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
Not a fan of JD Power – it feels like they throw darts at a list of car brands every year. Consumer Reports, while not perfect, is at least more consistent.
My understanding is JD Power generates income by doing commissioned surveys, paid for by whomever. Then the “buyer” can take the results, cherry pick whatever info they want from it and use it however they want, including using the JD Power name in advertising. (Maybe somebody can explain to me what “best in initial quality” actually means.)
I’d love to see an annual JD Power award for most ridiculous commissioned survey of the year.
I have very recent long-term experience with both Alfa Romeo and Subaru. I can confirm the Subaru has more frequent glitches. With the Alfa they were almost comical. With the Subaru they’re annoying.
I’m deeply in Tech and I drive a 12 yr old Land Rover. Bluetooth and a phone mount on the dash work perfectly.
Software development is a very tricky beast – it’s late/failure rate is only comparable to building construction. This won’t get better until the software stabilizes. And it only took Windows, what 15 years?
“its late/failure rate is only comparable to building construction”
The only thing worse is weather forecasting.
’24 Kia Forte GT here, bought it new about a month ago. AA works perfectly and intuitively and BT has not yet failed to connect. There are aspects of the interface (defaults to a completely useless home screen on startup which can’t be changed, for example) that I don’t exactly love, but that’s more my problem than Kia’s.
lol
I have a little old Bluetooth speaker I power on each time I get in the car to play my Pandora through. The car sounds good enough that I don’t need 14 speakers to blast me—just occasional King Crimson in the background
Says the 21st Century Schizoid Man
25 Nissan Leaf S (40 kWh), very low miles on it <500 but the infotainment system is so sparce there’s really not much to be buggy about it. It’s basically a touchscreen with choices between AM, FM, Sirius XM, Bluetooth, and USB audio, that’s all it does, that and suck unnecessary amounts of electricity staying on when not in use.
I’ve got a ’24 GMC that I’ve had for about six months, no problems so far!
Looking at the comments here it looks like many have just become fatigued by all the new tech in cars and the need for everything to be a connected or software defined. I think there would be a chance for someone to make something more basic but that functions well. I do wonder what would minimum viable car look like in 2025?
A Nissan Versa?
This. I’m pretty sure the base trim (S) versa doesn’t even have CarPlay.
My phone isn’t exactly new (it’s a Pixel 5), but I had a heck of a time getting a rented Sentra to recognize it and launch Android Auto. I don’t think it was the USB cable – I’ve used it recently with no problems – but I had to disconnect and reconnect the phone repeatedly before the car would recognize it. I haven’t had any problems with the ’21 Wrangler; the screen background even changes to match my phone’s background, which is neat. The aftermarket stereo in the ’09 Grand Cherokee doesn’t do that, but AA still works great in there too. Every now and then I have to delete the connection from all devices and reconnect, but since this happens with so many different stereos I think it’s more of a phone issue.
It would be useful if they would score the issues into separate “basic transportation issues” and “fancy technology issues” groups. Many of the reported problems wouldn’t be relevant to me, so JD Power’s rankings unfairly skew the results to the point they aren’t at all useful.
I don’t use most of the features available on my three year old RAV4, so I really can’t tell you if there are problems with the entertainment system (it stays on basic Radio 100% of the time); we almost never use the wireless phone charger feature; lane assist stays off, and the only phone connectivity is for making calls.
There’s a bunch of modes on the dashboard display that were interesting for about five minutes and now no longer get viewed. Ditto for the “main” screen on the center console. It lives on its home screen almost 100% of the time, and we very rarely use the map functionality because the phone handles it perfectly well.
There could be loads of problems with all of those systems, and I’d have no idea, nor care.
Mechanically, it’s been great and that’s all I care about.
Yes! When buying a new vehicle, I’m most concerned about which ones are more likely to have ‘basic transportation issues’, like breakdown on side of road/empty my wallet for essential repairs type issues.
It was chilly this morning, so I wanted to remote start the Ranger to get the frost off the windshield.
