Buying used
The Best Year to Buy of Each Popular Used Car
For the twenty-five most complained-about models: which year of the run has the cleanest record, and which has the worst.
2 min read · 185 figures, all from the federal record · rebuilt 3 hours ago
Picking a used car usually starts with the model and ends with whatever year is on the forecourt. It is the wrong way round: the gap between the best and worst year of the same model is often larger than the gap between two different models.
On the Ford Focus that gap is 15 to 5,152 complaints — more than nine times difference between two cars with the same badge.
Best and worst year, model by model
| Model | Run | Cleanest year | Worst year | Most reported |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ford F-150 | 1984–2026 | 1993 (753) | 1997 (3,285) | Transmission & Drivetrain |
| Ford Explorer | 1977–2026 | 2008 (217) | 1998 (2,374) | Transmission & Drivetrain |
| Jeep Grand Cherokee | 1989–2026 | 2026 (18) | 2014 (3,401) | Electrical System |
| Ford Escape | 2000–2026 | 2025 (34) | 2013 (3,681) | Engine & Cooling |
| Honda Accord | 1979–2026 | 1993 (222) | 2008 (1,855) | Electrical System |
| Ford Focus | 1999–2018 | 1999 (15) | 2000 (5,152) | Transmission & Drivetrain |
| Chevrolet Malibu | 1964–2025 | 2022 (149) | 2010 (2,204) | Steering |
| Ford Fusion | 2006–2020 | 2018 (574) | 2010 (7,026) | Steering |
| Ford Taurus | 1977–2019 | 2019 (17) | 2000 (1,497) | Engine & Cooling |
| Chevrolet Silverado 1500 | 1994–2026 | 2012 (278) | 2019 (1,545) | Brakes |
| Toyota Camry | 1983–2024 | 1993 (334) | 2009 (1,616) | Acceleration & Cruise Control |
| Jeep Wrangler | 1986–2026 | 2025 (117) | 2021 (1,519) | Steering |
| Hyundai Sonata | 1987–2026 | 2025 (21) | 2013 (2,651) | Engine & Cooling |
| Honda Cr-V | 1997–2026 | 2001 (159) | 2019 (1,536) | Engine & Cooling |
| Jeep Cherokee | 1973–2026 | 2006 (18) | 2015 (2,662) | Transmission & Drivetrain |
| Honda Civic | 1979–2026 | 1994 (171) | 2001 (1,357) | Airbags |
| Nissan Altima | 1993–2025 | 2004 (334) | 2014 (1,396) | Engine & Cooling |
| Ford Windstar | 1985–2005 | 2004 (33) | 1995 (4,799) | Brakes |
| Dodge Durango | 1997–2026 | 2025 (12) | 2000 (1,471) | Suspension |
| Chrysler Town AND Country | 1967–2016 | 1993 (273) | 1996 (1,411) | Electrical System |
| Dodge Grand Caravan | 1985–2020 | 1995 (118) | 2008 (1,965) | Electrical System |
| Ford Edge | 2004–2024 | 2021 (144) | 2013 (3,240) | Engine & Cooling |
| Honda Odyssey | 1990–2026 | 2026 (41) | 2007 (1,039) | Transmission & Drivetrain |
| RAM 1500 | 2009–2026 | 2009 (47) | 2019 (2,138) | Engine & Cooling |
| Dodge RAM 1500 | 1991–2014 | 1995 (273) | 2005 (1,630) | Transmission & Drivetrain |
Complaint counts in brackets.
Source — Grades and rankings computed from the NHTSA complaint file.
How this was made. Nobody wrote this article and left it to age. It is generated by a query against the complaint database, and rebuilt every time the data is — so the numbers in the sentences above are the numbers as they stand today, not as they stood when somebody last had time to update them. How the grading works.