Big Hits, Massive Flops: These Are Consumer Reports Least Reliable Vehicles for 2016

Timothy Cain
by Timothy Cain

Headlining 2016’s Consumer Reports annual reliability rankings were the dreadful results of four Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ brands. Bringing up the rear in uninterrupted fashion were Dodge, Chrysler, Fiat, and Ram. Jeep was only three spots ahead of Dodge.

Not coincidentally then, two of the five least reliable new vehicles on sale in America are also FCA products. All five are domestics, though they’re not all built in the United States.

Still, poor reliability does not necessarily correspond to poor marketplace performances. Three of the five least reliable vehicles in America are sales leaders in their respective categories; another is a steady top-tier player.

And one of the least reliable new vehicles on sale today has failed so badly in the marketplace that its days are numbered.

(We’ve also examined the list of the five most reliable vehicles on Consumer Reports’ list and checked out the marketplace performance of those vehicles.)

CHRYSLER 200


Complaints in Consumer Reports’ survey stemmed largely from the 200’s oft-criticized nine-speed automatic transmission. Consumer Reports doubles down on the Chrysler’s bad news by labeling it as not only the least reliable midsize car you can buy, but also the midsize car with the worst Consumer Reports’ road-test score.

The 200, of course, is not long for this world. While not an outright sales flop, the 200’s momentum was merely kept alive by steep discounts. Absent the incentives, 200 sales went into free-fall mode over the last two months, and the 200 hasn’t looked back.

Year-to-date, 200 sales are down 65 percent as Americans turned their backs on FCA’s sole remaining midsize nameplate. The 200’s share of the midsize market stands at just 3.0 percent in 2016, down from 7.6 percent a year ago.

CHEVROLET SUBURBAN/GMC YUKON XL


Unlike the Chrysler 200, GM’s biggest SUVs are far from marketplace failures. Like the Chrysler 200, complaints that landed the Suburban/Yukon XL twins on the list of Consumer Reports’ Least Reliable Cars list related to the automatic transmission, this time an eight-speed unit. Although CR praises the SUVs’ fuel economy, interior, and infotainment unit, the reliability survey revealed trouble spots related to that infotainment unit as well as the four-wheel-drive system.

Through the first nine months of 2016, General Motors sold 63,395 copies of the Suburban and Yukon XL. In a segment dominated by their smaller siblings — GM has sold 105,325 Tahoes and Yukons this year — the two long-wheelbase brutes own 27 percent of the full-size, volume brand, SUV category. Sales of both the Suburban and Yukon XL are expected to rise to a nine-year high in 2016.

FORD FOCUS


Consumer Reports‘ own adage says that buyers should avoid vehicles in the first model year of a new generation. We’re now entering the 2017 model year, the sixth year for the current Focus, and it’s still one of the five least reliable new cars you can buy. The main trouble spot? Ford’s dual-clutch automatic transmission.

U.S. sales of the Ford Focus, a global powerhouse, will decline for a fourth consecutive year in 2016. After climbing to nearly 246,000 units with the launch of a new generation in 2012, Focus volume slid 5 percent in 2013, 6 percent in 2014, 8 percent in 2015, and are down 15 percent so far this year. Ford now owns less than 9 percent of the U.S. compact car market, down from more than 12 percent in 2012. Many compact cars are less popular; four are distinctly more popular.

JEEP RENEGADE


“Hood release and lower body trim falling off,” one Consumer Reports complainant said. The transmission is a problem, too, not surprising for those familiar with most reviews and reliability studies involving FCA’s nine-speed automatic transmission.

But the Jeep Renegade is nevertheless the best-selling subcompact crossover in America. True, if you combine the Buick Encore and Chevrolet Trax twins from General Motors, Jeep slides to number two. Renegade volume, however, has risen 74 percent in the last seven months. One out of every five subcompact crossovers sold in America is a Jeep Renegade.

