Cities with the Worst DMVs

An illustration of a person at the DMV

The DMV is one of those rare places where no one wants to be, yet everyone eventually ends up. The mention alone is enough to elicit groans, blood pressure spikes, and long-winded stories about terrible lines, confusing forms, and the dreaded “take a number and wait” ritual. It’s not just a place where time seems to stand still, it’s also where you end up gaming like sudoku while you constantly wait.

But as much as people love to complain about the DMV, we at Sudoku Bliss wanted to know: Which cities actually have the worst? Are the dreaded trips just anecdotal, or are some DMV locations truly, measurably more painful than others? With that in mind, we analyzed reviews across 140 DMV locations in 30 major U.S. cities to find out where residents are spending the most time waiting, and where the frustration is the loudest.

Our findings confirm what many already suspect (and have endured)—some DMVs are notorious for their nightmares. However, some cities and locations have been turning the tide and have been showing real improvement in recent years. Others? Let’s just say that those DMV horror stories are very much alive and well.

Keep reading to see how your city ranks—and maybe find out which location you should steer clear of next time you renew your license.

Key Takeaways

  • Charlotte, NC, Memphis, TN, and Nashville, TN, are home to the three worst DMV locations in America.
  • Phoenix, AZ, Jacksonville, FL, and Philadelphia, PA, have the three most pleasant DMVs.
  • DMVs in Oklahoma City are the most improved over the past year.
  • Los Angeles, CA, Nashville, TN, and Washington, DC, have the three worst improved DMVs.
  • Charlotte, NC, Portland, OR, and Austin, TX, have the worst DMV experiences on average.
  • Indianapolis, IN, Phoenix, AZ, and Seattle, WA, have the best DMV experiences on average.

Which DMVs Have the Worst Experiences

U.S. map plotting the cities where DMVs have the most complaints on Google Maps

Let’s first take a look at the locations with the highest frequency of negative reviews. We counted these by finding user reviews on Google Maps of 3 stars or less that also contained negative keywords like "long," "slow," "wait," "bad," "horrible," "terrible," “delay,” “crowded,” “packed,” and “inefficient.” To compare DMVs against each other, we tallied the number of negative experience reviews and divided that by the total number of reviews in each location.

Charlotte, NC, Memphis, TN, and Nashville, TN, are home to the three DMV locations with the most negative experiences per review. Charlotte is particularly notable—the Queen City has three out of the five worst locations in the country. And its location on W Arrowood Road is the lone DMV in America where negative reviews make up more than 30% of all reviews.

Two other cities in the top 10 highest rate of complaints are also worth highlighting: Denver, CO and Portland, OR. Denver is home to the #7 and #9 worst DMVs in our analysis, while Portland sites are #6 and #10.

The DMV locations we analyzed are averaging 3.42 negative reviews per month in 2025. That's 14% above 2024's monthly average of 2.99 negative reviews per month. That said, it’s still well below 2021, when locations averaged an all-time high of 4.39 monthly negative reviews.

In total, reviews with the negative keywords make up 13% of all reviews. However, when it comes to star ratings, just 32 (or 23%) of the 140 DMV locations we analyzed have a rating above 4.

The Cities with the Best (and Worst) DMVs

U.S. map plotting the cities with the best and worst DMVs on average

When looking at the overall stable of DMV locations within the 30 cities we analyzed, Indianapolis, IN, Phoenix, AZ, and Seattle, WA, stand out as three cities with the best DMVs on average. Indianapolis is particularly impressive: The crossroads of America has 4 of the 10 best DMV locations in the country, and all 7 of its locations are ranked #32 or higher.

Phoenix is reasonably competitive against Indianapolis, as it has two locations in the top 11, and all four of its DMVs rank #39 or better.

This intercity ranking was determined by the average percentile rank of the DMVs within each city, based on our negative experiences score from the last section.

On the flipside, Charlotte is far and away the city with the worst average DMV. Out of its 6 spots we analyzed, none ranked higher than #115. And, as mentioned before, three of the worst 5 DMVs are located in North Carolina’s most populous city. It’s followed in the worst category by Portland and Austin, TX, although those two cities perform reasonably well compared to Charlotte’s dismal ratings.

The Most (and Least) Improved DMV Locations in the Past Year

U.S. map plotting the cities with the most and least improved DMVs

While we’ve spent a deal of time highlighting the worst DMV locations, what about ones that are showing improvement?

Oklahoma City is particularly strong in this department. The top three most improved DMVs between 2023 and 2024, based on the percentage drop of negative reviews, all hail from Oklahoma City. This improvement in negative reviews could partially be attributed to Oklahoma’s recent adoption of a new DMV system aimed at reducing wait times.

Nearby Texas locations also shine when looking at improvement—Fort Worth, San Antonio, and Dallas DMVs all crack the top 10 for biggest improvements. And Houston and Austin locations sit just outside the top 10 in spots #11 and #12.

Chicago also deserves a mention here as two locations in the Windy City rank among the 10 best DMVs based on improvement from 2023 to 2024. A third spot ranks as the #15 most improved nationally.

On the negative side, Los Angeles, CA, Nashville, TN, and Washington, DC, have the three DMV locations that were the worst when it comes to improvements, or the lack thereof—those spots showed the largest increase in negative reviews 2023 to 2024.

Waiting in Line at the DMV? Try Sudoku

Whether you’re renewing your license, taking a permit test, or just trying to get a simple question answered, a trip to the DMV often turns into an exercise in waiting. Long lines, slow-moving systems, and crowded lo

bbies are all too common—but that doesn’t mean your time has to go to waste.

At Sudoku Bliss, we believe that even the most mundane moments can be a great chance to challenge your brain. While you wait for your number to be called, why not fill the time with a quick puzzle? Whether you’re looking for something easy to pass the minutes, or want to test your skills with a tough grid, we’ve got puzzles for every level. Next time you’re not going anywhere at the DMV, keep your mind moving with Sudoku.

Methodology

In March 2025, we scraped Google reviews from the 30 most populated cities in the United States, focusing on the first 10 DMV results in each city. Locations with under 150 reviews, as well as non-government and non-DMV locations, were excluded. This process resulted in a dataset encompassing 140 individual DMV locations.

To accurately gauge negative customer experiences, our sentiment analysis was limited to DMV reviews with a rating of 3 stars or less, ensuring a focus on critiques of long waits. We then tallied reviews that included "long," "slow," "wait," "bad," "horrible," "terrible," “delay,” “crowded,” “packed,” and “inefficient.” This tally was then divided by the total number of reviews a particular DMV has to generate a ranking that shows which locations struggle the most (and least) with long waits and negative experiences.

For each city, we averaged the negative experience rank of all analyzed DMVs to come up with a singular city DMV score out of 100.

We then also did an additional analysis based on review timestamps and negative star ratings to generate over-time trends across cities to see which cities are positively trending with their DMV locations—and which cities are trending in the opposite direction. To be counted in this analysis, each location had to have 25 or more negative reviews in 2023.