We’ve come a long way since the first car was handed to us over 100 years ago. Where we were once content (and happy) vigorously cranking our engines over by had to get them to fire, we now won’t accept anything less than a remote-starting our rides from the comfort of our living room—how else are you going to let the seat warmers and the steering wheel get hot?
Today, cars are doing some amazing things. They were always doing amazing things (when you think about it), but we don’t readily think of cranking our Model As to life in the middle of a freezing Detroit winter as something of an advancement. You’d have been proud to do it 100 years ago, though.
Our idea of what a car should be able to do places extremely high demands on what they are, technologically, able to do. Automakers know this and are struggling to keep up with “the Joneses” because what we want as consumers are constantly shifting. We want EVs, autonomous interfaces, blistering top-speeds, leg room, and anything else there’s a checkbox for. (We really ask for a lot.)
Every now and then, this exuberance turns sour, though, as overzealous designers try to force-feed technology, systems, and components into places and roles they never were designed for. Sometimes, they are just a bad design in the first place, things that never were righted after decades of shame.
Whatever the case may be, a few universal truths exist about some of the worst duds of the last five years! We’ve done all the hard work for you, so all you have to do is make sure you don’t buy the wrong car.
20 Mercedes-Benz C-Class
The C-Class is underpinned with hints of luxury in every corner and crevice, or so it would seem. It’s a fantastic looking car, and it begs to be looked at, there’s no denying that. Another thing you can’t deny is its affliction with heapus-maximus, a condition affecting outwardly good-looking cars that pull the wool over our eyes with more smoke and mirrors than Houdini.
The reviews can’t all be wrong, right? There are actually entire lists dedicated to dissecting just how shoddy the C-Class really is underneath all that Armor All and cheap drive-thru car wash spot-free rinse. We don’t have enough room to even touch that can of worms.
19 GMC Sierra
The problem with the Sierra isn’t that it’s not a good truck; the Sierra is a GREAT truck! Just stay away from the 2014 model year! Nearly every other model year exhibits stellar performance ratings in the reliability department (with an expected amount of normal strife), but both the 2014 and 2015 Sierras are plagued with more lighting deficiencies than the Batcave.
If you decide to brave the odds, it’s worth noting the NHTSA (National Traffic Safety Administration) currently has an open investigation on the 2014-2016 model years, for their brake vacuum pump and its concerning failure rate. Accidents have already been attributed to the failure, which is accompanied by increased brake pedal resistance and extended braking distances.
18 BMW 3 Series
In case you’ve already started to recognize the trend, these aren’t necessarily beaters; these are actually some of the brightest icons of our motoring history—cars that we want to be proud of! In many cases, we are.
The 3 Series, in reality, suffers from a surprisingly low breakdown rate but when it appears on Consumer Reports’ list of “Cars to Avoid Used,” we feel it’s worth your five seconds to know that the 325, 328, 330, and the 335 all pack a disproportionately high level of problems compared to every other BMW in the entire lineup, save for the X Series (which you don’t want either).
17 Dodge Durango
The Durango can almost take the prize for the worst whip you could try to bang your way through town in. Sure, pack all your buddies in and go tailgating at the game, hit the dog park with your best friend, then go to the hardware store and load some lumber for your deck.
The Durango is down for whatever but its motor isn’t. In fact, the motor is infamous for being a weak link in the Durango’s armor. Even when it’s not blowing up, electrical issues can cause it to lose power out of nowhere, leaving you hanging like a slab of beef in a meat locker.
16 Nissan Pathfinder
The Nissan Pathfinder has come a long way since its shabby beginnings as the flimsy tin can you couldn’t decide if you wanted to drive or kick for no reason; it’s actually respectable-looking now! But if our childhood has taught us anything, we mustn’t judge a book by its cover.
The 2015 Pathfinder may look jazzy on the outside, but with over 70 TSBs, three recalls, hundreds of registered complaints, and transmission issues storming the gates at all angles, getting into it may just put you Under Siege. The only problem with this is, you are not Steven Seagal and train crashes don’t conveniently happen in slow motion, allowing you to outrun them.
15 Dodge Ram 1500
EcoDiesel is supposed to be the next wave of diesel technology sweeping the automotive industry. Sure, exhaust fluid (something we joked at the notion of not 10 years ago), regen cycles, and hi-tech computer tuning allow today’s diesels to run extremely efficiently—but at what cost? Are you willing to sacrifice the bullet-proof 6.7-liter Cummins for some rickety little 3.0-liter, Fiat-sourced lawnmower motor?
