• Here are the least reliable car brands this year, according to the latest study by Consumer Reports.
Every year, Consumer Reports publishes a ranking of the most - and least - reliable automotive brands. The fully independent organization comes up with its ranking by gathering survey responses from vehicle owners, as well as conducting its own tests.
Consumer Reports asks its members to report on problems they’ve encountered with their vehicles over the past 12 months. For this year’s study, information was received on 330,000 vehicles from the 2000-to-2023 model-years, as well as on certain 2024 models launched early in 2023.
The study looks at 20 different categories, ranging from major problems such as engine or transmission problems, to those related to batteries, including recharging in the case of electric vehicles, and to finishing problems, technological glitches, brake system noises, etc.
Each category of problem is assigned a different level of severity. A reliability grid is then created, taking into account the 20 categories. This is combined with the scores obtained from the tests carried out by the group, as well as the results of owner satisfaction surveys.
The study is exhaustive, and the results are always interesting.
Today, we a look at the list of the least reliable brands, based on a possible 100 points. First up is the automaker ranked 10 spots from the bottom as we head down the rabbit hole to the least reliable brand this year, as determined by vehicle owners surveyed by CR.
See also: Here are the 10 Most Reliable Car Brands, According to Consumer Reports
10 - Dodge 42 points
It's no fun to find yourself in a ranking of the 10 least reliable brands, but if you're going to be there, might as well be as far from last place as possible. So it is for Dodge, which ranked 21st overall among the brands evaluated.
This is still very disappointing for a brand with only a handful of models in its catalog in 2023, each one a product that’s have been around for so long you’d expect pretty good reliability.
Due to the smaller amount of data collected, CR provides a score for just one specific model, the Durango, at 49 points. From that we can deduce that the data collected regarding other Dodge models brought the brand’s overall score down.
9 - Ford 40 points
Ford's reliability woes have unfortunately made the headlines a little too often in recent years. The brand dominated the industry recall list in 2022, to give you an idea.
Nevertheless, two vehicles rank well: the Maverick pickup, which scores 71 points in regular configuration, 60 points in hybrid preparation. The Edge SUV, which will cease production in 2024, also does well with 68 points. Further proof that product longevity translates into better reliability results.
Conversely, it's the hybrid version of the F-150 that drags everyone down with a meagre 19 points. It was one of seven Ford vehicles to score under 40 points.
8 - Lincoln 38 points
Unsurprisingly, Ford's luxury brand found itself in the same vicinity with a lacklustre overall reliability score. No one model stands out. The Corsair is the least unreliable with 45 points, while the Aviator scores only 35.
We certainly hope for better days from Lincoln.
7 - GMC 36 points
General Motors' truck brand has big ambitions, but if it is to achieve them, it will eventually have to show better results in reliability surveys. The brand's best-performing model in terms of reliability remains the Terrain with 56 points. Once again, we're talking about the oldest vehicle in the range. The Sierra pickup brings up the rear with 29 points.
6 - Volvo 28 points
With a score below 30 points, it's clear that a number of things need to improve at Volvo if the company is to have any hope of moving up the rankings. Worst of all, that’s counting the decent 60 score earned by the S60. Several others bring down the average, including the plug-in hybrid version of the XC60 SUV, which scored just 21 points.
5 - Jeep 26 points
And on to Jeep, where we know that reliability is not the company's strength. The Compass compact SUV is the most reliable, with a score of just 45. The Grand Cherokee L is last in class, with a score of 23 points.
4 - Volkswagen 26 points
When only 26 points are scored, as is also the case for Volkswagen, it's hard to find positives across the range. When the best vehicle, the Tiguan, scores 34 points, it's not a good sign. The Taos is the most problem-prone according to owners, scoring just 18 points in CR’s ranking.
3 - Rivian 24 points
Next up is Rivian, a fledgling company that needs to make a good impression on the market to succeed. Clearly, scoring so low in the Consumer Reports reliability rankings isn’t ideal, but to be fair to the EV maker, it’s new and it has only two models on the market currently. The R1T pickup and R1S SUV scored scored 22 and 23 points respectively.
2 - Mercedes-Benz 23 points
Some soul-searching is clearly in order at Mercedes-Benz HQ. With so many models on the market, a collective score of 23 is a catastrophe. This means that few of them really do well enough to raise the collective average. In fact, it's the GLE SUV that proves the most reliable, with a low score of 37 points. The C-Class places last with 19 points.
1 - Chrysler 18 points
Chrysler has to hope that the electric shift will help restore the lustre and reputation of a brand that sometimes appears to be on its last legs. The Pacifica minivan scored 43 points, while the hybrid variant of the model earned just 14 points. The company also offers the Grand Caravan minivan. Since the average of 43 and 14 is not 18, we understand that the brand has lost points elsewhere. Where data is skimpier, Consumer Reports does not necessarily share the information.
That’s it for the bottom end of the ranking.
Note that outside that Top 10 we gave you yesterday, the brands sitting between 10th and 21st place are, in order, Hyundai, Buick, Infiniti, Tesla, Ram, Cadillac, Nissan, Genesis, Audi and Chevrolet.
The top ten places, recall, are occupied by Lexus, Toyota, Mini, Acura, Honda, Subaru, Mazda, Porsche, BMW and Kia, in that order.