So, these cheapskates sold me a $44K truck, which came with an enormous fob, but this pocket tumor is missing any kind of remote start button (there’s also no embedded nav, which is weird, because it’s a Lariat, and should absolutely have it. No loss, really, but it bugs me).
The workaround is to use FordPass on my phone.
FordPass is bad. My Stellantis vehicles have an app that’s not much more useful, either.
Oh, and I had to update it first before I could just start the damn truck.
And the update glitched, so I had to delete the app and re-download it. Then re-login (and reset the password because there’s too many passwords for too many things these days).
THEN, I could swipe the little remote start slider, which takes a long-ass time to communicate with the truck, which is in my driveway, and start it. I guess they’re bouncing their signal off the moon with a Hallicrafters HAM radio or something.
No matter how many times automotive companies have said “we’re world-class software companies now!” They…are not.
First, the talent doesn’t want to go work at automaker offices away from the cool places.
Second, the environments, frankly, kinda suck compared to software companies and startups.
Third, the pay and benefits DEFINITELY underwhelm compared to software companies and startups.
This is the world we live in. Do we want it quickly, or do we want to use tech?
I could have just walked out to the driveway and started the thing manually much more quickly.
Just yesterday, the ’13 Grand Cherokee stopped recognizing its fob. I had to pull the cover on the start button, insert the fob and twist to get it to start back up. If that hadn’t worked, I would have been stranded; and I’m sure not everyone knows that you can even do that (and you CAN’T on WK2s from 2014-on; maybe there’s another place to plug in the fob in emergencies).
Naah, old Hallicrafters ham radio gear works better than modern auto tech, once the vacuum tubes fully warm up.
Yeah, I feel like a Baofeng would be more appropriate.
I mean, I was just thinking something small (vs some kind of Harris flamethrower) and the most inefficient reflector possible.
I guess if you were going to use the moon, though, you could use microwave and those old Westrex horns like the Long Lines networks had. I guess those only went about 50 miles between stations, though, so you’d need a LOT of power to hit the moon.
Which is presumably a subscription service, right?
On my Ram you just pushed the start button with the fob itself. The one time my fob battery died while I was on an extremely cold snowshoe excursion it worked just fine (although opening the door with the physical key set off the alarm, which would have been embarrassing if I hadn’t been in the middle of nowhere late on a Sunday night…coincidentally also one of the worst circumstances to be unable to start your vehicle).
There are subscription services in FordPass, but remote ulock and start are free functions. It wouldn’t even load the paid services page.
Putting technology in a reliability study is pointless and is hampering the studies relevancy when those are more often than not user error as well as being covered under warranty. While mechanical issues would be covered under the same warranty, those are a much better picture for long term vehicular reliability. I want to know who can’t screw cars together well, not which company has the pickiest users of technology. It’s no surprise Buick and Lexus are the top of the list. Those are bought by the people most likely to NOT use carplay or android auto but to use the radio.
I see this comment on almost every JD Power article, but I have to disagree. The tech is too tightly integrated into the driving experience these days to just ignore quality issues with it.
For example, everyone uses their phone nav these days. It’s a big problem if your phone suddenly disconnects from the head unit while you’re trying to navigate a new area.
My old truck decided it didn’t like hands-free calling on my new phone. That’s a huge problem and I would want to know about it before buying. Luckily that truck basically fell apart shortly thereafter and made the electronic gremlins a moot point.
My new truck occasionally loses some of the gauges on the digital dash. Totally unacceptable.
No, these aren’t on the same level as a failed transmisson (although a complete head unit failure might be these days, given how integrated they are with critical systems), but they are still significant quality issues.
Not it’s not. You don’t need to carplay to drive the car.
People should plan their trip ahead of time if they are not familiar. Cell service can be lost, phones can be lost, cars can be damaged. People being stupid isn’t an excuse.
I didn’t say they SHOULDN’T report on this, just that it’s negating the usefulness of what I think should be a mechanical reliability study. Software reliability is always hard as it’s name implies it can get better or worse; it’s soft. Software is graded on versions, of which can be ran on many different machines, where one version may work great on one machine and poorly on another. It’s much more complex than asking a bunch of idiots do they like their cars big screen tv and using that data to say one maker is more reliable over 3 years than another.
