The Least Reliable Cars, Trucks And SUVs You Can Buy In 2025, According To Consumer Reports

[davehu]

https://jalopnik.com/the-least-reliable-cars-trucks-and-suvs-you-can-buy-in-1851714745

don't shoot the messenger.. I absolutely love my "23 Lariat. best vehicle I've ever owned.

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[StevenC56]

First I've ever heard of Jalopnik. That being said I don't get out much. But if I do, I'm driving my 2024 Lightning Lariat or my wife's 2017 Explorer Platinum.

 

[RickKeen]

At least the Lightning had a good overall score.

 

[electricpig]

I personally don't trust CR anymore. I have seen top much obviously cherry picked data, or skewed article in search of a predetermined conclusion. JMHO

 

[MotoGary]

Looks like I made the right choice buying the Lightning over the GMC Canyon.

 

[subseavet]

https://jalopnik.com/the-least-reliable-cars-trucks-and-suvs-you-can-buy-in-1851714745

don't shoot the messenger.. I absolutely love my "23 Lariat. best vehicle I've ever owned.

Same here (Also a '23 Lariat). Virtually all of the "problems" I've had I've been able to solve via this forum or simple fixes on my end. Most have been discovering the differences between how various things are implemented differently in an F150 EV vs. an ICE F150. Consumers are much less willing to solve problems independently than they have been in the past and much quicker to report being annoyed by things that do not require dealer intervention to solve. As a result, you get poor reliability scores; if you follow this forum and others like it closely, you know that while there are problems, most are relatively minor and straightforward to address, and the others, Ford seems to be pretty well on top of. Heck, @Ford Motor Company monitors this forum and helps customers out all the time! Because EVs are still new across the board for all big automakers, it will take time for dealerships to develop the skills and get the equipment needed to work on EVs, but that change is happening. I wish it was going much faster and dealers were better, but here we are. I love my '23 Lariat Lightning and am already considering ditching my other ICE vehicle for another EV.

 

[Matfus11]

I personally don't trust CR anymore. I have seen top much obviously cherry picked data, or skewed article in search of a predetermined conclusion. JMHO

100% agree!

 

[TaxmanHog]

How the heck did they arrive at a 28/100 score!?!?!?

I'm very happy with my '22 Lariat-ER, no major powertrain failures, admitting the annoyances with software functionality and untimely updates, it's still a reliable EV truck in my humble opinion.

 

[Mach Turtle]

Just had a look at the actual CR ratings on the real CR site. The Lightning is the highest rated electric truck (of both of them! Only Lightning and R1T have finished testing so far). Its predicted reliability rating is somewhat below average but not in the basement. They're testing a Silver and a Musk Ox, so hopefully we'll see how those compare soon.

The details of the reliability score suggest to me that they have a really small sample size; high and low ratings are all over the place. For example, the "EV Charging" reliability rating went from highest in `22 to lowest in `23. Is the charging system completely different? Not likely. More likely that no `22 owners reported charging problems to CR, then one or two `23 owners reported that they had problems, and with few reports, the percentage of problems jumped to a level considered problematic.

The text of their reviews is pretty positive IMHO; I read it before deciding to buy a Lightning as part of over-researching the field and it didn't put me off at all.

I think CR is useful but to be taken with a grain of salt, while certain clickbait sites that quote CR out of context are best ignored.

 

[rparry]

I have not trusted CR for many years. I agree with Mach Turtle that their data sets must be very small. I have seen wild fluctuations in reliability from one MY to the next when nothing has changed. For years they could not understand why anyone would want to drive anything but the least expensive Civic made. TRUCKS OMG!

 

[trev5150]

I have to agree on most of the individual points:

1. EV battery - I've had the truck in for BECM and battery module repair this summer. Just got a warning a few weeks ago because the BECM randomly lost comms with the rest of the system.
2. EV charging - more Electrify America than anything else
3. Electrical accessories - Not really had any issues except for the tailgate LED light needing work for water intrusion - twice.
4. In-car electronics - God I hate these software engineers. They all need to be lined up and shot. I have to force-reboot the system for half of every startup because the Bluetooth is HOT GARBAGE. I just had it in for the camera parking whatever recall and the software load cut the area of the 360 degree view in half. It's literally 50% the original size. It's essentially unusable now for getting into snug spots
5. Oh yeah and then there was the time where I had to bring it in for the drive train clanking like a tugboat.
6. The spring loaded c-clamp door on the tailgate fell off inside the tailgate. If fell off. If fell the FK off (say it like Ron White ? here the reference )

Still love my truck though.

Also about that list: Yeah I'd never buy a Nissan product for any reason. And I guess the problems are with the newer Grand Cherokees because I had very few problems with my 2015 WK2 GC. The UConnect infotainment software sucks as all infotainment SW is trash, and I did blow up an oil pump once but I was flogging it hard on a one-day boom from Ft. Myers to Richmond in it's 7th year.

 

[scoobybri]

Let's see...my 23 Lightning had to have the shifter replaced within 6 months. My 2021 Model Y left me stranded twice due to a manufacturing issue with the battery connector. My 2017 Chevy Bolt had to have the entire motor pulled to fix an issue with the steering column...in the first 3 months of ownership. I've owned lots of new cars since I bought my first new vehicle in 1990 (a base as base can be Ford Ranger) and of all vehicles, the EVs have had the most issues the soonest into ownership. I think that this is due to the rush that manufacturers had to push new EV models to the market. Growing pains as they say. I would still take the early adopter road all over again if I had the choice. Not burning dino juice and the almost complete lack of maintenance more than makes up for the occasional problems I have had

 

[Whammy Bar]

Man, the F150 Hybrid got 7/100.

Nice that they have 2 products on the same platform on the list for consistency.

 

[Henry Ford]

I personally don't trust CR anymore. I have seen top much obviously cherry picked data, or skewed article in search of a predetermined conclusion. JMHO

I think Consumer Reports is reliable but their priorities and mine don't always line up. For instance, energy use us weighted the same as washing, drying, and noise for dishwashers. Energy use is nice but it's well down the list of things I care about and should be weighted less.

I find CR useful if you dig a bit deeper into the ratings. CR lists don't tell the whole story, which is unfortunate because click factories like Jalopnik publish the lists without context.

 

[queuewho]

Let's see...my 23 Lightning had to have the shifter replaced within 6 months. My 2021 Model Y left me stranded twice due to a manufacturing issue with the battery connector. My 2017 Chevy Bolt had to have the entire motor pulled to fix an issue with the steering column...in the first 3 months of ownership. I've owned lots of new cars since I bought my first new vehicle in 1990 (a base as base can be Ford Ranger) and of all vehicles, the EVs have had the most issues the soonest into ownership. I think that this is due to the rush that manufacturers had to push new EV models to the market. Growing pains as they say. I would still take the early adopter road all over again if I had the choice. Not burning dino juice and the almost complete lack of maintenance more than makes up for the occasional problems I have had

Yeah I had a model 3 for 4 years and the trunk filled with water due to the seal failing, a short in the rear motor killed the 12v repeatedly and had to be taken in twice before they figured it out, required a motor swap. The tires started cupping, they never solved that one. The onboard charger had modules fail, so I was stuck at 16 amps until that was fixed.

After 2 year mark, warranty work on the truck so far... rear lightbar replacement for the recall.

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