The best and worst year of every used car

What is scored. Every (model, model year) with at least one NHTSA complaint or recall, model year 2000 onward, for models CarWizz tracks. Model years on the road for less than 3 years are not graded yet: their complaints and recalls are still coming in, so they would always look like the best year. A model needs at least 3 scored years; below that no year gets a verdict.

Three inputs, each compared with the same model's median year. Complaints per year on the road (a model year's complaints divided by its age, capped at 12 years because filings plateau), weight 60%. The share of complaints that report a crash or a fire, weight 20%. Recall campaigns for the model year, weight 20%. Each input becomes a score from the log ratio of the year to the model's median: 50 is the median, twice the median scores 25, four times scores 0, half scores 75.

Why within a model only. Complaint counts rise with sales. A best-seller collects more filings than a niche car with the same defect rate, so any cross-model ranking built on raw counts rewards obscurity. The Year Score refuses that comparison. Its one job is the question buyers ask: of the years this model was sold, which should I take and which should I skip.

Known limits. NHTSA covers the US market; Canadian filings are not included. Complaints are self-reported and not verified. Model years just past the 3-year mark have had less time to accumulate filings than older ones, which the per-year rate corrects only partly. Owner sentiment from CarWizz reports is shown on each model page but is not part of this score.

Source and licence. NHTSA complaints and recalls, US public record, refreshed monthly. The Year Score dataset is published under CC BY 4.0: use it freely with a link to this page.