Do engine overhaul problems track spending on vehicle maintenance and repair per resident across states?
Across U.S. states, NHTSA owner complaints about engine overhaul run higher where spending on vehicle maintenance and repair per resident is higher, after adjusting for the makes sold in each state. This is an association across states, not proof that spending on vehicle maintenance and repair per resident causes this repair.
State reports of this repair against spending on vehicle maintenance and repair per resident, one dot per stateEach dot is a state: how much more (or less) than expected this repair is reported there, adjusted for the makes sold in the state, against its spending on vehicle maintenance and repair per resident (dollars)
How to read it: Each dot is a state. Further right means more spending on vehicle maintenance and repair per resident (dollars); higher up means more complaints for this repair than expected (1.0 is average). If the dots climb to the right, reports of this repair rise with spending on vehicle maintenance and repair per resident (dollars).
What it shows: States with more spending on vehicle maintenance and repair per resident (dollars) tend to sit higher on the chart across 39 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 2026-10-06 · 39 states. Chart: CalcScrape · calcscrape.com
The 10 states with the most spending on vehicle maintenance and repair per resident (New Hampshire, Colorado, Nebraska, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Missouri, California, Utah, Maryland): reports of this repair run 12% above what the makes sold there would predict, and 6 of 10 are above expected. The 10 with the least (Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, Florida, New York, Ohio, South Carolina): 16% below, and 2 of 10 are above expected.
Exceptions: New Hampshire, Massachusetts and California are among the highest in spending on vehicle maintenance and repair per resident but report below expected.
Split the states into thirds: the third with the least spending on vehicle maintenance and repair per resident runs 10% below what the makes sold there would predict, the middle third 13% above, and the third with the most 13% above. Most of the spending on vehicle maintenance and repair per resident effect sits between the lowest and the middle third.
For spending on vehicle maintenance and repair per resident, after allowing for the 1562 comparisons we ran, luck alone would produce a pattern this strong about 1 time in 17. Take out any single state and the spending on vehicle maintenance and repair per resident pattern still holds.
Weak spot: compare only states with similar freezing days and the pattern keeps about 40% of its strength, so part of it may come from freezing days instead of spending on vehicle maintenance and repair per resident.
For spending on vehicle maintenance and repair per resident, of the 5 exception states, 0 read the same way for the other parts of the system (so that is the system there, not this repair) and 5 are specific to this repair.
Residents who spend more on vehicle repair are fixing more or paying more per fix, which changes how many repair problems are reported.