The Worst Car Brand in America

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jul 1, 7:10AM EDT · Published Jun 29, 7:11AM EDT

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The 2024 J.D. Power U.S. Initial Quality Study reveals which automaker is the worst American car brand.

Once a year, J.D. Power releases one of the most important evaluations of American car brands: the J.D. Power U.S. Initial Quality Study. It has just released the 2024 version.

The study looks at problems per 100 vehicles. The current version is the 38th year. J.D. Power polled 99,144 people from July 2023 to May 2024. The study looks at the categories of infotainment, features, controls, and displays: exterior, driving assistance, interior, powertrain, seats, driving experience, climate, and unique to repair.

One thing stands out. People prefer simple, familiar driving features. New technology features tend to drive poor scores. Frank Hanley, senior director of auto benchmarking at J.D. Power, said, “It is not surprising that the introduction of new technology has challenged manufacturers to maintain vehicle quality.” These systems often give what the research firm called “false warnings.” Drivers do not like the addition of Apple CarPay and Android Auto because they add even more complexity. Drivers also do not want complex infotainment systems that control simple features like windshield wipers.

The measured brands were divided into” premium brands” and “mass market brands.” Ram, the pickup and van manufacturer, held the top position. It scored 149 out of 100 vehicles. Porsche had the top premium brand spot, with 172 problems per 100 vehicles. The average for all brands measured was 195 per 100.

The bottom spot belonged to Dodge, making it the worst car brand in America. Its score was much worse than any other brand, with 301 problems per 100 vehicles. (Avoid all car brands except these 10.)

Dodge is barely a brand. The gasoline-powered versions of their muscle cars, the Challenger and Charger, are being discontinued. The all-electric Charger Daytona SRT will replace them. V8 engines are disappearing across the industry. Their gas mileage is too low. With the largest Dodge engine, the Charger gets 13 MPG in city driving.

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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.