Tesla Just Edges Out Jeep for the Title of Least Reliable Used Car, According to Owner Survey

      A 2018 Tesla Model 3. Edited by the author.

      The most significant car news and reviews, no nonsense.

      Our free daily newsletter delivers the important stories directly to you, every weekday.

      Consumer Reports has released a new reliability ranking for used cars, evaluating 26 popular brands from "most" to "least reliable" based on survey data. The brands at the top of the list will not come as a surprise to many. However, the bottom is more intriguing—Tesla ranks at the very end, notably getting surpassed by Jeep in terms of reliability.

      In the latest study by CR, Lexus secured the top position with a score of "77" (out of 100), followed closely by Toyota at "73."

      Mazda took third place, but there's a significant drop in score, landing at "58." Most mainstream European and Japanese brands are found in the middle of the list, averaging around "50."

      The lower end of the rankings, with scores below "40," is primarily occupied by American manufacturers and Kia.

      At the very bottom, Tesla recorded the poorest score of "31."

      How can a car with so few moving parts have so many reported owner issues? While numerous reports have highlighted Tesla's inconsistent build quality, I must admit I was still surprised to find that Tesla had the highest number of owner complaints.

      Consumer Reports is renowned for its thorough and unbiased car reviews. It is the only organization I know of that purchases the cars it evaluates and possesses a well-appointed private testing facility for consistent assessments.

      This reliability survey for used cars is comprehensive and relies on extensive data. "Each year, Consumer Reports queries its members about problems they’ve experienced with their vehicles in the past 12 months," writes CR Managing Editor Jeff S. Bartlett. "For this analysis, we concentrated on issues reported for cars from the 2016 to 2021 model years, based on a survey sample exceeding 140,000 vehicles."

      To gauge reliability and develop a ranking, CR assesses "the number of problems reported for a car against the average number of issues for cars of that model year," highlighting 20 potential "trouble areas." Analysts then evaluate those reported problems based on their severity to derive a score.

      "The overall reliability ratings from those six model years were averaged to determine the used-brand reliability score. These ratings are founded on owner-reported problems. We required a minimum of five years of data for each brand," Bartlett clarifies.

      Steven Elek, CR’s program leader of auto data analytics, stated: "Taking this broader perspective, examining reliability over five to ten years, provides a clear view of what used-car buyers can anticipate."

      This approach seems effective for aggregating vast data sets. However, studies like this may not be as definitive as CR's typical on-track evaluations—dependence on owner-reported issues will always introduce variation. Nonetheless, these insights are valuable for assessing the performance of five to ten-year-old vehicles and are greatly beneficial for those seeking reliable information for used-car purchases.

      Regarding new cars, at least in Tesla's case, Consumer Reports has been somewhat more lenient, noting: "...the American automaker has made considerable progress, and its latest models have shown better-than-average reliability, placing the brand within the top 10 of our new car predicted reliability rankings."

      Have a tip? Reach out to us at [email protected].