America’s Least Reliable Car Brand

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.
America’s Least Reliable Car Brand

© felixmizioznikov / iStock Editorial via Getty Images

American car buyers rely heavily on well-regarded reviews of vehicles that cover everything from reliability to price to appeal. The most widely circulated of these come from J.D. Power, Consumer Reports and the large car magazines. Consumer Reports just issued its car reliability study covering both brands and models. One conclusion was shocking. Mercedes scored the worst for reliability out of the 24 brands covered. Mercedes is the leading luxury car brand by sales, matched only by BMW and Lexus.

The universe of people queried was huge, covering over 300,000 car owners. Reliability for 2023 models was based on data from the past three model years.

What accounts for Mercedes’ last-place finish? According to USA Today, “Mercedes-Benz was named Consumer Reports’ least reliable brand for the first time after owners reported electronics issues such as screens that went blank.” The conclusion was shocking because Mercedes vehicles are among the most expensive in the United States.

Mercedes’s major competitors did well. While it received a score of 26 on a scale of 1 to 100, Lexus and Toyota tied for first with a score of 72. BMW finished third with a score of 65. Audi’s score of 60 put it in sixth place among all brands.
[nativounit]
According to GoodCarBadCar, Mercedes sold 86,412 vehicles in the third quarter. BMW sold 78,029 and Lexus sold 67,524.
[wallst_email_signup]
Mercedes vehicles cover a wide range of models. Its entry-level A-Class sedan has a base price of $33,950. The Maybach S-Class has a starting price of $184,900. Mercedes has models that include sedans, coupes, sport utility vehicles and electric cars.
[recirclink id=1182411]
Mercedes management has to be shocked by the news. Reliability is among the primary reasons people buy its vehicles. That reason has started to disappear, according to Consumer Reports.

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

Continue Reading

Top Gaining Stocks

CBOE Vol: 1,568,143
PSKY Vol: 12,285,993
STX Vol: 7,378,346
ORCL Vol: 26,317,675
DDOG Vol: 6,247,779

Top Losing Stocks

LKQ
LKQ Vol: 4,367,433
CLX Vol: 13,260,523
SYK Vol: 4,519,455
MHK Vol: 1,859,865
AMGN Vol: 3,818,618