Consumer Reports surveyed roughly 380,000 vehicles across 20 separate trouble areas for its 2026 reliability data, and the results knocked 18 models off its recommended list entirely — including several mainstream, high-volume nameplates that plenty of shoppers cross-shop every day. The full 2026 least-reliable list isn’t dominated by obscure or low-volume cars — it includes a full-size crossover, a family hybrid minivan, and a three-row SUV people actually cross-shop against Explorers and Highlanders.

Key Points

• Consumer Reports’ 2026 survey covers roughly 380,000 vehicles across engine, transmission, EV battery, in-car electronics, and 16 other trouble areas.
• 18 models lost Consumer Reports’ recommended status for 2026 over reliability concerns.
• The GMC Acadia posted the lowest reliability score on the list, flagged specifically for transmission, brakes, power accessories, and in-car electronics problems.
• The 2026 Ford Explorer already carries 13 separate NHTSA recalls in its first model year, including multiple engine-power-loss recalls.

How the data actually gets built

Consumer Reports’ reliability scores come from its members reporting on 20 specific trouble spots — everything from squeaky brakes and worn interior trim up through major, expensive-to-fix problems in the engine, transmission, EV battery, and EV charging system. RepairPal builds its own independent reliability picture from actual repair-shop data rather than surveys, tracking three numbers: average annual unscheduled-repair cost (the industry average is $652), how often a vehicle visits the shop for unscheduled repairs (0.39 times a year on average, or roughly once every two to three years for a typical car), and the probability that any given repair turns out to be severe — defined as costing three times the annual average. Across the industry, about 12% of repairs land in that severe category.

GMC Acadia — transmission and electronics

The Acadia posted the weakest score of any model on Consumer Reports’ 2026 list. The magazine’s own model-specific reliability page flags transmission problems, brake issues, power accessories, and in-car electronics as the recurring trouble spots dragging the score down — the kind of faults that don’t always throw an obvious warning light but show up repeatedly as owners report the same complaints back to Consumer Reports year after year.

Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid — transmission and powertrain

The Pacifica Hybrid, one of the few plug-in hybrid minivans on the market, lost its Consumer Reports recommendation over recurring transmission and broader powertrain issues, along with brake and in-car electronics complaints. It’s a reminder that hybridized drivetrains bring their own new failure points on top of whatever a conventional transmission already needed to get right.

Mazda CX-90 — engine, transmission and steering

Mazda’s three-row flagship shows up twice on the 2026 downgrade list — once as the standard gas model and again as the CX-90 Plug-In Hybrid — with Consumer Reports citing engine, transmission, steering, and brake issues on the standard version and battery, EV-system, and suspension complaints on the PHEV. Two versions of the same nameplate landing on the same reliability watch list in the same model year suggests the underlying platform, not just one powertrain variant, is the common thread.

Ford Explorer — 13 recalls before the first oil change

Consumer Reports’ own prediction for the 2026 Ford Explorer is blunt: “We expect the 2026 Explorer will be less reliable than the average new car.” That forecast comes with a hard number behind it — 13 separate NHTSA recalls already issued against the 2026 model year, including multiple recalls tied to engine failures with loss of power, windshield bonding and defrosting defects, seat movement hazards, and a lighting-system malfunction. A recall isn’t the same thing as a reliability complaint, but 13 of them on a single model year, one of America’s best-selling three-row SUVs, is a volume of open safety actions that’s hard to wave off as normal first-year hiccups.

Why new-technology vehicles cluster at the bottom

Consumer Reports’ own analysis points to a pattern across most of this year’s downgraded list: “vehicles integrating new technologies like EV batteries and plug-in hybrid systems tend to show more reliability problems during the first years following their launch.” That explains why EVs and PHEVs like the Rivian R1T, Chevrolet Blazer EV, Genesis GV60, Honda Prologue, Kia EV6, and Kia EV9 round out most of the rest of the 18-model downgrade list — but it doesn’t explain the Acadia, the Explorer, or the conventional-gas CX-90, which shows the reliability slide isn’t confined to new-technology powertrains alone.

None of this means any specific one of these vehicles will leave every owner stranded — reliability scores describe probabilities across thousands of vehicles, not guarantees for any single car. But for shoppers cross-shopping a family SUV or minivan this season, the pattern in Consumer Reports’ own owner-reported data is consistent enough — transmission and electronics complaints showing up again and again on the same handful of mainstream nameplates — that it’s worth a longer test drive and a closer look at the service history before signing.