Cars Built Between 2000 and 2006 Generated More Complaints Than Any Era Before or Since
Reliability is supposed to improve steadily. Plotting owner complaints per model against the year the car was built produces a hump in the middle that doesn't belong there.
1,383 Recalls Were Issued Over a Sticker. Toyota Accounts for 333 of Them.
A report showing three open recalls sounds alarming. Some of those recalls are about a printed label being wrong, and nothing in the report tells you which is which.
Nissan Admits a Defect in Under Four Years. Honda Takes Nearly Seven.
Every brand gets compared on how many recalls it issues. Nobody compares them on how long they take — and that number separates manufacturers far more sharply than the count does.
One Model Year of the Ford E-350 Carries 38 Separate Recall Campaigns
Recall counts usually get quoted per brand, where volume dominates everything. Counted per model year, the top of the list is a very short list of specific, unlucky vehicles.
62% of Modern Cars Were Never Crash Tested. That Includes Three Quarters of Honda's Range.
Everyone knows what five stars means. Almost nobody notices when there are no stars at all — and that turns out to describe most of the cars on sale.
One in Five Recalls Ever Issued Warns About Fire. At Kia It's Two in Five.
Every recall carries a description of what happens if the defect isn't fixed. I read all of them looking for one word, and it turned up far more often than a headline-driven view of the industry would suggest.
Tesla Fixes 74% of Its Recalls Overnight. Kia Fixes 31% That Way.
Two cars can have the same number of recalls and completely different consequences for the owner. The difference is whether the fix requires a workshop or a download.
An Airbag Inflator Defect Takes 9 Years to Be Admitted. A Seat Belt Fault Takes 2.
Some defects get found almost immediately and some hide for a decade. Sorting recalls by how long they took to surface produces a ranking that says a lot about which parts fail slowly.
A Clean Recall Check Today Means Nothing. A Third of Recalls Arrive Five Years Late.
Recall numbers carry a hidden date stamp. I used it to measure how long a defect stays undiscovered — and the answer changes what a clean report is actually worth.
The Heaviest Vehicle on the Road Weighs as Much as Five of the Lightest
Two vehicles sharing the same lane can differ in mass by a factor of five. Star ratings never account for it, because cars are only ever tested against others their own size.
Cars Survive Being Hit From the Side Better Than From the Front
Side impacts have less structure between you and the other vehicle, so you'd expect them to score worst. In the test data they score best — and the reason says something about how safety engineering actually works.
Pickups Generate More Owner Complaints Than Any Other Class. By Double.
America's best-selling vehicle type is also its most complained-about, and the margin isn't close. I averaged owner complaints by vehicle class and pickups sit at the top on their own.