All Cars - Problems, Statistics, and Analysis
Each year car owners file thousands of complaints about their car problems to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Table 1 shows the number of problems reported for vehicles manufactured from year 1996 to 2012. Cars made in year 2000 have the most problems with 50,612 problems reported and cars produced in year 2011 (current year is excluded) have the least problems with 4,883 problems reported.
| Model Year | Number of Problems |
|---|---|
| 1996 vehicles | 35509 |
| 1997 vehicles | 35948 |
| 1998 vehicles | 38977 |
| 1999 vehicles | 47031 |
| 2000 vehicles | 50612 |
| 2001 vehicles | 43528 |
| 2002 vehicles | 45299 |
| 2003 vehicles | 40347 |
| 2004 vehicles | 41437 |
| 2005 vehicles | 40634 |
| 2006 vehicles | 35345 |
| 2007 vehicles | 28407 |
| 2008 vehicles | 18053 |
| 2009 vehicles | 9430 |
| 2010 vehicles | 10062 |
| 2011 vehicles | 4883 |
| 2012 vehicles | 1876 |
From the above chart, one may conclude that the quality of cars in general has improved greatly. This is actually misleading. The fact is that the year 2000 model cars have been on the road for 10 years while the year 2011 model cars are still fresh from the factory. Table 2 gives a better picture of car quality over these years. It shows the problems reported during the first year when the cars are in service. One can see that the quality of cars has been fairly constant over the years. The exceptions are years 2008 and 2009, when the world wide economy slowed down, causing new car sales to plummet; thus few problems were reported.
| Model Year | Number of Problems |
|---|---|
| 1996 vehicles | 4391 |
| 1997 vehicles | 2822 |
| 1998 vehicles | 4742 |
| 1999 vehicles | 5204 |
| 2000 vehicles | 5847 |
| 2001 vehicles | 4936 |
| 2002 vehicles | 4937 |
| 2003 vehicles | 5313 |
| 2004 vehicles | 6158 |
| 2005 vehicles | 4697 |
| 2006 vehicles | 4203 |
| 2007 vehicles | 4562 |
| 2008 vehicles | 3236 |
| 2009 vehicles | 2718 |
| 2010 vehicles | 4872 |
| 2011 vehicles | 2885 |
| 2012 vehicles | 1418 |
You may wonder which part of the car breaks down often. The following chart illustrates the most common problems reported for all car makes and models in our database since 1996. The number one common car problem is associated with the vehicle's engine and engine cooling with 63,675 problems reported. The second most common car problem is power train problem with 60,004 problems reported.
| Problem Category | Number of Problems |
|---|---|
| Engine And Engine Cooling | 63675 |
| Power Train | 60004 |
| Service Brakes | 54043 |
| Electrical System | 53533 |
| Steering | 31985 |
| Air Bag | 31566 |
| Suspension | 30640 |
| Vehicle Speed Control | 27516 |
| Gasoline Fuel System | 24875 |
| Visibility | 24683 |
| Structure | 23839 |
| Tire | 19881 |
| Exterior Lighting | 15985 |
| Unknown Or Other | 10949 |
| Latches/locks/linkage | 8707 |
| Seat Belt | 8667 |
| Seats | 8644 |
| Equipment | 7572 |
| Other Fuel System | 5285 |
| Wheel | 5051 |
| Parking Brake | 2361 |
| Air Brake | 2126 |
| Electronic Stability Control | 2026 |
| Diesel Fuel System | 1196 |
| Interior Lighting | 1184 |
| Traction Control System | 863 |
| Child Seat | 677 |
| Hybrid Propulsion System | 70 |
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