A mechanical repairs claims analyst reveals the top five automotive brands he sees most often in the shop for repairs. He’s recommending car buyers steer clear.
TikTok user Yonatan (@yon__atan) says he’s an ASE certified automotive expert with 15 years of experience in the industry and five years in his current position as an analyst.
“I wanted to make this video to go over the top five brands that I see on a daily basis at my job as a senior claims analyst for mechanical repairs,” he says in a recent post.
And what should car buyers do with this information?
“These brands I would recommend staying away from and not buying—unless you had a full, diamond, super platinum, mechanical failure service contract,” he says. “I see these brands day in and day out in droves.”
No. 5: Volkswagen and Audi
Volkswagen and Audi come in at No. 5 because Yonatan sees a large volume of mechanical claims come in.
“Although I see a large volume of claims for these brands, I don’t see them for catastrophic failures,” he says. “The claims that get called in are going to be more so for upkeep than anything catastrophic.”
“A lot of the things I see involve oil leaks, fluid leaks, upper timing covers, oil pans, valve covers—which on these models they are integrated onto the cylinder head, and it’s called a [camshaft bridge], so that is a pretty labor-intensive job to get that fixed.”
No. 4: Ford
When it comes to Ford, Yonatan says his main concern is with the cam phaser issues plaguing its EcoBoost engines.
“You mean to tell me that you bought a $100k Raptor EcoBoost and right off the truck it’s rattling?” he says. “That’s insane to me.”
Yonatan says he sees a lot of failing clutch assemblies, as well as coolant intrusion in the four-cylinder EcoBoost engines, which requires a full engine replacement.
“Other things that I see with Ford, besides your oil leaks and suspension stuff, you’re going to have oil leaking into the turbos on both sides I’ve seen on their EcoBoost six-cylinders, water pump failures—a lot of stuff that revolves around the timing,” he adds.
Newparts.com says that issues with Ford’s cam phaser are caused by “design flaws, mechanical wear, and maintenance problems.”
No. 3: GM
As a “GM guy” himself, Yonatan says it pains him to say that the brand has let him down over the past six or seven years.
“There’s really no excuse from that manufacturer,” he says, pointing to the decades-long problem the company has had with Active Fuel Management (AFM) and the cam and lifter.
“And they still haven’t fixed it or found a solution,” he says. “[They] blamed the EPA, blamed whoever. But GM has had plenty of time to fix this concern and they haven’t.”
Yonatan himself had a 2019 Silverado and says the 8-speed was clunky from the get-go.
“A lot of issues that GM has refused to fix,” he says. “You see it all the time, but you don’t fix it. They’d rather pay the fees than actually fix the problem.”
No. 2: Stellantis
Stellantis is the parent company of a slew of well-known car brands, including Dodge, Chrysler, Fiat, Jeep, Ram, and Alfa Romeo.
In Yonatan’s opinion, the entire lot is “just straight up garbage. I would never own a used Mopar product unless it was an SRT Hellcat, because I don’t see too many issues with those.”
But 3.6 Pentastar and 5.7 Hemi engines? He’ll pass.
He says they have “oil cooler issues, exhaust manifold issues, valve training ticks on both power plants, transmission issues, radiator, condenser. You name it.” And that’s not all. He continues, “On top of the electronics, the radio delamination issues. You just have so many quality issues that it doesn’t make sense. I get their parts are cheap. Just poor parts. And the dealer network is not that great.”
No. 1: Kia/Hyundai
Yonatan urges American consumers to proceed with extreme caution before purchasing a Kia or Hyundai.
In the comments of a previous video, he says he got negative feedback from European buyers who said Kia is superior abroad.
“Here you get a 10-year, 100,000 mile powertrain [warranty] for the first owner,” he says. “As soon as that [expletive] is used, it drops down to 5 [years], 60,000 [miles].”
This impacts Yonatan’s work, he says.
“I deal with so many engine claims it’s not even funny,” he says. “You have engines, transmissions, electronics, and just overall quality issues with Kia/Hyundai.” He continues, “Rod bearing failures. Timing chain failures. Cam gear failures that lead to camshaft damage as well. You also have oil consumption issues, carbon buildup—I mean, it just doesn’t stop with their engines failing.” If you’re going to buy one, he recommends getting the best warranty available.
Motor1 reached out to Yonatan via TikTok comment and direct message for comment. We’ll update this if he responds.
Read the full article here
