What breaks

Which Cars Have the Most Suspension Problems

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

3 min read · 296 figures, all from the federal record · rebuilt 3 hours ago

Owners have filed 88,852 complaints with NHTSA about the suspension — 4.1% of every complaint in the file. This is where those complaints land.

The heaviest single model year is the 1999 Dodge Durango, with 1,657 complaints about this part alone, 52% of everything reported about that car.

Where owners recorded an odometer reading, the typical suspension failure on this list happened at about 64,000 miles.

Worst model years

Vehicle	Complaints	Share of that year	Median failure	Crashes	Fires
F 1999 Dodge Durango	1,657	52%	63,000 mi	11	4
F 2002 Ford Taurus	1,090	62%	84,000 mi	9	1
F 1998 Dodge Durango	820	53%	68,202 mi	5	5
D 2019 Ford F-250 SD	678	35%	19,500 mi	8	0
F 2000 Dodge Durango	644	44%	49,592 mi	18	1
D 2017 Ford F-250 SD	587	32%	28,412 mi	4	0
F 2001 Ford Taurus	567	45%	71,000 mi	9	0
F 2002 Jeep Liberty	527	23%	70,000 mi	42	1
F 1999 Dodge Dakota	503	50%	53,900 mi	2	0
D 2000 Ford Taurus	483	32%	74,186 mi	6	0
F 2004 Jeep Liberty	471	33%	52,451 mi	25	3
F 2003 Jeep Liberty	466	27%	55,825 mi	37	0
B 2002 Ford Explorer	460	11%	80,000 mi	3	2
C 2005 Ford Escape	459	23%	121,000 mi	6	1
C 2001 Ford Windstar	421	18%	122,991 mi	15	5
B 2000 Ford Focus	412	8%	64,500 mi	22	5
F 2000 Dodge Dakota	372	34%	50,000 mi	16	2
C 2000 Ford Windstar	362	17%	118,185 mi	12	1
F 2001 Dodge Durango	346	36%	47,451 mi	17	2
B 2018 Jeep Wrangler	343	13%	7,500 mi	1	0
C 2003 Ford Taurus	331	22%	85,000 mi	3	2
F 1998 Dodge Dakota	318	40%	64,000 mi	1	0
D 2001 Dodge Dakota	307	32%	44,490 mi	9	0
D 2002 Dodge Dakota	300	32%	35,000 mi	7	3
A 2013 Nissan Altima	291	10%	100,204 mi	2	0

By brand

Across whole ranges rather than single years. On Ford vehicles this part accounts for 5% of everything owners reported about the brand.

Ford 19,439 27.2%

5% of all Ford complaints, across 121 models

Dodge 11,926 16.7%

8% of all Dodge complaints, across 81 models

Chevrolet 6,382 8.9%

3% of all Chevrolet complaints, across 127 models

Toyota 6,182 8.7%

4% of all Toyota complaints, across 67 models

Jeep 6,154 8.6%

5% of all Jeep complaints, across 32 models

Nissan 3,714 5.2%

4% of all Nissan complaints, across 37 models

Honda 3,347 4.7%

3% of all Honda complaints, across 56 models

Hyundai 2,511 3.5%

3% of all Hyundai complaints, across 37 models

Chrysler 2,351 3.3%

4% of all Chrysler complaints, across 42 models

Tesla 1,717 2.4%

7% of all Tesla complaints, across 6 models

Mercury 1,695 2.4%

6% of all Mercury complaints, across 18 models

Mercedes Benz 1,590 2.2%

5% of all Mercedes Benz complaints, across 162 models

GMC 1,574 2.2%

2% of all GMC complaints, across 71 models

Pontiac 1,428 2.0%

4% of all Pontiac complaints, across 23 models

Mazda 1,409 2.0%

5% of all Mazda complaints, across 33 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.