10 Least Reliable Cars On The Road

Here's 10 cars you’ll want to avoid if long-term dependability is high on your shopping list.

By: Jim Gorzelany

Mar 25, 2018 at 9:58am ET

In previous posts we’ve highlighted the cars and pickups/SUVs/minivans that rated the highest for powertrain reliability in the latest JD Power U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study (based on powertrain ratings for over 35,000 surveys conducted among original owners of three-year-old cars), and confirmed to a large extent by Consumer Reports.

We now take a look at the other side of the proverbial coin and present a short list of 10 cars in the accompanying slideshow that all received rock-bottom rankings in powertrain durability (two out of five “power circles”) from JDP. Since we found many contradictions between the two sources in this regard, we further whittled down the below rogue's gallery according to those models that also ranked below-average in predicted reliability according to CR’s subscriber surveys.

Not that we're keeping score, but six of the ten cars on the least-reliable list hail from Fiat-Chrysler, though three of them are being or have been discontinued. Consider that group a warning for used-car shoppers, then.