But an unreliable used car—no matter how low it may be priced—is never a good value. If you aren’t careful with your research, you can end up with a used car, minivan, pickup truck, or SUV that ends up costing you more money in repairs than you paid for it. In fact, you may spend so much on repairs that you could have bought a newer model with more features, fewer miles, and in better condition. (Learn more about buying a used car now.)
How do you know which used cars to avoid? Well, that’s where Consumer Reports’ auto experts come in.
We collect data from members in our Annual Auto Surveys, so we can tell you how many problems a model has had compared with the average problem rate for all vehicles of the same model year. From this, we can show which models and model years to stay far away from, and detail the reasons why.
Among the very worst used cars to avoid are the 2021 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid, 2021 Jeep Wrangler, 2023 Nissan Frontier, 2022 Rivian R1T, and 2021 Volkswagen Jetta. The list below features about 60 of the worst used cars, citing the specific model years to avoid.
To reduce your risk of experiencing costly, inconvenient problems, focus on these more than 50 cars and SUVs that are the best used cars that performed well in our road tests when new and have proven to be reliable.
CR members can click through the model links below for full reliability details, pricing, and much more.
