How We Rank Reliability

What Is Counted

Complaints owners filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that name the engine, transmission or drivetrain, on vehicles up to 20 years old. Each complaint is counted once, under the model its own record names.

Per Vehicle on the Road

Makers report to NHTSA how many of each model they built in each model year. I reduce that count each year for vehicles scrapped, using the federal scrappage schedule, so a model that sold two million is measured against two million and a model that sold fifty thousand against fifty thousand. The production reports start with the 2005 model year. A generation that began earlier is labelled on the model years they cover, and its page says which.

Against Similar Vehicles

Similar vehicles are others in the same class (compact SUVs with compact SUVs, full-size trucks with full-size trucks), compared at the same age and in the same calendar years. Owners file more complaints as a vehicle ages, and filing has risen for every model since 2021. By 2025 it ran at about one and a half times the 2015 rate, so raw counts from different years cannot be set side by side.

The Five Labels

More complaints than similar vehicles

The figure is at least 25% above similar vehicles with 95-in-100 confidence. 155 generations.

About the same as similar vehicles

The data place the figure inside the band between 20% below and 25% above. 65 generations.

Fewer complaints than similar vehicles

The figure is at least 20% below similar vehicles with 95-in-100 confidence. 347 generations.

No clear difference

The range still straddles the line between two of the labels above. 355 generations.

Not enough data

Under three years on the road, too few vehicles, or no production count on file. 68 of the 990 generations with a production count, and every generation without one.

Beside the label, each page gives the two counts behind it: the complaints owners filed, and the number a typical fleet of that size and age would have drawn.

The Last Three Years

Each page also shows the same comparison for 2023 to 2025 alone. In testing, that figure predicted the following three years better than the lifetime figure did. A "more complaints" label reads "has drawn" when the last three years do not agree with it, and "draws" when they do.

By Engine

NHTSA's fuel-economy files give sales by engine for eight model years between 2008 and 2024, and I fill the years between along a straight line. Where those sales are known, each engine is compared with the generation's other engines, then on its own with similar vehicles. Hybrid, plug-in, diesel and electric versions are rows in the same block. A complaint counts toward an engine only when its VIN names the engine. A turbocharged and a non-turbocharged engine of the same size cannot be told apart in the VIN and are shown as one.

What the Complaints Describe

The label counts complaints by the part NHTSA filed them under. Two further lines read the complaint text: complaints that describe a failed or replaced engine or transmission, and complaints about oil consumption or overheating. The second line is what flags the 2.4-liter Chevrolet Equinox and the 2007 to 2011 Toyota Camry, which the headline label places at typical or better.

On the Record

Owners take oil consumption, misfires and transmission shudder to the dealer far more often than to NHTSA, so a "fewer complaints" label can sit on a documented defect. Under every label is a list of the serious recalls, escalated investigations, warranty extensions and class settlements for that generation. Entries marked "researched" were looked up by hand and carry a source link. The others come from NHTSA's recall and investigation files and have not been reviewed by hand. Where research found a documented powertrain defect the label does not reflect, a red line says so.

How It Was Tested

I worked the labels out on data through 2018, 2020 and 2022, then scored them on the three years that followed. A "fewer" label held in 84 to 92% of generations. A "more" label held in 56 to 60%, and in 77 to 85% when the last three years agreed with it. Engine badges followed the same pattern: "fewer" held in 84 to 95% of engines and "more" in 57 to 70%.

Against NHTSA's own record, 24 of the 155 generations labelled "more" carry a serious powertrain recall covering a quarter of production, against 12 of the 379 labelled "fewer" in the full run.

Where It Runs Out

• The label counts complaints filed, which is different from the share of vehicles that fail.
• Past ten years, the count of vehicles still on the road rests on one federal scrappage schedule per class, so a model that outlasts its class reads slightly worse at old ages than it should.
• A "fewer" label on a generation under five years old reversed more often than any other in testing. The most reliable list leaves those out.
• About one complaint in nine has no VIN, and those cannot be assigned to an engine.
• Warranty extensions and settlements have been researched by hand for 33 generations so far.

Sources

NHTSA complaints, recalls, investigations and Part 573 recall reports; NHTSA Early Warning Reporting production counts; NHTSA's vehicle survivability schedule; the NHTSA VIN decoder; and the market-data workbooks NHTSA publishes with its fuel-economy rules.