Jeep Cherokee

Which Jeep Cherokee years should you avoid?

Going by 14,510 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, the Jeep Cherokee years to avoid are 2014, 2015, 2019, 2016 and 2017.

• 20142,650 complaints, 6.6× a typical Cherokee year, most often about the transmission.
• 20151,794 complaints, 4.5× a typical Cherokee year, most often about the transmission.
• 20191,674 complaints, 4.2× a typical Cherokee year, most often about the transmission.
• 20161,413 complaints, 3.5× a typical Cherokee year, most often about the transmission.
• 20171,338 complaints, 3.4× a typical Cherokee year, most often about the transmission.

2 more years cleared the same bar; they are marked in the table below.

Better bets: among years old enough for a low count to mean something, the 2022 drew the fewest complaints without an unusual share of serious ones.

Too new to judge: 2026. Complaints take a few years to arrive, so a new model year looks better than it is.

How this is worked out: each year is compared with a typical year of the same model, which takes most of the difference in sales out of it, and its share of serious failures is compared with every other car of the same model year, because older cars were complained about differently. A year needs 25 complaints to be judged at all. Complaints are unverified owner reports. Full method →