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Car Safety DB

Powertrain & Transmission Problems

140,339 owner-reported powertrain & transmission complaints across all covered vehicles in our database. Below are the vehicles with the most reports in this category. Complaint counts are unverified consumer reports submitted to NHTSA and may not indicate confirmed defects.

This group counts stored reports whose component label starts with one of this site's matching prefixes, ignoring case. Each matching report counts once within the group. Components mentioned later in the label or only in the narrative are not searched. How component counts work

Key Takeaways

  • The total covers matching stored reports across the database; the table shows up to 30 published vehicle-year pages, not the entire dataset.
  • The current leaderboard spans 7 makes and 15 models, so it works best as a browsing and comparison surface, not a defect verdict.
  • The highest-volume tracked page right now is 2014 Ford Focus with 1,526 complaints in this category.
  • A high complaint count can reflect sales volume, age, or reporting behavior. Use the linked vehicle and recall pages to understand context before drawing conclusions.

Useful Next Steps

Open the top powertrain & transmission vehicle pageLearn how to check for related recallsRead how to file an NHTSA complaintBrowse related powertrain & transmission recalls

What This Category Means

This page groups NHTSA owner complaints by matching prefixes at the start of the stored component label. Vehicles are ranked by matching report count, not by every mention of powertrain & transmission in a report. These counts are browsing signals - a high number reflects reports, not a confirmed failure rate or a count of distinct owners. Click any vehicle to view its full complaint breakdown by component.

Recall lookup guideFile a complaint guideSafety ratings explainerRelated recalls
#VehicleReports
12014 Ford Focus1526
22014 Jeep Cherokee1394
32012 Ford Focus1347
42002 Ford Explorer1344
52013 Ford F-1501093
62013 Ford Focus1048
72015 Jeep Cherokee952
82003 Honda Accord883
92004 Nissan Maxima871
102004 Ford Freestar815
112018 Ford F-150766
122010 Ford Fusion743
132005 Nissan Maxima733
142019 Jeep Cherokee667
152015 Chrysler 200664
162005 Ford Freestar655
172016 Ford Focus648
182011 Ford F-150636
192017 Jeep Cherokee611
202016 Jeep Cherokee598
212002 Honda Odyssey593
221995 Ford Windstar586
232019 Ford F-150551
242013 Dodge Dart542
252015 Ford Focus535
262012 Ford F-150524
272003 Honda Odyssey515
282016 Hyundai Tucson507
292013 Nissan Altima490
302010 Ford Escape475

Start With These Vehicles

2014 Ford Focus2014 Jeep Cherokee2012 Ford Focus2002 Ford Explorer2013 Ford F-1502013 Ford Focus2015 Jeep Cherokee2003 Honda Accord

Other Problem Categories

EngineSteeringBrakesAir Bags & RestraintsElectrical SystemBody & StructureLightingVisibility & WipersFuel SystemSpeed Control & CruiseSuspensionDriver Assist & ADASTires & Wheels

Data sourced from NHTSA public records. A high complaint count may reflect a vehicle's popularity or sales volume, not necessarily a higher defect rate.

Latest vehicle import recorded anywhere on this site: Oct 8, 2026. Individual vehicles and datasets may have older records; this is not this page's update date.