What breaks

Which Cars Have the Most Engine Problems

Every complaint filed about this part since 1995, by model, by model year, and by the mileage it failed at.

3 min read · 294 figures, all from the federal record · rebuilt 3 hours ago

Owners have filed 288,020 complaints with NHTSA about the engine — 13.4% of every complaint in the file. This is where those complaints land.

The heaviest single model year is the 2017 Ford Escape, with 2,063 complaints about this part alone, 63% of everything reported about that car.

Where owners recorded an odometer reading, the typical engine failure on this list happened at about 79,039 miles.

Worst model years

Vehicle	Complaints	Share of that year	Median failure	Crashes	Fires
F 2017 Ford Escape	2,063	63%	77,000 mi	8	12
F 1995 Ford Windstar	1,849	39%	80,539 mi	12	11
F 2018 Ford Escape	1,470	68%	85,725 mi	4	5
F 2013 Ford Escape	1,440	39%	79,000 mi	8	70
D 2011 Hyundai Sonata	1,011	22%	96,000 mi	21	86
F 2017 Ford Edge	916	56%	72,706 mi	0	1
F 2014 Ford Escape	908	34%	79,039 mi	3	87
D 2016 Honda Pilot	803	34%	70,000 mi	5	8
F 2000 Dodge Intrepid	800	65%	77,204 mi	6	15
B 2010 Ford Fusion	794	11%	55,000 mi	8	2
F 2013 Hyundai Sonata	776	29%	97,000 mi	19	73
D 1993 Ford Taurus	760	34%	78,050 mi	3	21
F 2002 Nissan Altima	752	57%	90,000 mi	8	24
F 2016 KIA Sorento	722	44%	84,994 mi	4	34
F 1999 Dodge Intrepid	720	58%	84,000 mi	4	6
F 2015 KIA Soul	687	56%	97,814 mi	4	62
F 2018 Ford Ecosport	667	69%	67,000 mi	10	2
F 2017 Hyundai Santa FE	662	52%	63,250 mi	1	14
F 2016 KIA Soul	661	58%	90,000 mi	5	33
F 2013 KIA Optima	655	35%	100,000 mi	12	90
F 2015 KIA Optima	652	47%	88,000 mi	11	53
F 2015 Hyundai Sonata	640	39%	66,684 mi	4	38
C 2015 Chrysler 200	610	18%	48,000 mi	18	12
F 2017 Hyundai Tucson	608	42%	60,000 mi	3	21
F 2014 KIA Soul	606	50%	103,558 mi	5	58

By brand

Across whole ranges rather than single years. On Ford vehicles this part accounts for 15% of everything owners reported about the brand.

Ford 56,993 24.3%

15% of all Ford complaints, across 136 models

Chevrolet 27,300 11.6%

11% of all Chevrolet complaints, across 181 models

Dodge 19,727 8.4%

13% of all Dodge complaints, across 83 models

KIA 17,238 7.3%

28% of all KIA complaints, across 40 models

Hyundai 16,374 7.0%

21% of all Hyundai complaints, across 51 models

Jeep 15,652 6.7%

13% of all Jeep complaints, across 35 models

Honda 14,669 6.2%

12% of all Honda complaints, across 116 models

Nissan 13,732 5.8%

14% of all Nissan complaints, across 52 models

Toyota 12,179 5.2%

9% of all Toyota complaints, across 78 models

Chrysler 9,816 4.2%

15% of all Chrysler complaints, across 46 models

GMC 8,067 3.4%

13% of all GMC complaints, across 100 models

Volkswagen 7,099 3.0%

15% of all Volkswagen complaints, across 40 models

BMW 7,014 3.0%

17% of all BMW complaints, across 241 models

Pontiac 4,928 2.1%

13% of all Pontiac complaints, across 24 models

Mercury 4,173 1.8%

14% of all Mercury complaints, across 21 models

Complaints about this part, by make.

Where this sits in the whole record

Engine & Cooling 288,020 13.4%

Electrical System 246,872 11.5%

Transmission & Drivetrain 216,960 10.1%

Brakes 196,407 9.1%

Airbags 155,546 7.2%

Steering 143,306 6.7%

Fuel & Propulsion 127,175 5.9%

Other & Unspecified 115,162 5.4%

Body & Structure 103,108 4.8%

Suspension 88,852 4.1%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 84,656 3.9%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 76,576 3.6%

Every complaint in the file, by part.

Source — NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation 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.