The FCA website will lead you to believe EcoDiesel power is the new cornerstone of Ram performance but with engines seizing at less than 20,000 miles, it takes a whole lot of EcoDiesels just to equal one Cummins’ life span.
14 Toyota 4Runner
Maybe the 4Runner suffers from an unfair comparison but then again, maybe that unfair comparison is the one with the most parity. The quality bar for Toyota is, without question, extremely high. They build some of the best stuff, so we expect the best stuff. It’s supposed to be judged harshly because it’s supposed to be the best.
And therein lays its fault. It is the best! It’s one of most stubborn resistors of the modern unibody design; the 4runner remains one of the last full-framed trucks out there. Unfortunately, this makes it extremely outdated for all but the most rugged of vehicle owners, most of which are swaying toward the neutered whisper of an electric powertrain. Hang tough, brave little 4Runner!
13 Dodge Charger
The Dodge Charger holds a fond little place with a lot of us. Sure, it’s picked up an extra set of doors and rounded out at the sides a little bit but that’s partly why it was even allowed to live so long. Dodge doesn’t like going all-out for long and when they do, they seem to forget how to get a muscle car right.
Some 2016 owners have reported so many drivability problems with their Chargers that it sounds like the model spends more time in the shop than it does on the road! The 2016 model year base Charger has already racked up nearly 90 TSBs (and counting).
12 Chrysler 300
The 300 was long and Batmobile-like, boxy and hard. It was shoddy then but it looked cool (from the outside). Now, it’s melting into a silhouette of mediocrity, unimpressive and weak. But the conspiracy goes deeper than you think. Here’s a list of the ONLY cars in the entire Chrysler lineup that it’s NOT worse than: the 200, the Pacifica, the PT Cruiser, the Sebring, and the Town and Country.
Those five cars make up some of the five-worst cars in recent Chrysler history. Being sixth from the bottom—in a list of 24—isn’t anything you’ll ever hear 300 owners bragging about. They’d rather showcase their 26-inch Lexanis in circles around Walmart parking lots, Lambo doors pointed skywards.
11 Chevy Tahoe
You either love it or you hate it. Seldom can there be a happy medium (unless you haven’t owned one and remain blissfully be ignorant). Some owners report their Tahoes banging out over 170,000 problem-free miles with minimal wear.
Others, however, like a few select 2015 owners, in particular, experience a rapid deterioration of the interior and are left helpless to watch as panels fall off of trim pieces left and right all around them. Seat bottoms will come apart from the insides, lights will burn out, and armrests will wiggle under your elbows like the tire plates on an alignment rack.
10 GMC Terrain
The GMC Terrain comes from the Envoy lineage, which already isn’t a very impressive way to start a conversation. It’s kind of the only way to start a conversation about the Terrain, however, because you have to look way down by the bottom of the barrel just to find it, where only the most unreliable GMCs live.
In all fairness, it’s a lot less dumpy than it was in 2010 and in the subsequent early years. But if you think the relative time passing is going to save you from a dud, think again. Have you ever stalled 12 times in a parking lot as you were trying to leave a restaurant?
9 Hyundai Elantra
To get an idea of how bad the Elantra stands out as a factory-certified beater, picture being an ant in the park, staring up at a concrete water fountain. It’s the size of a mountain. Now look to your left, at that blade of grass. Note how the blade of grass only looks “a little bit big” next to the water fountain.
That blade of grass could be said to represent every other Hyundai, while the water fountain is the Elantra. It’s consistently horrible in critical areas of interest, mostly the ones that matter most to drivers like engines, steering systems, wheel hubs, suspension, transmissions, seatbelts, and airbags…it’s just a double-shot of “No” with a splash of “Sir” to wash it down.
8 Toyota Camry
Are you ready for the mind-blower of the day? According to Car Complaints, the Camry is the lowest-scoring Toyota for customer satisfaction—by a margin of thousands! We wouldn’t have ever guessed it, but the Camry racks ‘em up and knocks ‘em down like it’s in style to be rebellious.
Everybody thinks they can last a million miles on gas and a little bit of lube; nobody tells us that one of the worst Camry problems is excessive oil consumption beginning at around 100,000 miles. We actually thought that was the first oil change interval. (Maybe it's owners like us who make Toyotas reliability scores questionable?)
