How the keep-or-sell check works
Written by Vladyslav Kliuienkov, founder of PulsCar. Every number on the check and on the model pages is computed from public NHTSA files by the rules on this page; nothing is typed by hand or estimated by a model. This page is the reference: if the tool and this page ever disagree, the tool is wrong.
The data
- The Keep it or sell it? check covers 606 models from 49 makes, model years 2000 to 2026, built from 1,206,532 owner complaints about those models filed with NHTSA (received 1995 to November 2026).
- It also lists 6,035 recall campaigns by model year, each with its campaign size, and the maker's service bulletins NHTSA received since 2010.
- A model year is compared only with other years of the same model: NHTSA complaints are unverified owner reports and sales figures are unknown, so no failure rate is computed.
- Of 7,230 model years with data, 1,068 have an engine or transmission that stands out: 40 or more complaints and at least twice the model's quiet (lower-quartile) year, or twice the share seen across every vehicle of that model year.
- The mileage window shown for a system is the middle half (25th to 75th percentile) of the mileages owners reported in those complaints.
- Repair figures are typical US ranges from named sources (J.D. Power, Kelley Blue Book, CarParts.com and others), not quotes.
Sources: NHTSA flat files for complaints (COMPLAINTS_RECEIVED, 1995 to today), recalls (FLAT_RCL, every campaign, model years from the Part 573 vehicle list), manufacturer communications (TSBS_RECEIVED, 2010 to today) and investigations (FLAT_INV). A complaint is counted once (duplicates by identical text, state, mileage and date are dropped); mileages above 400,000, above 75,000 per year of age plus 10,000, or under 1,000 on a car two or more years old are not used for the mileage windows. Motorcycles, trailers, RV chassis and trucks over 10,000 lb are excluded. Models with fewer than 150 complaints are not listed.
What a model year is compared with
Only with the other model years of the same model. NHTSA complaints are unverified owner reports and sales volumes are not public, so no failure rate is computed and no model is compared with another model. A year with fewer than 20 complaints gets no verdict.
"Stands out"
A system (engine, or transmission and drivetrain) stands out for a model year when owners of that year named it in at least 40 complaints and either (a) that count is at least twice the model's quiet year, or (b) the share of that year's complaints naming the system is at least twice the share across every vehicle of the same model year in the database. The quiet year is the lower-quartile year among the model's mature years (20+ complaints, 3+ years on the road) and is never counted below 10 complaints.
The mileage window
For each system, the 25th to 75th percentile of the mileages owners reported in those complaints: the range where the middle half of them were filed. When a year has fewer than 20 complaints with a mileage, the neighbouring model years (±1) are pooled and the result says so. The owner's mileage is placed before, inside or past that window.
The verdict
- Consider selling: the engine or transmission stands out, the window is at most 60,000 miles wide, and the owner's mileage is inside it or within 15,000 miles before it. Model years less than seven years old never get this verdict: their window is still moving.
- Keep it, but watch: a system stands out but the window is ahead, behind, wider than 60,000 miles, or the year is young.
- Keep it: nothing stands out. When the year is among the quietest third of the model's years with 7+ years on the road, the card says so (by complaint count, not by rate).
- No verdict: fewer than 20 complaints for the year.
Money and repair prices
What the car is worth is always the owner's own number (we link KBB, Edmunds and Carvana). Value lost per year = (price paid − value today) ÷ years owned, depreciation only. Repair figures are typical US ranges from named published sources (J.D. Power, Kelley Blue Book, CarParts.com and others), shown with their source and date; they are not quotes. A system without a sourced figure shows no price.
What the check does not say
It does not say that your car will fail, how likely a failure is, or that one model is more reliable than another. It does not count deaths (single digits, unverified, not attributable). It is not a diagnosis and not financial advice. PulsCar is not affiliated with NHTSA.
Reuse
The counts and verdicts on PulsCar pages may be quoted with attribution ("PulsCar, from NHTSA data") and a link to the page quoted. The underlying NHTSA data is public domain. Per-model JSON files are served at /keep-or-sell/<model>.json.
Change log
- 2026-11-11 — Static pages per model and per model year (150+ complaints). Non-car makes removed. Model years under 7 years old never get "Consider selling". Quiet-year ranking only for years with 7+ years on the road.
- 2026-11-10 — Complaint history extended to filings received since 1995 (every model year from 2000 has its early-life complaints). Rule v2: a system also stands out when its share of the year's complaints is twice the share across every vehicle of that model year. Free PDF report by email.
- 2026-11-10 — First release: 317 models, complaints received since 2015.