Car Problems, Statistics, and Analysis

Each year, American car owners file thousands of complaints about their car problems to the U.S. Department of Transportation [1]. Table 1 shows the number of problems reported for vehicles manufactured from 2001 to 2022. Cars made in the year 2007 have the most problems, with 82,408 problems reported, while cars produced in 2022 (the current year is excluded) have the least problems, with 343 problems reported.

From the above chart, one might conclude that the quality of cars in general has improved greatly since 2001. This is actually misleading. The fact is that the 2007 model cars have been on the road for 11 years while the 2022 model cars are still fresh from the factory. Table 2 gives a better picture of car quality. It shows the problems reported in a car's first year of service. One can see that the quality of cars has been fairly constant over the years. The exceptions are years 2008 and 2009, when the global economy slowed down, causing new car sales to plummet, so fewer problems were reported.

The following chart illustrates the most common problems reported for all car makes and models in our database since 2001. The most common car problem involves the vehicle's engine and engine cooling with 160,024 problems reported. The second most common car problem is the electrical system problem, with 151,755 problems reported.

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