Do car door repair problems track spending on vehicle maintenance and repair per resident across states?
Car door repair complaints run slightly higher where spending on vehicle maintenance and repair per resident is higherNHTSA owner complaints about car door repair run 10% above what the makes sold there would predict in the 10 states with the highest spending on vehicle maintenance and repair per resident, and 5% above in the 10 with the lowest.
What it shows: States with more spending on vehicle maintenance and repair per resident (dollars) tend to sit higher on the chart across 40 states: a pattern in the data, not proof of cause.
Data: BEA Personal Consumption Expenditures by State 2024, motor vehicle maintenance and repair, joined to NHTSA owner complaints, downloaded 2026-10-12 · 40 states. Chart: CalcScrape · calcscrape.com
A moderate pattern, probably real but not certain: about 1 in 16 patterns this clear turn out to be false alarms. Weak spot: hold freezing days equal and only 27% of the spending on vehicle maintenance and repair per resident pattern remains, so part of it may be that factor.