Are you trying to figure out the most dependable truck to buy today? A prominent owner survey shows which ones have been the most dependable during the past 5 years.
Most dependable truck survey
The annual J.D. Power dependability survey collects information from more than 30,000 owners on average, and it looks at vehicles after three years of ownership. According to its website, the survey questions cover 184 specific problem areas across nine major categories, including: climate, driving assistance, driving experience, exterior, features/controls/displays, infotainment, interior, powertrain and seats.
This survey has been conducted for the last 35 years, and the results are often a key part of most advertising campaigns for truck manufacturers.
[Related content: Most dependable pickups of last 15 years]
For clarity, J.D. Power is a survey company that uses the results to give out awards. It also sells its data, in the form of reports, to automakers and other interested agencies. J.D. Power also conducts surveys on different industries throughout the world.
Here are the survey results broken down by survey year, model year, trucks by segment. As mentioned above, the survey year and model year differ since the survey looks at 3 years of ownership. It is also broken down by brand and how many awards each brand has received.
[Read more: Ram repeats for 2024 J.D. Power Initial Quality top award]
| JD Power Dependability Survey Last 5 Years | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Survey Year | Model Year | Category | Pickup Truck |
| 2019 | 2016 | Midsize | Nissan Frontier |
| Full-size | Toyota Tundra | ||
| Heavy-Duty | Chevy Silverado HD | ||
| 2020 | 2017 | Midsize | Nissan Frontier |
| Full-size | Ford F-150/Toyota Tundra (TIE) | ||
| Heavy-Duty | Chevy Silverado HD | ||
| 2021 | 2018 | Midsize | Nissan Frontier |
| Full-size | Toyota Tundra | ||
| Heavy-Duty | Chevy Silverado HD | ||
| 2022 | 2019 | Midsize | Nissan Frontier |
| Full-size | Toyota Tundra | ||
| Heavy-Duty | Chevy Silverado HD | ||
| 2023 | 2020 | Midsize | Toyota Tacoma |
| Full-size | GMC Sierra | ||
| Heavy-Duty | Chevrolet Silverado HD | ||
| 2024 | 2021 | Midsize | Toyota Tacoma |
| Full-size | Toyota Tundra | ||
| Heavy-Duty | Ford Super Duty | ||
| Brand | First Place | Second Place | Third Place |
| Chevy/GMC | 6 | 11 | 3 |
| Ford | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Honda | 2 | ||
| Nissan | 4 | ||
| Ram | 2 | 2 | |
| Toyota | 7 | 1 | 2 |
What are the big problems for each truck?
One of the common questions we get from survey results like this are which engines, trims or transmissions are giving the most issues. Unfortunately, none of the surveys we report on break the information into those exact categories.
We do have detailed articles on several trucks from other sources, so if you want to dig a little deeper, be sure to check out the following reports: Chevy Silverado 1500, Ford F-150, Ford Ranger, GMC Sierra 1500, Nissan Frontier, Ram 1500, Toyota Tacoma, Toyota Tundra and heavy-duty trucks.
[Read more: J.D. Power most dependable SUVs for the last 5 years]
In most cases, the issues these days focus more on the infotainment system, driving assistance issues and general build quality problems rather than major powertrain problems.
The bottom line
The J.D. Power Dependability award is a top honor for automakers and is regularly used in advertising campaigns. It is also a good tool for consumers shopping for a new truck since it covers multiple years of ownership.
I should note there has been some criticism of the results since J.D. Power does sell the results for an undisclosed sum to automakers. This creates questions on if automakers can buy their way into an award. You’ll find this criticism can be rampant depending on whether or not you agree with the survey results. I’ll say in my years of covering their results, I’ve never seen any proof to this claim.
