Jeep Grand Cherokee vs Ford Explorer

Reliability comparison based on 81,752 federal complaints.

Source: NHTSA Complaint Data

The Verdict

Based on federal complaint data, the Jeep Grand Cherokee has a stronger reliability record than the Ford Explorer. This reflects complaint patterns across all model years — individual years may vary.

Head-to-Head

MetricJeep Grand CherokeeFord Explorer
Years of Data3335
Total Complaints39,44342,309
Avg Complaints/Year1195.21208.8
Recent 5-Year Rate407.7433.7
Crashes Reported2,7772,323
Deaths Reported82282
Total Recalls314360

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

What Breaks Most

Jeep Grand Cherokee

ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 6,831
ENGINE 2,548
POWER TRAIN 2,059
AIR BAGS 1,812
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 1,729
SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC:FOUNDATION COMPONENTS:DISC:ROTOR 1,341
SERVICE BRAKES 1,315
SEATS 1,267

Ford Explorer

STEERING 3,435
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 2,718
POWER TRAIN 2,161
TIRES:TREAD/BELT 2,040
POWER TRAIN:AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION 1,992
STRUCTURE 1,845
ENGINE 1,832
TIRES 1,800

Best & Worst Years

Jeep Grand Cherokee Best
2025
87 complaints
Jeep Grand Cherokee Worst
2014
3,365 complaints
Ford Explorer Best
2024
21 complaints
Ford Explorer Worst
2002
4,095 complaints

Year-by-Year Comparison

Click any year to see full details.

Jeep Grand Cherokee

1993 (784) 1994 (775) 1995 (983) 1996 (1249) 1997 (1432) 1998 (1349) 1999 (2319) 2000 (1855) 2001 (1128) 2002 (1770) 2003 (887) 2004 (1570) 2005 (2732) 2006 (1750) 2007 (1475) 2008 (990) 2009 (195) 2010 (171) 2011 (2421) 2012 (2308) 2013 (1102) 2014 (3365) 2015 (1725) 2016 (434) 2017 (552) 2018 (1160) 2019 (516) 2020 (329) 2021 (643) 2022 (415) 2023 (617) 2024 (355) 2025 (87)

Ford Explorer

1991 (764) 1992 (848) 1993 (1151) 1994 (1531) 1995 (1048) 1996 (1818) 1997 (2149) 1998 (2374) 1999 (1737) 2000 (1203) 2001 (500) 2002 (4095) 2003 (1368) 2004 (1647) 2005 (604) 2006 (788) 2007 (271) 2008 (215) 2009 (49) 2010 (155) 2011 (1481) 2012 (1013) 2013 (2757) 2014 (2011) 2015 (2138) 2016 (2940) 2017 (1927) 2018 (819) 2019 (306) 2020 (1544) 2021 (492) 2022 (308) 2023 (126) 2024 (21) 2025 (111)

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