48 Used Cars to Avoid Buying

However, an unreliable used car—no matter how low its price may be—is never a good value. If you aren’t careful with your research, you can end up with a used car, minivan, pickup truck, or SUV that costs you more in repairs than you paid for it. In fact, you may spend so much on repairs that you could have bought a newer model with more features and fewer miles, and in better condition. (Learn more about buying a used car now.)

How do you know which used cars to avoid? Well, that’s where Consumer Reports’ auto experts come in.

We collect data from members in our Annual Auto Surveys, allowing us to compare the number of problems a model has experienced with the average problem rate for all vehicles of the same model year. From this, we can identify which models and model years to avoid and provide details on the reasons why.

To reduce your risk of experiencing costly, inconvenient problems, focus on these 56 Best Used Cars that performed well in our road tests when new and have proved to be reliable.

CR members can click through the model links below for full reliability details, pricing, and much more.

See the Used Car Top Picks and Which Brands Make the Best Used Cars?