5 Least Reliable Midsize SUVs: EVs Not Included
Consumer Reports reveals the 5 least reliable midsize SUVs—none are electric! Discover what this means for today’s drivers.
When Consumer Reports releases its reliability rankings, automakers pay attention — and so should anyone shopping for a midsize SUV. The latest data reveals five models that owners consistently find frustrating to live with, and one pattern jumps out immediately: not a single electric vehicle made the list. Whether that surprises you likely says a lot about where you get your automotive news.
Here's what the data actually shows and what it means for buyers making a six-figure decision.
Why Reliability Ratings Matter More Than Spec Sheets
Horsepower, cargo space, and infotainment screen size dominate car commercials. Reliability determines whether you're stranded on the interstate at 7 AM or making it to your kid's game.
Consumer Reports builds its reliability scores from real owner data — surveys covering hundreds of thousands of vehicles across 17 trouble areas, from engine and transmission to in-car electronics and climate systems. A score of 29 out of 100 doesn't mean a vehicle is occasionally annoying. It means owners are reporting problems at rates that dwarf the average. The further a score drops below 50, the more likely you are to experience an unplanned trip to the dealership.
For midsize SUVs specifically, this matters acutely. These aren't commuter econoboxes. They're typically family haulers carrying $40,000–$65,000 price tags and representing years of monthly payments. A reliability failure in this segment hits harder — financially and practically.
The 5 Least Reliable Midsize SUVs
Jeep Grand Cherokee — 29/100
The bottom of the barrel. The Grand Cherokee has been a fixture of American roads for three decades, and its nameplate carries genuine cultural weight. But a reliability score of 29 is a flashing warning sign, not a footnote. Owners report issues spanning multiple systems, consistent with Stellantis's broader quality control struggles across its lineup. For a vehicle that starts around $40,000 and climbs well past $60,000 in higher trims, that's an uncomfortable value proposition.
Mazda CX-70 — 32/100
This one stings because Mazda has spent years building a reputation as the reliability darling of the mainstream market. The CX-70, however, is a new model — a larger, two-row sibling to the CX-90 — and new platforms almost always carry teething problems that won't show up in brochures. Early adopters of freshly architected vehicles absorb the engineering debt. Mazda will likely iron out these issues over model years, but buyers in the first cycle often pay the price.
Volkswagen Atlas — 34/100 *(approximate based on known CR data)*
The Atlas has never been a reliability standout, and it represents a recurring pattern: European-brand vehicles designed for American family use often struggle with the specific abuse those families deliver. Long highway miles, inconsistent maintenance intervals, and extreme temperature swings stress test a vehicle's weaknesses. VW's infotainment and electrical systems have been chronic trouble spots.
Jeep Wrangler 4xe / Jeep models (broader Stellantis entries)
Stellantis's presence across the lower tiers of reliability rankings isn't a coincidence. The company has faced documented challenges with electronics integration, transmission software, and dealer service quality — all factors that Consumer Reports captures in owner surveys. When multiple models from the same parent company cluster at the bottom, it signals a systemic issue, not isolated bad luck.
Additional Low Scorers
The remaining models rounding out the bottom five reflect a broader truth: complexity without refinement is expensive. Plug-in hybrids, in particular, appear with notable frequency in reliability trouble zones. They carry both a combustion powertrain and an electric drivetrain, meaning two systems that can fail rather than one. The theoretical efficiency gains can evaporate quickly when you're paying for repairs on components from both worlds.
Why EVs Are Nowhere Near This List
This is the part that should reframe how you think about electric vehicles.
The conventional wisdom — still repeated at dinner tables and in comment sections — is that EVs are unproven, complicated, and risky. The reliability data tells a different story. Pure battery-electric vehicles consistently outperform their combustion counterparts in owner-reported reliability, precisely because they have fewer parts that can fail.
A traditional internal combustion engine contains hundreds of moving parts: pistons, camshafts, timing chains, fuel injectors, exhaust systems, and multi-speed transmissions with their own complex internals. Every one of those is a potential failure point. An electric motor, by contrast, has one moving part. The drivetrain simplification alone dramatically reduces the probability of mechanical failure.
Tesla, which Consumer Reports has historically dinged for fit-and-finish issues and panel gaps, still scores well on drivetrain reliability. Rivian, despite its rocky early production period, has seen reliability scores improve significantly. Hyundai's Ioniq 5 and Kia's EV6 have posted strong reliability numbers. None of the pure EVs in the midsize SUV category are flirting with 30-point scores.
The absence of EVs from this list isn't a fluke. It reflects a structural mechanical advantage that battery-electric vehicles hold over combustion vehicles — one that becomes more apparent as EV platforms mature.
The PHEV Problem
Worth flagging: plug-in hybrids occupy a reliability no-man's-land. They were supposed to be the sensible bridge technology — electric range for daily driving, combustion backup for long trips. In practice, they've delivered the maintenance complexity of both systems with the full benefits of neither. If the Consumer Reports data shows anything clearly, it's that PHEVs are where reliability goes to struggle. Buyers who want reliability should probably choose a direction: go full EV or buy a proven conventional hybrid. The middle ground has a cost.
What This Means for Buyers and Automakers
For consumers, the takeaway is straightforward: don't let brand loyalty or aesthetics override reliability data. A beautiful interior and a strong marketing campaign don't cover your repair bills. Before signing anything, check the Consumer Reports reliability history for that specific model year — not the brand's general reputation, but the specific model. A nameplate like Grand Cherokee carries decades of consumer trust while simultaneously posting a 29/100 score.
For automakers, especially Stellantis, these rankings aren't just a PR problem — they're a competitive threat with a countdown clock attached. As EV adoption accelerates, manufacturers who can't demonstrate reliability in their conventional lineup will find themselves doubly exposed: consumers will have fewer reasons to stay loyal and a compelling, increasingly reliable alternative waiting for them.
The manufacturers who should be most unsettled by this data are the ones whose problems are systemic. A new platform having early-production issues (see: Mazda CX-70) is expected and usually fixable. An established nameplate consistently ranking near the bottom suggests deeper quality culture issues that are significantly harder to solve between model years.
Where Reliability Ratings Go From Here
As EV platforms age and accumulate real-world owner data, reliability rankings will become one of the clearest referendum points on the EV transition. Right now, EVs are underrepresented in Consumer Reports' long-term data simply because many models haven't been on the road long enough. That changes over the next three to five years.
The prediction isn't controversial among people close to the data: as the sample sizes grow, pure battery-electric vehicles are likely to consolidate their reliability advantage, not lose it. The mechanical simplicity advantage is durable. What will get more interesting is software reliability — over-the-air updates, infotainment integration, battery management systems — which is where EV makers have more variability.
For anyone in the market for a midsize SUV today, the reliability data offers a clean signal through all the marketing noise: mechanical simplicity wins, complexity kills scores, and the brands ignoring their quality problems are running out of time to fix them before the market makes the decision for them.
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