The Failures That Hit Right After the Warranty Ends
Failure patterns whose median reported mileage lands past the typical 60,000-mile powertrain warranty — defects that statistically surface after coverage lapses, leaving owners to pay.
5,004 failure patterns have a median reported failure mileage past the 60,000-mile powertrain warranty. The median across all of them is 80,000 miles — the typical covered defect surfaces just after coverage ends.
| year | make | model | component | complaints | mileage median | miles past warranty | source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2,017 | Ford | Escape | engine | 1,718 | 79,000 | 19,000 | view › |
| 2,010 | Ford | Fusion | steering | 1,661 | 102,000 | 42,000 | view › |
| 2,012 | Ford | Fusion | steering | 1,511 | 83,300 | 23,300 | view › |
| 2,011 | Ford | Fusion | steering | 1,433 | 90,000 | 30,000 | view › |
| 2,006 | Chevrolet | Cobalt | steering | 1,291 | 60,900 | 900 | view › |
| 2,018 | Ford | Escape | engine | 1,262 | 86,000 | 26,000 | view › |
| 2,008 | Ford | Escape | steering | 1,235 | 116,473 | 56,473 | view › |
| 2,006 | Pontiac | G6 | steering | 1,219 | 75,000 | 15,000 | view › |
| 2,013 | Ford | F-150 | powertrain | 1,188 | 94,000 | 34,000 | view › |
| 2,011 | Hyundai | Sonata | steering | 1,171 | 73,200 | 13,200 | view › |
| 2,005 | Chevrolet | Cobalt | steering | 1,137 | 61,305 | 1,305 | view › |
| 2,013 | Ford | Escape | engine | 1,037 | 83,000 | 23,000 | view › |
| 2,006 | Chevrolet | Malibu | steering | 1,017 | 85,000 | 25,000 | view › |
| 2,012 | Ford | Focus | steering | 933 | 79,000 | 19,000 | view › |
| 2,009 | Nissan | Altima | steering | 858 | 80,000 | 20,000 | view › |
| 2,013 | Ford | Explorer | steering | 836 | 96,000 | 36,000 | view › |
| 2,009 | Ford | Escape | steering | 827 | 122,655 | 62,655 | view › |
| 2,005 | Jeep | Grand Cherokee | electrical | 820 | 95,000 | 35,000 | view › |
| 2,017 | Ford | Edge | engine | 817 | 74,000 | 14,000 | view › |
| 2,012 | Jeep | Grand Cherokee | electrical | 776 | 72,000 | 12,000 | view › |
| 2,009 | Chevrolet | Malibu | steering | 768 | 121,500 | 61,500 | view › |
| 2,011 | Ford | F-150 | powertrain | 755 | 98,000 | 38,000 | view › |
| 2,009 | Dodge | Journey | electrical | 743 | 80,000 | 20,000 | view › |
| 2,011 | Ford | Explorer | steering | 742 | 68,000 | 8,000 | view › |
| 2,005 | Nissan | Maxima | powertrain | 738 | 86,000 | 26,000 | view › |
Showing the top 25 of 5,004 post-warranty failure patterns. The full dataset is free to download and republish with attribution:
Methodology
Subset of the failure-mileage dataset where the median failure mileage exceeds 60,000 mi (the most common US powertrain term, 5yr/60k) and the cluster has ≥8 mileage-bearing complaints. "miles_past_warranty" is median minus 60,000. Complaints are unverified consumer reports.
Source: US NHTSA owner complaints + recalls (public record), MY 2005–2025. License: CC BY 4.0 —
cite as ProblemsByVin (https://problemsbyvin.com). Computed from the database snapshot dated 2026-10-25.
Reporters: we'll pull a custom cut of this — by make, model year, state, or component — and our reliability analyst can speak to methodology on the record. Get in touch ›