No matter which source you trust to provide automatic reliability rankings, Fiat Chrysler (FCA) has struggled to keep itself out of the bottom ten in most of these surveys. Last year in 2018, JD Power's Dependability Study had the Chrysler brand in last place with the Fiat, Jeep, Ram, and Dodge brands also occupying the bottom ten. Consumer Reports, another website which measures reliability, hasn't been too kind to some of FCA's products either.
The publication released a statement, informing readers that six cars can no longer be recommended due to declining reliability. These cars included the Chrysler 300, Dodge Charger, Acura RDX, BMW 5 Series, Tesla Model 3 and Volkswagen Tiguan.
In the statement, CR blamed the Model 3's reliability on "loose body trim and glass defects" while the 300 and Charger were knocked for "problems with the in-car electronics and transmission." FCA quickly got in touch with CarBuzz to let us know it was aware of the issues and had already fixed them via on over-the-air-update prior to the release of the statement.
"The quality and reliability of our vehicles is of the utmost importance to all of us here at FCA US. We address all issues we see in our quality indicators, and the issues referenced by Consumer Reports have already been identified and resolved," and FCA Spokesperson said. "The 2019 Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger represents the best iteration of the vehicles ever. We encourage people to experience the 300 and Charger for themselves, and we thank our loyal customers who continue to love and recommend our vehicles to their friends and family. With the improvements we've made, we're confident 300 and Charger will both regain their recommended status in the future."
FCA also addressed reliability issue claims with its Fiat brand saying, "Fiat brand results continue to be skewed by limited models and sample sizes. The Fiat 124 Spider was named a back-to-back Consumer Guide Automotive Best Buy for 2017 and 2018 as well as a winner of Kelley Blue Book's 2019 Five-Year Cost to Own Award. We encourage people to experience Fiat vehicles for themselves, and we thank our loyal customers who continue to love our Italian-designed, fun-to-drive vehicle lineup."
The entire Fiat brand only sold 15,521 cars in 2018 and just 3,515 of those were the 124 Spider. FCA has already announced plans to make major cultural changes within the company to address reliability issues and only time will tell if those changes will be successful.