Most Reliable Heavy Duty Trucks For 2024 [Updated]
John Goreham is a life-long car nut and recovering engineer. John’s focus areas are technology, safety, and green vehicles. In the 1990s, he was part of an academic team that built a solar-electric vehicle from scratch. His was the role of the battery thermal control designer. After earning his engineering degree, John also completed a marketing program at Northeastern University. For 20 years, he applied his engineering and sales talents in the worlds of semiconductor manufacturing, biopharmaceutical production, and automotive electronics supply chain. Always a writer, John has published numerous articles in technical journals such as Chemical Processing Magazine. In 2008 he retired from that career and dedicated himself to chasing his dream of being an auto writer. In addition to online publications such as Car Talk, John’s work has appeared in print in dozens of American newspapers, and he provides reviews to many vehicle shopping sites.
Shoppers looking for a heavy-duty (HD) truck tend to be contractors for whom reliability is second only to capability when it comes to their trusted equipment. Reliability is a key metric when determining our list of the best trucks.
FindTheBestCarPrice researched the HD truck models available in America using three trusted sources. We then also aggregate those scores to a simple to understand A-B-C-D type rating of our own.
Here is what our HD truck reliability research revealed.
Check out our top picks for the most reliable trucks >>
Table of Contents
Which Heavy Duty Truck Is the Most Reliable?
Stepping back from the rankings here, it is important to note that all the HD trucks on this list score C or better overall. The three top trucks in this segment for reliability all score in the B range. We found the Chevrolet Silverado 2500 to be the most reliable based on the data. In particular, Chevy’s truck rose highest because of its strong ranking on J.D. Power’s Vehicle Dependability Study. The Ram 2500 is a very close second.
There are no bad trucks in this mix, just some that rise above the rest with regard to reliability based on owner-reported problems.
Who Provided the Data For This List?
Consumer Reports provides a 1-5 rating for individual models and model years, with 5 being the best score. For our list here, we average the current model year truck plus the most recent two prior years for which information is available to come up with the score shown in our chart.
J.D. Power provides a score based on the number of problems the brand had over three years with its vehicles. The J.D. Power study we use in our story here is the Vehicle Dependability Study. It is a three-year average for all models from the brand. Although individual models matter most, we feel that a brand’s quality reputation matters as well. With the J.D. Power scores, a lower score is better.
The last source we use is CarComplaints. This source is a great reality check to see if big problems exist in an individual model. CarComplaints pulls together a detailed list of any scary problems reported by owners to see if any trends have emerged.
You will find that our rankings are based on the “2500” series HD trucks from the brands shown. There is not enough data on the 3500 series trucks to make a determination.
Most Reliable Heavy-Duty Truck Comparison
| Model | Consumer Reports Ranking (higher is better) | J.D. Power Brand Ranking (lower is better) | Our Ranking |
| Chevy Silverado 2500 | |||
| RAM 2500 | |||
| GMC Sierra 2500 | |||
| Ford F-250 |
1. Chevrolet Silverado
“Like a rock.” That was Chevy’s tagline for the brand for quite a while. The classic Seger song tugged at our heartstrings, and in combination with images of trucks in the workplace, made us all think that Chevy’s were the most durable trucks you can buy. Based on the data we reviewed, the truth matches the marketing.
Chevy earned the highest rating on J.D. Power’s Brand Dependability study, and it made the difference between a first and second-place finish for the Silverado in our rankings. Our scan of CarComplints found no issues with the Silverado 2500 all the way back to 1999.
Shoppers who value a truck with a great reliability record also want features. Small things like the signature Chevy corner step bumper also matter.
Current Chevrolet Silverado Deals & Incentives
| Year | Make | Model | Cash Incentives (up to) | Best Avail. APR | Lease Offers | Expiration |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Chevrolet | Silverado 2500 | $500 | 2.40% | 4/30/24 |
You may qualify for additional deals and incentives, check out this month's Chevrolet deals
2. RAM 2500
Ram is the brand to watch going forward.
The numbers for Ram and some other Stellantis brands have been improving in overall quality rankings over the past few years.
Ram truck owners often cite ride quality as one reason they opted for the brand.
Going forward, we expect to hear more and more HD truck buyers say they chose Ram for quality.
Current RAM 2500 Deals & Incentives
| Year | Make | Model | Cash Incentives (up to) | Best Avail. APR | Lease Offers | Expiration |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | RAM | Ram Pickup 2500 | ||||
| 2024 | RAM | Ram Pickup 2500 | $3,000 | 4/30/24 |
You may qualify for additional deals and incentives, check out this month's RAM deals
3. GMC Sierra 2500
As we found in our full-size and midsize truck rankings, GMC does not live up to its “Professional Grade” marketing tagline.
In fact, the brand’s trucks seem to be copies of the Silverado in all the ways that relate to durability and reliability.
The Sierra 2500 is not last on our list, but the brand is ranked lowest among those who build trucks in the J.D. Power Vehicle Dependability Study.
Current GMC Sierra 2500 Deals & Incentives
| Year | Make | Model | Cash Incentives (up to) | Best Avail. APR | Lease Offers | Expiration |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | GMC | Sierra 2500 |
You may qualify for additional deals and incentives, check out this month's GMC deals
4. Ford F-250
If there was one surprise from our review of the data it was that Ford didn’t score higher. Last in reliability seems like a strange place for the top-selling brand to find itself.
We are fans of the Ford brand, and we tested two different F-250s this past year. Both were vehicles that we would be proud to have in our personal fleet.
Beyond the scores we used in our calculations, we noticed that Ford did poorly on Consumer Reports rankings with scores of 1 for model years 2016, 2017, and 2018. There are also six recalls on the 2021 model year truck. We consider that to be unusually high.
Current Ford F-250 Deals & Incentives
| Year | Make | Model | Cash Incentives (up to) | Best Avail. APR | Lease Offers | Expiration |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Ford | Super Duty | ||||
| 2023 | Ford | Super Duty |
You may qualify for additional deals and incentives, check out this month's Ford deals