This is drastically different than carplay, and not even what I said.
One should use their capitalistic right to NOT buy vehicles with this type of integration. But everyone wants new fancy shit and then complains about it in surveys when some people just wanna know who makes a good CAR not who is better at integrating brain washing marketing machines into our vehicles.
You don’t need power windows and locks to drive the car either, but if they fail early they should absolutely be included in a reliability survey.
Tech is a huge part of the ownership experience these days. You may not like it, I may not like it, but it’s true.
Correct, but those are mechanical. As I said, software is extremely variable. I just wanna know if it’s mechanically reliable. They can grade tech separately if it’s so important. Short term mechanical reliability is fairly indicative of long term mechanical reliability; it’s hardware. Software issues could be resolved in 5 minutes with an update and never be an issue again.
What happens when there are virtually no mechanical bits to report on? I.E. cars are electric and pretty much all software?
They still have mechanical bits to make it roll down the road. I’m not saying don’t measure, I’m saying measure differently because cars are changing.
’14 Camry Hybrid – every issue I have every had is with the infotainment. Bluetooth won’t pair with my iPhone, I just use a cable. The radio and CD work fine, but the native USB reader is a slow, laggy mess – I use an old Android as a music player and connect with a cord using the phone interface.
I bought a 2021 Avalon from my dad. He never used AA. When I plug in my phone, I get an error that there is no software to handle “Toyota Entune” yet “Toyota Entune” doesn’t exist on the app store. Toyota had a period where they shifted to another app called “Toyota” and the car’s firmware was updated as part of the shift. Now that the period is over, there’s no way for me to update the car’s firmware to look for the new app. I’m hoping the dealer has a fix, and I shouldn’t have to pay for it.
Buggy Carplay is the only thing that’s ever gone wrong on my 2017 Accord Coupe, it will lock up the screen randomly and I have to kill the ignition and restart in order to fix it. From what I’ve seen online, this is pretty common and nobody(not even the geniuses that added more memory to the infotainment systems) have been able to fix it. I just live with it, the J35 and slick-shifting manual trans makes up for the inconvenience.
The funny thing, that I don’t understand, is that I’ve added aftermarket Carplay stereos to three different vehicles, two Pioneers and a Sony deck, not even the really expensive models – about $400 a pop – and none of them have ever glitched, hiccuped, froze or anything of the sort. How can car audio companies have this issue fixed yet the OEM’s still can’t seem to figure it out? The one in my truck has been running Carplay for 6 years, two hours a day, six days a week.
Because car audio companies are actually competent technology companies and OEMs are only competent at propping up next months shareholder value.
I have a 2017 Wrangler I bought with only OE Bluetooth, no touchscreen or anything like that. Eventually a solder failed in the head unit and I replaced it with a nice Alpine wireless Carplay touchscreen. The Alpine unit will randomly turn off the AM/FM. It seems to usually (but not always) happen when I get a notification on my phone. The wireless Carplay works great though.
Sounds like Cleveland Cliffs is giving away Cleveland Steamers to it’s employees, nice.
You don’t just idle a BOF, this could be curtains for that site.
They “should” be able to restart it.
Intermittent Carplay/connectivity issues, even when plugged in direct with cable! When it fails to work, you have to stop/turn off the car, open/shut door to reset it.
Drives my wife nuts! Subaru Crosstrek.
Bought a cheap carplay/bluetooth widget off internet which has a much higher rate of success than the direct cable.
If the Bluetooth adapter works better than the cable, then it’s probably the phone. Or it could be the cable if you happened to use a different cable to connect the bluetooth carplay adapter.
First thing we tried was different/new cables, two different phones. No change. Have several new cables purchased white traveling. Get out of car for pit stop, get back in and now dont have carplay for Waze. Do the old prop phone up on dash. The cheap bluetooth thing only glitches occasionally vs frequently with usb cable. Make no sense to my old analog brain.
Bummer. That is annoying.
My 2023 Bolt has been bug-free*, which I guess fits with the GM success in the chart.
*Sometimes it will fail to display what’s happening on audio in the driver’s screen, but I don’t care.
