Since about 2009, I’ve driven somewhere between 20-100 different vehicles every year. Many of those are new, with a mixture of cars loaned to me by automakers and rental vehicles. The most obvious thing to me over roughly 16 years of trying to drive everything is not that cars are better, it’s that they’re buggier.
Are the cars better? Some cars are better. There are more advanced driving features that make them safer for people inside the cars, which is good. There are also more distractions that make cars more dangerous for people outside the car, which is bad. With those features comes a lot of bugginess. There’s new data out to support my anecdotal experience that newer cars are having reliability issues across the board.
The Morning Dump, as an institution, has been a little bit on the side of Honda and Nissan merging, if only because it seemed like the best way for Nissan to survive. That might still happen, but until it does, the company would like to remind people it’s still alive and has a plan for the future.
Rivian has continued to generate slightly more buzz than actual sales, so it’s not a surprise to me that the company will also be getting into the micromobility space. Sorry, Also will be getting into the micromobility space. Confused by that sentence? Me too.
And, finally, most tariffs on vehicles might not happen, but a suddenly shaky car market is already impacting suppliers.
J.D. Power Says Three-Year Vehicle Quality Is The Worst It’s Been Since The Great Recession
Do you remember 2009? I’m realizing there are some readers here young enough that 2009 is smack dab in the middle of their childhoods. The best way I can describe it is that everyone was worried they’d never get a job again or be able to retire. Yet, even with these big existential problems, a lot of those same people were fixated on whether or not a guy named Sufjan would make an indie rock album about Delaware.
Wild times.
It was also the last time that vehicle reliability, as measured by the J.D. Power Vehicle Dependability Study, was this bad, with an average of 202 problems per 100 vehicles after three years of ownership. That’s not great! It’s a 6% increase in problems over last year and shows the industry is headed in the wrong direction.
Some of this is probably pandemic-related, J.D. Power notes in the company’s press release, as supply shortages and other issues caused all sorts of “major disruptions” to the manufacturing process. While none of that helped, there’s got to be more to it than that, and the “more to it” is software.
Android Auto and Apple CarPlay connectivity remains the top problem in the industry for a second consecutive year, increasing to 8.4 PP100 from 6.3 PP100 in 2024. Built-in Bluetooth systems (4.6 PP100) and Wi-Fi (2.4 PP100) are also among the top problems related to software defects this year. While software defects comprise only 9% of the total problems owners experience, as vehicles become more software-reliant, this risk becomes more prominent.
It’s so common on new cars to have smartphone interface issues that it’s not even worth writing about them most of the time. To some degree, almost every new car I drive will have a CarPlay connectivity issue or other bug occur at least once during the week. My new Honda CR-V will sometimes decide CarPlay doesn’t exist for no reason.
Teslas were some of the first “software-defined” vehicles in which the digital experience became as important as the physical experience. I don’t think that would have been possible at Tesla’s scale without over-the-air updates. OTA is now far more widespread and allows automakers to address these issues without having to drag a car into a shop, which is both expensive and annoying for customers.
Software is complicated, and automakers often rely on too many suppliers to be able to control, or even necessarily understand, how every device is going to interact with their products. It’s a problem.
Looking at the list of brands ranked by dependability, it’s interesting to see Buick almost approaching Lexus-levels in 2025. Not far behind are the other GM brands, which is an impressive accomplishment for the automaker. Unsurprisingly, Stellantis brands and Volkswagen brands are right at the bottom, doing worse even than Land Rover.
Ford managed to sneak up almost to the average, below Honda and ahead of Infiniti and Tesla. The most entertaining one here? Subaru now ranks below Alfa Romeo.
Nissan: We’re Not Dead Yet!
Nissan’s new CEO wasted no time, coming out today with a preview of the company’s product portfolio that he thinks will help bring the company back from the brink of a forced merger with Honda. You’ve already seen the new Nissan Leaf, but wait, there’s more. Roll out the pork loin attachment, Ron Popeil!
In FY26, production of the all-new, fourth-generation Rogue will begin. The model will be the first to offer Nissan’s innovative e-POWER technology to consumers in the U.S. and Canada. Nissan will also offer Rogue with a powerful and efficient internal combustion engine, as well as a plug-in hybrid model, providing a diverse range of powertrains to shine in the market’s most popular vehicle segment.
The company has been making its own version of hybrid tech, called e-POWER, for two generations in Europe and Japan. This system is focused on the kind of low-speed city driving that people in Europe and Japan are used to, meaning it’s not quite right for the American market. It sounds like this is going to be fixed soon:
The third-generation e-POWER system delivers notable improvements in efficiency where it is targeted to provide up to 15% enhancement in economy at high speeds compared to the current, second-generation system. It will also deliver lower emissions and enhanced refinement through reduced noise and vibration.
