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
2019 SportWagen reporting in…no software bugs to speak of, but:
• both headlight modules have been replaced due to condensation/ice buildup in the housing
• driver’s door wiring harness went bad, meaning the car couldn’t tell the door was closed
• a power window motivator failed on another door
Car only has 50k km on it. All covered under the VW CPO warranty, but still. JD might be right.
Yeah, “mobility companies” has been such a dumb phrase…now “micromobility” Just call it what it is…it’s called a “car” or “scooter”
Also, the name “Also”? What a fucking stupid name
“The Big Question
Do you own a car built in the last five years? Is it also buggy as hell?”
We have a 2024 Trax LS. We purposefully got the base model so it didn’t have push-button start or a large screen behind the steering wheel. Just a speedo and a tach, with a little Driver’s Information Screen between the two gauges.
The only “bugginess” we experienced with it was the ambient light sensor was defective right away, but it was replaced under warranty at around 100 miles.
We do not own cell-phones, so we do not have to worry about Air Play or Car Connect, or whatever it’s called nowadays.
Our only gripe is trying to listen to music in the vehicle. The radio doesn’t recognize our iPods as an audio source, so we have to put music on USB thumb drives in order to listen to music we like without all those annoying commercials. For some dumb safety reason, we are not allowed to switch playlists while the vehicle is moving. We have to pull over to the side of the road and stop in order to switch to a different playlist. Once a playlist is selected, we can skip or repeat songs as we like. But if we want a different playlist? We have to pull over and stop somewhere. Ironically, however, if we’re listening to the radio, we can switch stations all we want while in motion, or even switch from FM to AM (or XM, for the first 3 months) while driving down the road at 60 mph. – Go figure.
Two 4Runners, no bugs. I don’t know what might possibly go wrong. I guess one of the Playskool size dashboard knobs could fall off.
My 2022 Mazda3 has been nearly bug-free, except for the head unit screen going completely black one time. Rebooting it took about a minute and fixed the problem. The only other “bug” I’ve had is with the automatic collision braking being too sensitive. Sometimes I’ll be taking a tight turn at a stop light or on one specific road and it’ll think I’m going to hit the car traveling in the same direction in the lane next to me because it appears “in front of” the car, despite there being no actual danger unless I deliberately straighten the wheel to hit it. It’s almost gotten me rear-ended a few times when it brake checks the car behind me. That being said, it was far more common on the 2019 Civic than my 3.
Sorry my most recent car is 21 years old.
I’m there with you, until recently my most recent car was 25 years old, but then I bought an 09 Civic, it has many electrical problems. At least I can count on my 63 year old British roadster to always work flawlessly.
Thank god for Lucas!
I’m an idiot and have two cars built in ’24. Neither have had a single glitch that I can recall, but one is a 4runner and the other is a corolla so not exactly bleeding edge stuff.
Toyota. The company that actually knows how to build cars.
My Kia, very rarely, will blank the screen when I plug in the iPhone. When that happens I have to re-start the car to correct it. It’s happened maybe only 3 times in the 5 years I’ve had it, so I’m not sure I’d report it even if JD Power had asked.
I haven’t really had a problem with my car being buggy, but I park it in the garage. I think that with the climate getting warmer, bugs are getting more common. The winters are shorter and milder, so they hibernate later and come out earlier. Bugs in the car can be a big problem and you can’t just break out a can of Raid because it’s such an enclosed space. I see people taking their cars to the dealer and blaming the OEM, but I don’t see how this is realistic. They’d be better off to go get it detailed on a regular basis. If it’s kept clean, it won’t be so attractive to the bugs.
That doesn’t explain why my Bolt seems to have a blizzard mode, where it disables one or both windshield wipers for no reason when it snows. It is parked outside though. Maybe some sort of yeti bugs are taking shelter in the wiper motors during inclement weather?
“Do you own a car built in the last five years? Is it also buggy as hell?”
Nope. My car was built in 2017. And it was the 2nd last year of production for the C-Max, by which time, Ford had worked out all the bugs… both mechanical and in terms of software.
The C-Max’s software is nothing special, but it does what it’s supposed to do consistently and reliably so far. Over the 9 months I’ve owned it so far, I haven’t had to do any reboots or hard resets because of bugs, freezeups or other problems.
I’d be curious for more detail on the problems per 100 vehicles, because not all problems are created equal. They might as be annoying, but severity matters.
Yeah. I’ve had 3 VWs in the last 10 years and currently own an ID4 S. I haven’t had any real issues with any of them. In fact, the Jetta and Tiguan were perfect for the entire 3-4 years I had them. The ID4’s infotainment will occasionally do something weird but it’s never anything I would bother the dealership with.
My WL Grand Cherokee on the other hand has been into the dealer many, many times. Loud suspension (still not fixed after three visits). Paddle-shifters suddenly not working. The entire infotainment system thinking it was in Italy. The rear hatch getting stuck in a half latched state. The doors making annoying sounds when the body flexes. A wireless charger that just roasts your devices instead of charging them.
I would buy another VW but I’m done with Jeep forever after this one.
“ The entire infotainment system thinking it was in Italy. “
Hmmm… now I’m thinking that if you went to Italy while it was in that state, then where would it think it was then? Would it still think it was in Italy or think it was somewhere else?