After 5 years they still didn’t fix that?? My ’18 does that too, sometimes.
We’ve only had our 2024 Prologue like a month but so far no issues, it did just do an update on Sunday though so hopefully no whammies.
Nissan is still behind on style, the Ariya is one of the blandest looking evs, styling the new Leaf to match it is painful to watch.
Carplay/connectivity issues were a small part of the reason why i didn’t want to work at a dealership anymore. I became a technician to work on cars (powertrain/chassis/body, even audio/gps) not to be an apple store employee or an IT guy. Part of performing a repair is duplicating the issue which means i have to have the customer give me their phone? Fuck that, give the car back to the customer and tell them to update the software on their phone if the vehicle software was up to date.
Edit: if that sounded very negative, understand how technicians are paid at dealerships and having a vehicle come in with carplay concerns (high percentage of them almost brand new) would be a huge waste of time.
Yeah, I was a tech(although fortunately not flat rate) when I bought my Accord and had intermittent Carplay issues – locking up the screen and requiring key-off, key-on to reset it. I never brought it back to the dealership because it was so random that the techs never would have been able to duplicate the issue.
Precisely. This study is becoming a study of the users more than of the vehicle. Lexus and Buick are the top because those customers aren’t using CarPlay/Android Auto as much. You’re telling me the Lexus is that much better than it’s Toyota counterpart? Or the Buick it’s Chevy counterpart?
Last year I had to set up my 78-year-old mom’s Blink cameras. It was deeply annoying. Doing the automotive equivalent of this multiple times per day for people you don’t actually, you know, love would basically be hell.
What isn’t there won’t break is the bottom line.
I too drive a BUNCH of cars a year and they pretty much all suck these days in various ways. I had a Volvo XC60 last week that was just a steaming pile of meh – and whoever designed the touch-based sunroof control needs to be drowned in a vat of lutefisk. It should not take a computer engineer 10 minutes to figure out how to open the damned sunroof! My sainted mother would have never figured it out.
24 Prius, no problems with Android Auto wired or wireless. Have to say it’s far better than the proprietary infotainment system in my previous Prius.
Both cars I bought in the last 5 years have been quite buggy and had other issues as well. The cruise control in my GTI only worked maybe 2/3rds of the time and would crash out and be unavailable for the other third for no apparent reason. It also had issues with misfiring and throwing codes. Whether that was mechanical or electronic is anyone’s guess.
The Kona N did this super fun thing where somehow an uneven road surface warning was triggered for no apparent reason. The car screamed at me for my entire commute as a result and the only way I could clear it was doing a hard reset on the infotainment…which worked but forced me to have to go back in and reprogram all my presets for everything, the date and time, etc.
If manufacturers had a de-tech option I would literally pay a premium for it. I don’t even use phone connectivity because I waste enough time on my damn phone as is. Give me satellite radio, Bluetooth connectivity, and a backup camera and I’ll have everything I need.
I am with you – I would pay more for less at this point.
The ONLY connectivity I want is simple BT for making phone calls and a USB port that can read a thumbdrive full of music. Exactly what my 2011 BMW wagon has, and it’s perfect. I’ll pass on the backup camera if the car has decent visibility out the back, but so many just don’t. It just shouldn’t be necessary, yet it is.
I like the backup camera because I live in DC and parking is tight. But I agree…Bluetooth for calls and kick out the jams when SiriusXM isn’t doing it for me is more than enough. I’m also happy to just use navigation on my phone when I need it and follow the directions over the speakers. I don’t really need or want a map for reference unless I’m somewhere I really don’t know at all, which is rare these days.
My ’04 GTI had many of those “features” as well LOL.
We have a 2023 F150 Lightning. The infotainment has been pretty good. Occasionally it only wants to connect to AA through the USB (not Bluetooth). Sometimes when I hit the physical camera button it only shows one view, not the usual two views. But overall it’s been fine. Others have complained that the infotainment is laggy, and while it’s certainly not fast I don’t mind it.
Cleveland Cliff’s CEO isn’t just a Trump supporter, he’s a main driver in the current trade war and animosity towards Canada.