A unique Nissan technology, e-POWER uses a small capacity gasoline engine and lithium-ion battery to power an electric motor. As the electric motor alone drives the wheels, the result is an EV-like driving experience, characterized by powerful and responsive acceleration paired with quiet operation.
In the interim, the Nissan Rogue will get a PHEV option borrowed from its platform-mate Mitsubishi Outlander.
Is this enough to save the company? It’s unclear, and new CEO Ivan Espinosa has expressed an interest in still partnering with Honda, so I guess that’s not dead yet.
Rivian’s New Scooter Business Is Called ‘Also’
I recently went to Cooperstown to visit the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, which is just as incredible as you want it to be if you’re a baseball fan. Right before the gift shop, as my daughter was starting to fade, was a bench with a button you could press to play you the entire Abbott & Costello “Who’s On First” routine. It’s never not funny.
Also, that’s what Rivian named its new micromobility company. Sorry, not “Who’s on first.” They named it Also. Who named it? They did. What’s it called? Also. Also what?
These days, it’s not at all uncommon to hear automakers talk about evolving into “mobility companies.” Many of them share a grand, but vague, vision to serve people’s transportation needs in ways that go beyond personal car ownership. The only problem is that these ambitious dreams of making small electric vehicles, scooters, e-bikes and more rarely move past the concept stage into things you can actually buy.
Now, however, EV upstart Rivian says it’s actually doing it. Today, executives announced the launch of Also, a new “electric micromobility company” that spun out of Rivian and aims to release a flagship product by 2026 that isn’t a car, but will help city-dwellers get around in other ways.
The world keeps reinventing the Honda City Turbo II because the Honda City Turbo II with the briefcase scooter was still society’s best idea.
Steel Maker Cleveland-Cliffs Will Layoff About 600 People This Summer
Where’s car production going this year? It’s unclear, but the steel company Cleveland-Cliffs assumes it isn’t going to get better fast enough to matter, according to this report in Automotive News:
Citing what it calls the “current reality of weak automotive production in the United States,” steel maker Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. plans a temporary idling of some operations at its plant near Detroit, resulting in the layoff of about 600 employees this summer.
Cliffs said in a statement sent to Crain’s Cleveland Business, an affiliate of Automotive News, that layoffs in the Dearborn, Mich., operations are expected to begin July 15 as the company temporarily idles the blast furnace, basic oxygen furnace steel shop and continuous casting facilities at the plant.
The twist here is that the company’s CEO is an outspoken supporter of the President, so the company made sure to add that:
We believe that, once President (Donald) Trump’s policies take full effect and automotive production is re-shored, we should be able to resume steel production at Dearborn Works.”
I’d love to hear a timeline for when that is.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
Laura Nyro week continues. Yesterday, I shared Elton John’s “Burn Down The Mission,” which includes a very Nyro-esque piano interlude. Ben Folds Five opens their breakout album Whatever And Ever, Amen with a full-on Nyro experience on the opening track “One Angry Dwarf And 200 Solemn Faces.” Watch as Ben Folds literally punches his piano. That’s the kind of Laura Nyro energy we want.
The Big Question
Do you own a car built in the last five years? Is it also buggy as hell?
Top photo: Volkswagen
I have an iPhone 14 and a ’17 Accord. I never use Carplay as it requires snaking a USB cable out of the armrest/console and plugging the phone in there. A few weeks ago, I plugged my phone into a USB port on our Dodge Charger rental and it took over the radio.
My 88-year-old mom totaled her 2006 Accord rearending someone at a stop sign a few weeks ago and my brother and I are hoping the DMV is the bad guy who is the bad guy who takes her driving privileges away because she can’t pass a practical re-test.
If she were to pass it, I can’t imagine how hard it would be for her to wrap her head around the newer control interfaces. I’d probably try to find a Gen 7 Accord in good condition and save her the reeducation process.
I gave her her first computer in the Windows 95 era and every upgrade to a newer OS flummoxed her. She is now developing dementia and every time I visit, she is convinced that the icons are moving around on her Windows 10 computer. They aren’t.
2022 Camry. 2 bugs.
My wife bought a ’24 Kia K5 last year, it’s been nearly problem-free except it does have an HVAC system that sometimes seems to have a mind of its own. It will be pumping heat out the vents when heat is not selected, sometimes the defrost will be on even when the entire system is turned off, and selecting recirculation is only temporary as it will reset itself within 10 minutes or so.
I blame OTA updates. It used to be that shipping a car with half-baked software would lead to inconveniencing customers with expensive recalls. Now with much easier remote updates they’ve shifted the beta-testing to the customers and count on being able to fix them before too many people complain.
Ship now-fix later, same thing for all software today.
While I wholeheartedly agree that excessive tech in modern cars makes them more buggy, and that it can at many times be really infuriating, I also think the way this all gets tracked and reported is kind of misleading… or if not misleading, it at least fails to capture what I’m personally most interested in.
