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.
4,782 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2,006 | Pontiac | G6 | steering | 1,217 | 75,000 | 15,000 | view › |
| 2,018 | Ford | Escape | engine | 1,142 | 86,000 | 26,000 | view › |
| 2,005 | Chevrolet | Cobalt | steering | 1,137 | 61,305 | 1,305 | view › |
| 2,006 | Chevrolet | Malibu | steering | 1,016 | 85,000 | 25,000 | view › |
| 2,009 | Nissan | Altima | steering | 858 | 80,000 | 20,000 | view › |
| 2,009 | Ford | Escape | steering | 825 | 122,500 | 62,500 | view › |
| 2,009 | Chevrolet | Malibu | steering | 767 | 121,500 | 61,500 | view › |
| 2,017 | Ford | Edge | engine | 746 | 74,000 | 14,000 | view › |
| 2,009 | Dodge | Journey | electrical | 743 | 80,000 | 20,000 | view › |
| 2,005 | Nissan | Maxima | powertrain | 738 | 86,000 | 26,000 | view › |
| 2,011 | Ford | Explorer | steering | 736 | 68,000 | 8,000 | view › |
| 2,005 | Chevrolet | Malibu | steering | 710 | 92,000 | 32,000 | view › |
| 2,011 | Jeep | Grand Cherokee | electrical | 705 | 62,500 | 2,500 | view › |
| 2,007 | Chevrolet | Malibu | steering | 674 | 105,000 | 45,000 | view › |
| 2,006 | Jeep | Grand Cherokee | electrical | 664 | 90,000 | 30,000 | view › |
| 2,014 | Ford | Escape | engine | 658 | 81,600 | 21,600 | view › |
| 2,005 | Ford | Freestar | powertrain | 654 | 82,000 | 22,000 | view › |
| 2,016 | Ford | Focus | powertrain | 652 | 65,000 | 5,000 | view › |
| 2,008 | Chevrolet | Silverado | airbags | 627 | 84,000 | 24,000 | view › |
| 2,008 | Ford | Fusion | airbags | 623 | 83,000 | 23,000 | view › |
| 2,012 | Ford | F-150 | powertrain | 617 | 91,000 | 31,000 | view › |
| 2,017 | Ford | Explorer | body | 606 | 75,000 | 15,000 | view › |
| 2,010 | Dodge | Journey | electrical | 603 | 79,955 | 19,955 | view › |
| 2,007 | Ford | Fusion | airbags | 602 | 89,000 | 29,000 | view › |
| 2,013 | RAM | 1500 | steering | 599 | 90,000 | 30,000 | view › |
Showing the top 25 of 4,782 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 2026-05-31.
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