Interesting how high in the rankings GM products are when considering the weighting of complaints about carplay/android are figured in. Maybe GM dropped support just to game the rankings? For the record, my VW does not have wireless carplay, but works flawlessly when I use USB. Thing is, I don’t use it for much. I still have good bluetooth calling, an SD card full of my music library and generally know where I’m going. I guess if I needed to tiktok zit picking while driving, it may not work as well, but I haven’t tried that.
Since my tolerance for tech bugs and glitches is very low, it’s good that we own older cars. Now I just need to figure out how to keep finding suitable older vehicles as the years pass.
Seeing as how 2009 was the beginning of my childhood, unfortunately, I don’t have any drivable cars built in the last 5 years. Luckily, mom’s 2022 Tesla Model 3 SR, is a car built in the last 5 years and it has been surprisingly free of any niggles so far.
Is your car buggy as hell? This wouldn’t have happened if we hadn’t obsoleted buggy whips. Although, I suppose if your car is buggy, it sort of is a buggy whip..
My take on the reason Buick has climbed near the top of a reliability list where smart phone connectivity and Wi-Fi leads the complaints is that their traditional customer base doesn’t use a smart phone and/or Wi-Fi. When they get in a car they just want to drive to the pharmacy down the street and pick up a prescription and some blue rinse for their hair. Maybe some butterscotch candy and a bottle of wine because the CVS has got that, too. And is it time for another flu shot?
Most of the Buicks in my neighborhood are families with Enclaves. Of course, you also see their sister SUVs, GMC Acadia and Chevy Traverse.
My wife’s 2020 Pacifica Hybrid was buggy when we first got it, but after a few software patches related to AC charging and one for Uconnect, we have been trouble-free. However, a coworker with a 2022 Gladiator has arrived at work via the dealership shuttle more often than in the Gladiator. FWIW, the $34 Dual bluetooth receiver I installed in my 1989 Jeep Cherokee has worked flawlessly. I award 1 point to Wal-Mart’s car audio department.
When my phone lags for half a second I am mildly annoyed. If I’m driving a fancy new car and the driver assist/ auto cruise/ other gobbledygook lags for half a second at highway speeds at rush hour does it cause an accident?
When I was driving my first vehicle with touchscreen-based climate controls, I nearly drove off the road because it took so long for the climate screen to load after I drove into a thunderstorm that almost instantly fogged up my windows. That was the end of any patience I may have ever had with screen climate controls.
Safe to assume anyone reading this already experiences an unhealthy amount of screen-time. The time behind the wheel is a welcome respite. Guess I’m stuck with owning pre-2015 cars, which I’m fine with as long as I can still find decent ones.
ALSO? Did marketing plug into a perpetually depressed AI for that? Also(ran)
2024 Mustang. Glitch with the instrument screen (all gauges are on the screen). It goes blank. Without warning, while driving. This is very upsetting. I have had it in once for a fix – still does it. I just got a letter that it is being recalled for a “software update”. I am currently holding my breath.
I went out of my way to avoid a new car with screen-based “gauges” for exactly this reason. Good luck!
I have a 22 Ram 1500 and occasionally it will lose my equalizer config for no reason. Sometimes the middle button on the radio controls on the back of the steering wheel won’t work which require the reset(holding volume/tune buttons in) of the Uconnect. My 2019 Subaru Legacy, which I no longer own, would do essentially the same thing but with added issue of only the rear door speakers working. Resetting the head unit in the same way as the Ram would fix it.
Do I think those issues should exist? No, but are they ruining my experience? Not really. Both vehicles have been, or were when I owned it, rock solid mechanically which my main concern. The Uconnect issue really confuses me because I don’t really understand why it only loses that particular config. I could understand if the truck had a dead battery and it lost all special config in Uconnect since I wouldn’t be shocked to learn they were using volatile memory of some sort that requires current to keep what’s saved on it.
Did David understand the joke in the lede image?
I mean, it’s like 26 years old at this point, so probably?
I don’t get it. Of course I’m only a little bit more in tune with things than David is.
I would argue that the most entertaining one in the list was that Chrysler is second to last. While producing exactly one vehicle. Although I guess this may include some 300s in addition to Pacificas since it’s a running, multi-year tracker. Still…
Plus they’ve been building the Pacifica FOREVER and the 300 a lot longer than that. You’d think at some point they’d get it right.
And yet this software test engineer with specific experience in firmware test, including wireless protocol testing such as Bluetooth, NFC, and Zigbee (as well as wired protocols such as modbus and USB) has been out of work for more than a year.
The Power chart confirms my decision to buy a (used) Mazda CX-5 last December. I drove the RAV4 and the CR-V, but my big 3 selling points for the Mazda were: large(ish) naturally-aspirated engine, conventional geared automatic transmission (not CVT), and “made in Japan”.
The CX-5 punches above its weight in the class in several ways, and since they depreciate slightly faster than a Toyota or Honda would, I still feel like I made the right choice.
One of the first upgrades to the 03 Lx Civic was an Android Base dHEad Unit for Car Play, when I got the 13 Si last fall, I had also planned to do the same there. I’ve reconsidred that, as the blluetooth is working pretty well, and even the steering wheel controls work, and I just mount the phone to the dash for navigation. None of the aftermaket radios fully integrate with the secondary iMID display, which I’d rther keep functional, so I’m probably over my Car Play addiction for now.