CADILLAC ESCALADE


At the opposite end of the spectrum from the tiny, affordable Jeep is the huge and hugely expensive Cadillac Escalade, the least reliable new vehicle in Consumer Reports’ 2016 survey. Multiple wholesale transmission replacements, four-wheel-drive systems that won’t disengage four-wheel drive, an unresponsive CUE, and leaky roofs sound like reliability woes from a prior era. The key difference separating the Escalade from its platform partners that also appear on this list is the Escalade’s eight-speed automatic. The transmission is standard across the Escalade lineup, not just as an optional upgrade as it is in other parts of GM’s full-size SUV family.

Regardless, Americans are snapping up Cadillac Escalades at a furious rate. Combined, the Escalade and Escalade ESV outsell all other full-size luxury SUVs. The short-wheelbase Escalade is on track for its best sales year since 2008; the Escalade ESV is selling at its best rate since 2007. Total Escalade sales are up 6 percent, year-over-year, to 26,687 units, equal to 22 percent of total Cadillac U.S. volume.

[Images: FCA, Ford, GM]

Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures. Follow on Twitter @goodcarbadcar and on Facebook.

Timothy Cain
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  • MWolf MWolf on Oct 26, 2016

    I see a lot of comments saying how great the old 4 speed transmissions were (automatics, that is). A lot of new transmissions make me a little uneasy, but lets not forget there were a lot of crappy ones. The A4LD from Ford! That thing was great. They put it in the Explorer, which was one of the primary reasons the first gen Explorers got a reputation as unreliable. Had one die on me. It decided 2nd gear wasn't cool anymore, it'd just wait for third. Chrysler couldn't make a 4 speed to save their lives in the early 90's, nor could they decide on the correct fluid to put into it. No matter maybe it'll shift, maybe it won't. Maybe it'll slip scarily when you go up a hill! That's fun.

  • Jonathanok100 Jonathanok100 on Nov 02, 2016

    The Chrysler 200 doesn't have reliability issues. Neither do the Chevy Tahoe, GMC Sierra, or Cadillac Escalade -all of which, by the way, are the exact same car, so the fact that they're scattered about this list only serves to discredit the entire thing even more. Actually the only 'unreliable' thing in this article is Consumer Reports' "tests"-- or lack thereof. Seriously, has nobody else on this site realized by now that Consumer Reports is incredibly biased against American cars -especially FCA- and incredibly biased toward Japanese brands, especially Toyota? It's a well-known and well-documented fact that they consistently fabricate their results to align with the cars they *want* to be the best. Whenever they can't come up with an excuse to bash a domestic car, they play the "unreliable" card and make zero effort to try to substantiate their claims. That's why they use nebulous circles instead of quantitative data to convey their scores. They know their readers aren't the type of people who would know or care enough to do real research when buying a car- they just want a nice little article that makes them feel better about the Toyota they already mindlessly bought without ever looking at the alternatives. People who are actually interested in comparison shopping avoid Consumer Reports altogether; it's the Fox News of product review organizations. And, as such, this article has no credibility whatsoever. If you want a real list of least reliable cars, go to any independent car review site. You'll find their quantitative results to be much different than the unfounded opinions that Consumer Reports tries to pass off as reviews.

    • See 1 previous
    • Vulpine Vulpine on Nov 06, 2016

      I will agree with everything you say here, jonathan. Neither my Fiat 500 nor my brand-new Jeep Renegade appear to suffer from ANY of the issues supposedly reported by CR or by many other reviewers who seem to have an obvious bias against anything FCA-related.

  • Joe This is called a man in the middle attack and has been around for years. You can fall for this in a Starbucks as easily as when you’re charging your car. Nothing new here…
  • AZFelix Hilux technical, preferably with a swivel mount.
  • ToolGuy This is the kind of thing you get when you give people faster internet.
  • ToolGuy North America is already the greatest country on the planet, and I have learned to be careful about what I wish for in terms of making changes. I mean, if Greenland wants to buy JDM vehicles, isn't that for the Danes to decide?
  • ToolGuy Once again my home did not catch on fire and my fire extinguisher(s) stayed in the closet, unused. I guess I threw my money away on fire extinguishers.(And by fire extinguishers I mean nuclear missiles.)
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