Just to be clear, I’m not knocking the Autopian here. As far as I can tell, all the big name groups (JD Power, Consumer Reports, any auto magazine or web article I’ve stumbled onto for the last ten years, etc.) seem to be doing the same thing.
I certainly want every part of the car to work and not have distracting bugs, and I do think people should quantify and report on these bugs… but they’re nothing like the problems we were reporting 20 years ago.
I care about a car’s reliability, its ability to handle adversity (like running max AC on a hot day in Death Valley without the engine overheating), and its overall performance, safety, and comfort about 1000 times more than I care about glitchy gizmos.
I feel like there should be big, simple, easy to find trackers and rankings that cover the performance and reliability of the actual car (or truck, SUV, etc) aspects of the vehicle, not the frilly nonsense that we’re not even sure belongs in the car to begin with.
My impression is that cars are VASTLY more reliable than they used to be in every way that matters. In the 80s and 90s, everyone I knew had car problems regularly (the kind that require tow trucks or catching a bus to work when you normally drive there). Now, unless you’re driving a 20 year old car or severely abusing/neglecting it, they seem to just work.
I’m sure all of this data exists. Surely there’s lots of data differentiating problems that strand you somewhere from nonsense tech problems, but it doesn’t seem to be in the mainstream, and I think it should be.
I love my Subaru, and I see that it has fallen in the rankings some. I’d really love to know how much of that fall is because the touchscreen is dumb (I already knew that and frankly it’s not that serious) or if it’s because they replaced the chains in their CVTs with a new fangled rubber band that breaks after 100 miles. One really matters to be and might affect my decision to buy another Subaru, the other kind of doesn’t matter.
2023 Tundra, it is buggy as hell. One example – If you turn off the radio (which only resets the radio, doesnt turn it off), the Lane Trace Assist malfunctions, pops up a message to see the dealer. Yet you can just turn the LTA back on, it isn’t actually broken. Toyota is already working on the next generation UX, which I had the opportunity to focus group test for them, and it appears to be a clean slate approach. So I don’t expect a a lot of updates to the current bugs.
What did you expect? As an increasing number of functions becoming software reliant, there should be an increase in the number of functions which could experience a glitch.
I wouldn’t be surprised if product planning and poor requirements writing were also to blame. IIRC, in the early generations of the Ford Sync and Cadillac Cue, both systems were absolutely panned for their lack of responsiveness. This is part due to changes to the hardware specification, which were reduced (combination of cost savings or manufacturing ease) to achieve the bare minimum requirements for the software to run.
Minimum requirements being what they are, the software certainly ran – it just didn’t run well.
I refused! Sold my ’19 GTI for an ’08 328i. My phone connects immediately with a USB cable. No software bugs. Oil leaks, on the other hand …
We have a 2022 Prius AWD, nothing buggy happening at all.
Our 2024 Rav4 Plug-in has one weird one. The TPMS does not provide actual pressure readings in the vehicle, but it does provide the data on the iPhone app. We’re taking it in tomorrow for them to investigate. Inquiries to the service folks revealed that while they have heard of this problem, they haven’t had to actually resolve it. I’ll be hanging out in their waiting area doing work stuff since they have useable wi-fi and they are about 45 minutes away.
There is also a function where one should be able to choose charging options after plugging in, but the selection won’t move. The sales person will be consulting Prof Google for that one as it is not covered in the manual.
Really, that is the grand total of glitches. All minor.
As for attaching phones to the Rav4 since one of us has an iPhone and the other an Android, we ascribe all connection issues to PEBKAC.
Every day, another reason for me to continue to love and cherish my 90s cars.
My 2009 Honda Civic Si doesn’t have any software issues, but plenty of electrical gremlins that result in similar usability issues that software problems create.
I constantly have to reboot the radio in my 2024 Prius Prime because of an Android Auto bug. Changed my S20+ for a S24+ thinking that by old-ish phone was causing it but alas…. I have a brand new replacement coming but i doubt it’ll fix the problem.. Never had problems with the head unit in my 2021 Prime or even my 2012 Civic Si…
The only CarPlay issues I’ve had with my 18 Honda Accord has been with usb cables wearing out. Same with the Cruise that came before it. It’s been a rock solid product for me.
My Honda has been exemplary, the selling dealer not so much. I’ve found another locally that isn’t a complete ass although they back walled me the last time I asked for a specific fix (volunteered to pay for it). The last time I’ll take the car there. I’ll do all the work I am able to myself going forward.
Honda, Toyota Hyundai and Cadillac are on the short list for the next set of wheels.
I’ve upgraded both of our vehicles (2015 GTI, 2017 Pacifica) to CarPlay/AA capable radios. The only bugginess I’ve experienced so far was in the Chrysler, and that was (seemingly) due to a data cable I kinked during the initial installation.
That being said, dealing with older versions of CarPlay in a couple rental cars early on was a pain, and the various versions of SYNC I’ve dealt with in Ford rentals was nightmarish.