J.D. Power's 2024 Worst Car Brands for Dependability

J.D. Power's 2024 survey of drivers provides us with a list of 2021's most dependable models after three years on the road. On the flip side, they also name which brands' cars scored below average in the survey.

The survey found an average of 190 problems per 100 vehicles (PP100), which means that the average 2021 car in the survey had 1.90 problems during the last three years. The worst-scoring brands had more problems than that, with the last-place brand averaging a dismal 310 PP100, which indicates more than three problems for each of those cars in three years.

The study covers 184 specific problem areas across nine major vehicle categories: climate; driving assistance; driving experience; exterior; features/controls/ displays; infotainment; interior; powertrain; and seats.

Infotainment systems continue to annoy and confuse, so drivers dinged their cars for these confounding systems. They were the source of 49.1 PP100 among the surveyed vehicles.

Driver assistance systems like lane departure warnings and automatic emergency braking also earned drivers' ire due to their frequent false alarms.

These examples illustrate the fact that the definition of “dependability” doesn't usually mean that the car broke down. Instead, it often depends on the ease of use of vehicles' many electronic systems.

Click through our gallery to see which brands ended up at the bottom of J.D. Power’s dependability list.