Ford F-150 vs Chevrolet Silverado 1500

Reliability comparison based on 68,449 federal complaints.

Source: NHTSA Complaint Data

The Verdict

Based on federal complaint data, the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 has a stronger reliability record than the Ford F-150. This reflects complaint patterns across all model years — individual years may vary.

Head-to-Head

MetricFord F-150Chevrolet Silverado 1500
Years of Data3630
Total Complaints46,00322,446
Avg Complaints/Year1277.9748.2
Recent 5-Year Rate573489.6
Crashes Reported2,1181,058
Deaths Reported8352
Total Recalls408108

Lower complaints and crashes = better. Green highlights the better number in each row.

What Breaks Most

Ford F-150

POWER TRAIN 6,850
ENGINE 4,255
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 2,651
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 2,023
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL 1,984
SERVICE BRAKES 1,820
STEERING 1,504
ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING 964

Chevrolet Silverado 1500

SERVICE BRAKES 2,868
AIR BAGS 2,212
ENGINE 2,124
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 2,040
POWER TRAIN 1,921
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 1,421
STEERING 1,228
SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC 735

Best & Worst Years

Ford F-150 Best
1990
25 complaints
Ford F-150 Worst
2013
3,849 complaints
Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Best
2026
28 complaints
Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Worst
2014
2,184 complaints

Year-by-Year Comparison

Click any year to see full details.

Ford F-150

1990 (25) 1991 (357) 1992 (553) 1993 (753) 1994 (908) 1995 (788) 1996 (383) 1997 (3285) 1998 (1624) 1999 (1322) 2000 (1269) 2001 (1451) 2002 (963) 2003 (520) 2004 (2429) 2005 (1363) 2006 (735) 2007 (623) 2008 (455) 2009 (397) 2010 (1131) 2011 (2938) 2012 (2422) 2013 (3849) 2014 (1859) 2015 (2036) 2016 (2373) 2017 (1595) 2018 (2627) 2019 (1532) 2020 (797) 2021 (1138) 2022 (702) 2023 (494) 2024 (195) 2025 (112)

Chevrolet Silverado 1500

1997 (693) 1998 (452) 1999 (711) 2000 (731) 2001 (627) 2002 (620) 2003 (958) 2004 (951) 2005 (642) 2006 (462) 2007 (1049) 2008 (1090) 2009 (553) 2010 (449) 2011 (695) 2012 (273) 2013 (385) 2014 (2184) 2015 (1390) 2016 (1025) 2017 (928) 2018 (715) 2019 (1436) 2020 (934) 2021 (924) 2022 (696) 2023 (430) 2024 (317) 2025 (98) 2026 (28)

Complaint counts reflect consumer-reported issues to NHTSA and do not represent failure rates. Higher sales volume typically means more complaints. This comparison is based on aggregate data across all model years — reliability can vary significantly between individual years. See our disclaimers and methodology.

Page generated: 2026-03-29