7 Subaru Crosstrek
Subaru gave you a great little mini-overlander; it made you feel like you could actually find the “end of the earth” with the under-engineered all-wheel drive pushed to its limits as Subaru owners tried to locate a world that the little Crosstrek just didn’t belong in. Nearly every motor from Fuji Heavy Industries sucks down more oil than a WWII bomber in the climb phase of flight.
What does Subaru do in response? Make you hit the dealer twice to perform an “oil consumption test,” where they’ll subsequently tell you that you’re actually a quarter ounce inside the “normal” threshold and send you on your way with a free carwash—if you complain enough. (Because adding four quarts between oil changes is “normal” oil consumption.)
6 Honda Accord
This list features a few no-brainers, as well as a few that would surprise just about anybody. So why not add the Accord, too, and extinguish another flame of resilience? Why? Because it’s the single-most objurgated Hondas, ever! By a factor of two! The majority of Accords can be said to have impeccable reliability records but the majority of the issues that wreck it for the Accord are the worst ones you’d want to find in a car: engine issues, transmission problems, brakes, wheels, and electrical—yep, it’s all here, in heaping spoon-fulls of misery. And yet, the 2015-2019 Accords only account for half the recalls (four) that plague the 2008 model year (seven).
5 Honda CR-V
The Honda CR-V is another looker…but in a bad way. On the outside, it looks like any average crossover. It’s horribly ugly in so many ways but crossovers are supposed to be ugly; it's a part of their design methodology. They’re just not supposed to be bad at stuff. Of the 39 total Honda models, the CR-V is the fourth-worst.
It’s only better than the Odyssey (which was always garbage), the Civic, and the Accord. It pretty much doesn’t get worse than that. But, to make matters worse, the 2007, 2011, 2015, 2017, and 2018 Accords are ALL rated as “clunkers” by Car Complaints. Although they may not be the final authority on the subject, it’s hard to argue with hundreds of NHTSA complaints.
4 Honda Civic
Sometimes it’s hard to tell what’s worse, the problems that surface immediately after a car’s release, thereby forcing the manufacturer to issue embarrassing TSBs and recalls, or having a slew of problems emerge long after the warranty is expired. We’d obviously rather Honda absorb the cost.
So, although you could applaud them for their 208 TSBs already released on the 2016 Civic, what do you even need 200 Technical Service Bulletins for in the first place? With over 366,927 units of the 2016-model-year Civic sold, supposing each of those 208 TSBs took 0.5 hours of a mechanics time to fix, that’s already millions of labor-hours down the drain on something that could have been done right the first time. (Can anybody say "trickle-down costs"?)
3 Toyota Corolla
Hundreds of complaints are logged for the 2017 Corolla, even more than that in TSBs, and it's already had a recall. Meanwhile, we've got 200 TSBs for the 2016 model year, 300 complaints and TSBs for the 2015 model year, plus 400 TSBs and one recall for the 2014 model year. That’s 992 Technical Serviced Bulletins spread out across the 2014 to 2018 model-year-range Corollas.
You know your interior accessories are trash when you have official complaints, filed with the NHTSA, over their defective nature and failure rate. The 2014 engines have reliability issues, 2015 dashboards rattle like a spray can, 2016 brakes are prone to grinding, 2017 cruise control units like to randomly blast you up to 4,000 RPM for no reason…the fun literally doesn’t stop.
2 Chevrolet Equinox
Fuel system and engine problems are the reputation-eaters for the 2018 Equinox and two of the most common problems you can look forward to. The 2015 model year for the Equinox has a disproportionately high number of electrical issues manufactured right into it from the plant.
It also has one recall and an investigation—because somebody needs to figure out why the side impact air bag modules “MAY” rupture. It’s said to affect only 400 vehicles but if anything shouldn’t fail—out of all the parts on a car that could fail—an airbag ranks up there along with things like bulletproof glass…something you’ll never afford, but can’t afford for it to fail.
1 Hyundai Accent
We’d all think the Hyundai Accent was supposed to pave the way for superb reliability and stellar economy but it would only give us one of those things. Reliability would seemingly be shooting through the roof; the Accent seems to top charts and rave in reviews across the internet. But the most common Accent problems are the troubling part of the equation.
Like many of the other supposed greats, the Accent is predisposed to airbag issues, engine and powertrain problems, anti-lock brake operation malfunction, and electrical system issues. They’re unbeatable cars when they are great but that becomes a problem when they turn against you like a domesticated lion.
Sources: Motor Trend, Autotrader, The Drive, Car and Driver, and Consumer Affairs.