Do car battery replacement problems track vehicle miles driven per lane-mile of public road across states?
Across U.S. states, NHTSA owner complaints about car battery replacement run higher where vehicle miles driven per lane-mile of public road is higher, after adjusting for the makes sold in each state. This is an association across states, not proof that vehicle miles driven per lane-mile of public road causes this repair.
State reports of this repair against vehicle miles driven per lane-mile of public road, 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 vehicle miles driven per lane-mile of public road
How to read it: Each dot is a state. Further right means more vehicle miles driven per lane-mile of public road; 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 vehicle miles driven per lane-mile of public road.
What it shows: States with more vehicle miles driven per lane-mile of public road tend to sit higher on the chart across 51 states: a pattern in the data, not proof of cause.
Data: FHWA Highway Statistics 2023, tables VM-2 and HM-60, joined to NHTSA owner complaints, downloaded 2026-10-06 · 51 states. Chart: CalcScrape · calcscrape.com
The 10 states with the most vehicle miles driven per lane-mile of public road (Hawaii, District of Columbia, New Jersey, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, California, Delaware, Connecticut, Rhode Island): reports of this repair run 10% above what the makes sold there would predict, and 8 of 10 are above expected. The 10 with the least (North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Wyoming, Alaska, Idaho, New Mexico): 10% below, and 4 of 10 are above expected.
Exceptions: New Jersey and Florida are among the highest in vehicle miles driven per lane-mile of public road but report below expected.
Split the states into thirds: the third with the least vehicle miles driven per lane-mile of public road runs 3% below what the makes sold there would predict, the middle third 3% below, and the third with the most 5% above. Most of the vehicle miles driven per lane-mile of public road effect sits in the third with the most.
For vehicle miles driven per lane-mile of public road, after allowing for the 1562 comparisons we ran, luck alone would produce a pattern this strong about 1 time in 32. Take out any single state and the vehicle miles driven per lane-mile of public road pattern still holds.
Weak spot: compare only states with similar cost of living index and the pattern keeps about 0% of its strength, so part of it may come from cost of living index instead of vehicle miles driven per lane-mile of public road.
Where each lane-mile of road carries more traffic, vehicles spend more of their miles stopping and starting, which wears brakes, tires, clutches and suspension.