
Brands
| Brand | Lemon Index |
|---|---|
| Lexus | 30 |
| Porsche | 37 |
| Toyota | 50 |
| BMW | 52 |
| Mercedes-Benz | 54 |
| Nissan | 66 |
| Mazda | 66 |
| Chevrolet | 70 |
| Audi | 74 |
| GMC | 86 |
| Honda | 87 |
| Kia | 88 |
| Acura | 90 |
| Hyundai | 108 |
| Ram | 120 |
| Dodge | 136 |
| Volkswagen | 139 |
| Subaru | 142 |
| Ford | 144 |
| Jeep | 196 |
| Chrysler | 214 |
| Tesla | 322 |
How to cite this
Free to use with credit: Source: The Lemon Index (lemonindex.com)
. The raw data is on the data page, and the method is on how the index works.
Source: NHTSA owner complaints, recalls and sales estimates. Complaints are owner reports, not proof of a defect, and not every owner files one.
Updated