Stalling while driving: which cars, and at what mileage
Where stalling while driving shows up
Stalling while driving has been reported to NHTSA 15,308 times across 2,972 model years, and the median report arrives at 67,000 miles miles. Measured per 1,000 vehicles built, the 2023 Ford Maverick Hybrid leads the list.
That is earlier than the 75,000 miles this part is normally expected to survive, which is usually why people file in the first place.
At what mileage does stalling start?
What stalling while driving 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, $300–$2,500 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 critical, 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 2013 Nissan Sentra. Sorted that way the leaders are 2013 Nissan Sentra at 0 miles, 2018 Ford Ecosport at 0 miles and 2019 Volkswagen Jetta 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.
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 2023 Ford Maverick Hybrid shows 524 per 1,000 with 11 reports on file.
Jeep accounts for 30% of the worst-affected entries on this list, which usually means a shared part, a shared platform, or a shared supplier rather than 12 separate faults.
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.
| Vehicle | Reports | Per 1,000 | Median | Reported early | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 Ford Maverick Hybrid | 11 | 523.8 | — | 0% | High confidence |
| 2001 Kia Sportage | 14 | 120.7 | 20k | 70% | High confidence |
| 2010 Dodge Caravan | 11 | 78.6 | 115k | 0% | High confidence |
| 2005 Ford Explorer | 15 | 75.0 | 80k | 14% | High confidence |
| 2007 Chrysler Town And Country | 11 | 52.9 | 70k | 0% | High confidence |
| 2007 Jeep Wrangler 4-DR 4X4 | 26 | 24.1 | 5k | 91% | Moderate confidence |
| 2011 Ford Edge | 23 | 10.9 | 45k | 41% | High confidence |
| 2005 Ford Expedition | 16 | 5.4 | 35k | 60% | High confidence |
| 2003 Ford Expedition | 15 | 5.0 | 108k | 0% | High confidence |
| 2016 Jeep Patriot | 45 | 3.2 | 60k | 32% | High confidence |
| 2017 Jeep Renegade | 29 | 2.7 | 37k | 50% | High confidence |
| 2016 Chrysler Town And Country | 12 | 2.7 | 47k | 0% | High confidence |
| 2018 Jeep Renegade | 24 | 2.3 | 15k | 67% | High confidence |
| 2012 Hyundai Santa FE | 41 | 2.2 | 12k | 66% | High confidence |
| 2018 Jeep Compass | 58 | 2.1 | 25k | 75% | High confidence |
| 2015 Chrysler 200 | 140 | 1.8 | 44k | 39% | High confidence |
| 2016 Jeep Compass | 23 | 1.6 | 54k | 13% | High confidence |
| 2006 Chrysler 300C | 92 | 1.6 | 67k | 15% | High confidence |
| 2010 Chrysler Town And Country | 139 | 1.5 | 86k | 10% | High confidence |
| 2016 Kia Sorento | 19 | 1.4 | 102k | 0% | High confidence |
| 2006 Dodge Charger | 81 | 1.3 | 90k | 12% | High confidence |
| 2022 Hyundai Ioniq 5 | 15 | 1.2 | — | 0% | High confidence |
| 2012 Hyundai Genesis | 13 | 1.2 | 78k | 9% | High confidence |
| 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee | 102 | 1.1 | 72k | 18% | High confidence |
| 2019 Jeep Cherokee | 87 | 1.0 | 7k | 85% | High confidence |
| 2006 Ford Expedition | 14 | 1.0 | 80k | 0% | High confidence |
| 2024 Jeep Wrangler | 66 | 0.9 | — | 0% | High confidence |
| 2006 Jeep Commander | 115 | 0.9 | 53k | 42% | High confidence |
| 2004 Infiniti G35 | 14 | 0.9 | 88k | 33% | High confidence |
| 2010 Ford Escape | 80 | 0.9 | 50k | 15% | High confidence |
| 2013 Ford Edge | 12 | 0.9 | 62k | 0% | High confidence |
| 2005 Ford Freestyle | 35 | 0.9 | 99k | 3% | High confidence |
| 2015 Jeep Patriot | 24 | 0.8 | 35k | 56% | High confidence |
| 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee | 70 | 0.8 | 62k | 11% | High confidence |
| 2004 Volvo S60 | 13 | 0.8 | 79k | 0% | High confidence |
| 2012 Chrysler Town And Country | 45 | 0.7 | 130k | 4% | High confidence |
| 2017 Hyundai Elantra | 23 | 0.7 | 61k | 17% | High confidence |
| 2001 Mazda Tribute | 32 | 0.7 | 36k | 44% | High confidence |
| 2008 Dodge Avenger | 29 | 0.6 | 85k | 9% | High confidence |
| 2010 Dodge Journey | 55 | 0.6 | 81k | 18% | 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. 15,308 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 stalling while driving complaints?
Per 1,000 vehicles built, the 2023 Ford Maverick Hybrid leads with 11 reports. Ranking by rate rather than raw count keeps high-volume models from topping the list on sales alone.
At what mileage does stalling while driving usually get reported?
Across the whole fleet the median report is at 67,000 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