Used Cars With the Most Suspension Complaints: Ford's Super Duty Leads the NHTSA Data on Volume and Share

Key facts

• Data analyzed: 1,099,513 NHTSA ODI consumer complaints filed 2015-01-01 through 2026-09-03; 31,090 of them (2.83%) coded as SUSPENSION across 6,593 make/model groups.
• Raw-volume leader: Ford F-250 Super Duty, 1,806 suspension complaints — the highest of any model, and nearly double the next nameplate.
• Share leader (500+ total complaints): Ford Windstar, 37.2% (474 of 1,273) — a discontinued 1995-2003 minivan, not a car most people are shopping.
• The two rankings mostly agree. Unlike our airbag analysis, there is no clean flip here: the F-250 Super Duty is 1st on volume and 2nd on share, and four of the top six share positions are heavy-duty Ford pickups.
• Reversal check run: NHTSA files the same truck under both F-250 and F-250 SD. Merging them raises the family to 2,238 complaints (26.6% share) and the leader does not change.
• Caveat: NHTSA complaints are unverified consumer reports with no sales denominator, so this is a count, never a failure rate.

Which used cars have the most suspension complaints?

By raw volume, the Ford F-250 Super Duty tops the list with 1,806 suspension complaints, followed by the Jeep Wrangler (1,105), Toyota Tacoma (979), Tesla Model S (730), and Ford F-350 Super Duty (724). These are the models that generated the largest absolute number of suspension reports filed with NHTSA between 2015 and September 2026.

High-volume nameplates have a structural advantage in a raw count: a model that sells in the millions and draws many complaints of every kind will accumulate more suspension reports too. The Ford Escape is the clearest example — 25,209 total complaints, the most of any model on this list, but only 2.6% of them suspension. The same counting method drives our companion rankings for used cars with the most transmission problems and the models that draw the most engine failure complaints.

Does the ranking change when you correct for complaint volume?

Less than you might expect, and that is the finding. When we rank by suspension complaints as a share of each model's total complaints — limited to models with at least 500 complaints, so small-sample models cannot dominate — the discontinued Ford Windstar comes first at 37.2%. But the F-250 Super Duty is second at 27.4%, and heavy-duty Ford pickups take four of the top six places. The truck that leads the raw count is also near the top of the corrected one.

Two entries need reading carefully. The Ford Windstar is a 1995-2003 minivan with a long rear-axle recall history; almost nobody is shopping one in 2026, and its 37.2% reflects a small, old, still-complaining fleet rather than a live buying risk. The Jeep Wrangler moves the other way: third on volume with 1,105 complaints, it falls to 7.1% on share, because Wrangler owners file a lot of complaints about everything. For a narrower look at one brand, see our analysis of used Tesla Model 3 and Model Y suspension complaints.

Method

Source files. NHTSA publishes its ODI consumer-complaint data as period files at https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/ffdd/cmpl/. We concatenated the three that cover filings from 2015 onward: COMPLAINTS_RECEIVED_2015-2019.zip, COMPLAINTS_RECEIVED_2020-2024.zip and COMPLAINTS_RECEIVED_2025-2026.zip, all retrieved 2026-09-09. Each is tab-delimited with 51 fields and no header row.

A note on which file we used, because it matters. NHTSA also publishes a single combined download, FLAT_CMPL.zip. On the day we ran this analysis that combined file was serving a regressed extract: 1,482,744 rows whose filing dates stop at 2018-07-14, despite a 2026-09-08 timestamp, and despite the same download having carried 2,243,124 rows through 2026 the day before. We verified the archive was intact (CRC check passed), so this is what NHTSA was serving, not a truncated download on our side. Anyone reproducing a "we counted the NHTSA complaints" study from FLAT_CMPL.zip around this date will get a ranking that silently omits eight years of filings. The period files are complete and are what we used.

Universe. 1,099,513 complaint records with a filing date (LDATE) of 2015-01-01 or later, running through 2026-09-03. No duplicate complaint IDs were found across the three files.

Filter. A complaint counts as suspension when its component description (COMPDESC) begins with SUSPENSION. That yields 31,090 records, 2.83% of the universe. NHTSA's coding is coarse here: 96.4% of those rows (29,957) carry the bare label SUSPENSION with no sub-part, so this file cannot reliably separate coil springs from control arms, ball joints or struts. The remaining 3.6% break down into SUSPENSION:REAR (331), SUSPENSION:FRONT:WHEEL BEARING (126), SUSPENSION:FRONT (97), SUSPENSION:FRONT:CONTROL ARM (75) and a long tail.

Aggregation. Grouped by MAKETXT and MODELTXT across all model years — 6,593 groups, of which 1,485 have at least one suspension complaint. Ranked twice: by raw suspension count, and by suspension share of that model's total complaints with a 500-complaint inclusion floor (290 models clear it).

Reversal check, and its result. NHTSA's MODELTXT is free text, so one nameplate can occupy several strings and a naive model ranking can be wrong. We swept the top 40 models for same-make prefix pairs. The material one is Ford's heavy-duty line, filed under both F-250 (432 suspension of 1,837) and F-250 SD (1,806 of 6,581), with nine overlapping model years. Merging the family gives 2,238 suspension complaints of 8,418 (26.6%), which increases the raw-volume lead and moves the share from 2nd to 2nd. The same merge for the F-350 line gives 950 of 4,509 (21.1%). The headline survives the check either way, which is why we report the as-filed strings in the tables and the merged family here. Both are in the frozen dataset.

Known limits. Complaints are unverified consumer reports. The file has no denominator — no sales or registration counts — so nothing here can be read as a failure rate, only as a count and a composition. Nameplates span different model-year ranges, and older or recall-publicized models attract disproportionate filings. Model-year coverage per nameplate is in the CSV.

By the numbers

• 1,099,513 complaint records processed (filed 2015-01-01 to 2026-09-03).
• 31,090 coded SUSPENSION — 2.83% of all complaints in the window.
• 6,593 make/model groups; 1,485 with at least one suspension complaint; 290 cleared the 500-complaint bar for the share ranking.
• 1,806 — Ford F-250 Super Duty suspension complaints, the highest of any model.
• 37.2% — Ford Windstar suspension share, the highest among models with 500+ complaints.
• 96.4% of suspension complaints use the generic SUSPENSION code rather than a specific sub-part.

Based on 1,099,513 NHTSA ODI consumer-complaint records filed 2015-01-01 to 2026-09-03, from NHTSA's COMPLAINTS_RECEIVED period files retrieved 2026-09-09. Complaints are unverified consumer reports, not confirmed defects, and the file carries no sales denominator. Full ranked dataset (all 1,485 models with a suspension complaint): suspension-complaints-by-model-2015-2026.csv.

What is the Jeep Grand Cherokee rear coil spring recall (26V562)?

NHTSA campaign 26V562000 (Chrysler/FCA US) covers 328,381 US Jeep Grand Cherokees in which a rear coil spring may have been incorrectly installed and can detach from the vehicle while driving, creating a road hazard and raising crash risk. The Part 573 Safety Recall Report reached NHTSA on 2026-09-01, and interim owner-notification letters are expected around 2026-09-29. The remedy is a free dealer replacement of the rear coil spring lower isolators.

Two points matter for owners. First, campaign 26V562 supersedes earlier recalls 23V413 (2023) and 26V051 (2026); per NHTSA, vehicles already repaired under those must still get the new remedy. Second, the recalled WL-generation Grand Cherokee barely registers in our complaint ranking — the Grand Cherokee nameplate logged 349 suspension complaints across all model years in this window, and the Grand Cherokee L a further 48 — so the recall and the ranking describe different things. A recall is a manufacturer-confirmed defect in specific build dates; a complaint count is what owners chose to report. (The per-model unit split above is from news reporting cross-checked against the 328,381 total we verified in NHTSA's recalls API; the Part 573 PDF is image-only and was not machine-parsed.) If you are shopping the nameplate, our guide to used Jeep Grand Cherokee problems to check before buying covers the broader history.

What a VIN check can and can't tell you here

A VIN check is a screening step, not proof that a suspension recall was fixed. Entered on a used Grand Cherokee or any model on these lists, NHTSA's free VIN tool and a paid history report both surface whether the vehicle has an open or associated recall and a count of them. What they do not do is equally important, so read the scope plainly.

To confirm the rear-coil-spring fix was performed, check NHTSA's VIN tool for remedy status or ask a Jeep dealer — neither a complaint count nor a history report proves the repair happened. And no VIN report tells you the condition of the suspension on the specific truck in front of you; on a heavy-duty pickup with a towing history, that is what a pre-purchase inspection is for.

Related checks

• Which used cars have the most brake failure complaints
• Used car brands with the most recalls
• Which cars have the most fire complaints

Sources

• NHTSA ODI consumer complaints, 2025-2026 period file — part of the primary dataset we processed
• NHTSA ODI consumer complaints, 2020-2024 period file
• NHTSA ODI consumer complaints, 2015-2019 period file
• NHTSA Part 573 Safety Recall Report 26V-562 (Jeep Grand Cherokee rear coil spring)
• NHTSA recalls API record for campaign 26V562000 (328,381 units, verified 2026-09-09)
• NHTSA recalls lookup / Safety Issues & Recalls portal
• Zilocar frozen dataset: suspension complaints by model, 2015-2026
• Autoblog — Jeep recalls 328,381 Grand Cherokees for rear coil springs
• autoevolution — 328,381 Jeep Grand Cherokee SUVs recalled (per-model breakdown)
• CBS News — Chrysler recalls Jeep Grand Cherokees, rear coil spring may detach

Last verified: 2026-09-09