Do wheel alignment problems track share of residents living in urban areas across states?
Across U.S. states, NHTSA owner complaints about wheel alignment run higher where share of residents living in urban areas is higher, after adjusting for the makes sold in each state. This is an association across states, not proof that share of residents living in urban areas causes this repair.
State reports of this repair against share of residents living in urban areas, 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 share of residents living in urban areas
How to read it: Each dot is a state. Further right means more share of residents living in urban areas; 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 share of residents living in urban areas.
What it shows: States with more share of residents living in urban areas tend to sit higher on the chart across 34 states: a pattern in the data, not proof of cause.
Data: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census (P2 urban and rural population), joined to NHTSA owner complaints, downloaded 2026-10-06 · 34 states. Chart: CalcScrape · calcscrape.com
The 10 states with the most share of residents living in urban areas (California, Nevada, New Jersey, Florida, Massachusetts, Arizona, New York, Illinois, Connecticut, Colorado): reports of this repair run 7% above what the makes sold there would predict, and 7 of 10 are above expected. The 10 with the least (West Virginia, Arkansas, Alabama, Kentucky, Iowa, Oklahoma, Tennessee, North Carolina, Wisconsin, South Carolina): 4% below, and 3 of 10 are above expected.
Exceptions: California, New Jersey and Illinois are among the highest in share of residents living in urban areas but report below expected; West Virginia (36% above expected) is among the lowest but above expected.
Split the states into thirds: the third with the least share of residents living in urban areas runs 5% below what the makes sold there would predict, the middle third 2% above, and the third with the most 8% above. It steps up steadily.
For share of residents living in urban areas, after allowing for the 1562 comparisons we ran, luck alone would produce a pattern this strong about 1 time in 7. Take out any single state and the share of residents living in urban areas pattern still holds.
Weak spot: compare only states with similar registered cars and trucks per resident and the pattern keeps about 16% of its strength, so part of it may come from registered cars and trucks per resident instead of share of residents living in urban areas.
City driving means constant stopping and short trips, which wears brakes and clutches and is hard on batteries and starters.