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Other powertrain problem: which cars, and at what mileage

Owner reports 115,824
Model years affected 8,939
Fleet-wide median report 59,000 miles
Typical repair $400–$4,500
What it means when it happens High
Should last at least 92,000 miles

Where other powertrain problem shows up

Other powertrain problem has been reported to NHTSA 115,824 times across 8,939 model years, and the median report arrives at 59,000 miles miles. Measured per 1,000 vehicles built, the 2022 Ford Maverick Hybrid leads the list.

That is earlier than the 92,000 miles this part is normally expected to survive, which is usually why people file in the first place.

At what mileage do powertrain problems get reported?

What other powertrain problem means here

Complaints are assigned to this mode by matching the owner's own description against a phrase list held in the failure-mode catalogue. The match is made on the text, never on the part number, because owners describe symptoms and not components. It is accurate in bulk and fallible one report at a time.

Where it has to be repaired rather than lived with, $400–$4,500 is the range this site publishes for an independent US shop. It is an editorial estimate, not a figure from NHTSA, and it does not include diagnosis or the labour a dealer would add.

The catalogue classes this mode as high, which is what decides its weight in every risk score it contributes to.

Where it starts earliest

Ranked by median reported mileage instead of by rate, the earliest onset is on the 2021 Kia Telluride. Sorted that way the leaders are 2021 Kia Telluride at 0 miles, 2022 Cadillac Escalade at 0 miles and 1997 Chevrolet Cavalier at 0 miles.

Early onset and high rate are different findings. A car that reports this failure rarely but at 40,000 miles is a warranty problem; one that reports it often at 140,000 miles is closer to wear. Both belong on the page, and neither answers the other's question.

Ranked by median reported mileage, lowest first. The faint bar runs from the 10th percentile to the median, so a long tail to the left means some owners hit it very early indeed.

Median
  1. 2021 Kia Telluride 15
  2. 2022 Cadillac Escalade 20
  3. 1997 Chevrolet Cavalier 25
  4. 1999 Chevrolet Cavalier 54
  5. 2017 Acura RDX 100
  6. 2005 Lexus ES 100
  7. 2022 Honda Odyssey 130
  8. 2007 Harley-Davidson Flhtcu 150
  9. 2011 BMW 5 Series 200
  10. 2022 Honda Ridgeline 200
  11. 2013 Kawasaki Ninja 300 200
  12. 2004 Lexus ES 330 200

Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens

Which vehicles report it most

The table below ranks 40 model years by reports per 1,000 vehicles built rather than by raw count, which is the only way a ranking like this stays honest: a model that sold two million copies will out-report one that sold thirty thousand even if it is the better car.

At the top, the 2022 Ford Maverick Hybrid shows 4,238 per 1,000 with 89 reports on file.

Ford accounts for 45% of the worst-affected entries on this list, which usually means a shared part, a shared platform, or a shared supplier rather than 18 separate faults.

Reports of other powertrain problem per 1,000 vehicles built

Longer is worse. The denominator is an estimate of how many of that model year are on the road, derived from the vehicle counts in recall campaigns, so a rare car with a real problem can outrank a common one. Colour is the vehicle's overall risk band, not this mode alone.

Every figure is drawn from owner reports for this failure mode on that exact model year. Click a column to sort.
Vehicle Reports Per 1,000 Median Reported early Confidence
2022 Ford Maverick Hybrid 89 4,238.1 40k 22% High confidence
2023 Ford Maverick Hybrid 71 3,381.0 15k 100% High confidence
2004 Ford Explorer 308 1,540.0 45k 41% High confidence
2018 GMC Acadia 137 188.7 35k 51% High confidence
2006 Ford Five Hundred 75 149.7 85k 6% High confidence
2019 Ford Edge 195 62.3 70k 24% High confidence
2011 Ford Edge 129 61.3 47k 26% High confidence
2016 Dodge Grand Caravan 148 33.8 90k 6% High confidence
2016 Chrysler Town And Country 112 25.6 82k 3% High confidence
2004 Nissan Maxima 730 21.4 85k 4% High confidence
2001 Mazda 626 74 20.7 73k 17% High confidence
2005 Nissan Maxima 597 17.5 87k 3% High confidence
2015 Chrysler Town And Country 72 16.4 76k 14% High confidence
2019 GMC Acadia 123 15.8 49k 31% High confidence
2006 Ford Explorer 204 14.3 60k 28% High confidence
2006 Ford Freestyle 350 10.0 77k 5% High confidence
2006 Nissan Maxima 295 8.6 85k 3% High confidence
2000 BMW 323I 160 8.4 93k 3% High confidence
2005 Ford Freestyle 322 7.8 86k 7% High confidence
2013 Ford Edge 108 7.7 62k 19% High confidence
2007 Ford Freestyle 272 7.2 70k 6% Moderate confidence
2019 Ford F-150 480 7.1 70k 26% High confidence
2017 Jeep Cherokee 500 6.9 45k 37% High confidence
2010 Ford Fusion 684 6.7 51k 23% High confidence
2020 Jeep Cherokee 106 6.3 50k 32% High confidence
2016 Jeep Cherokee 458 6.3 50k 34% High confidence
2014 Jeep Cherokee 978 6.2 34k 52% High confidence
2019 Jeep Cherokee 528 6.1 50k 40% High confidence
2004 Ford Freestar 306 5.9 85k 4% High confidence
2014 Ford Focus 1,074 5.9 33k 53% High confidence
2015 Jeep Cherokee 667 5.8 25k 61% High confidence
2015 Chrysler 200 446 5.7 37k 48% High confidence
2021 Kia Sorento 75 5.4 53k 25% High confidence
2012 Fiat 500 138 5.3 46k 40% High confidence
2012 Ford Focus 918 5.0 48k 39% High confidence
2007 Suzuki Forenza 100 4.9 56k 17% High confidence
2015 Honda CR-V 111 4.8 790 89% High confidence
2009 Dodge RAM 1500 146 4.7 69k 20% High confidence
2005 Ford Freestar 243 4.7 83k 3% High confidence
2010 Ford Escape 434 4.7 51k 16% High confidence

“Reported early” is the share of this vehicle's reports for this mode that came in below 36,000 miles. Rates are missing where we have no fleet-size estimate for that model year.

How to read this page

Nothing here is a defect investigation. It is a count of what owners chose to write to a federal agency about, sorted so that the sales figures do not decide the order. 115,824 reports is a floor: for every owner who filed, some number simply paid the bill and moved on.

If a specific car matters to you, the useful page is the model-year one, where this mode is shown against every other failure reported on the same vehicle. A single failure mode read on its own always looks worse than it is.

Questions this page answers

Which cars have the most other powertrain problem complaints?

Per 1,000 vehicles built, the 2022 Ford Maverick Hybrid leads with 89 reports. Ranking by rate rather than raw count keeps high-volume models from topping the list on sales alone.

At what mileage does other powertrain problem usually get reported?

Across the whole fleet the median report is at 59,000 miles. Individual model years vary widely, which is what the table below shows.

Why the two lists differ. A mode can be common and late (wear that everyone eventually meets) or rare and early (a genuine defect in one production run). The second is what you want to avoid when buying, and it only becomes visible when you separate rate from timing. Both columns come from the same reports; neither is a failure rate, because complaints are voluntary. How this is computed.

Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed