Do headlight replacement problems track state safety inspection across states?
Headlight replacement complaints run higher where state safety inspection is higherNHTSA owner complaints about headlight replacement run 15% above what the makes sold there would predict in the 10 states with the highest state safety inspection, and 14% below in the 10 with the lowest.
What it shows: States with more state safety inspection (annual 2, biennial 1, none 0) tend to sit higher on the chart across 48 states: a pattern in the data, not proof of cause.
Data: State inspection programs, multi-state tables and each state agency page, joined to NHTSA owner complaints, downloaded 2026-10-12 · 48 states. Chart: CalcScrape · calcscrape.com
A moderate pattern, probably real but not certain: about 1 in 11 patterns this clear turn out to be false alarms. Dropping any one state leaves the state safety inspection pattern intact.