Acura Legend vs BMW 528I

Both cars' complete complaint records, side by side.

Read the totals carefully. NHTSA publishes no sales figures, so the car that sold more collects more complaints regardless of quality. The rows worth weighing are the proportions — the share of complaints that involved harm, and which part dominates.

Measure	Acura Legend	BMW 528I
Complaints on file	505	1,239
Model years covered	1986–1995	1979–2016
Worst model year	1993	2008
Best model year	1995	2009
Crashes reported	73	28
Fires reported	17	72
Injuries reported	43	45
Deaths reported	0	0
Most complained-about part	Equipment & Accessories	Engine & Cooling
Share of complaints involving harm	26.3%	11.7%

Acura Legend by year

17 9 42 47 45 158 111 30 26 20

86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95

Complaints filed with NHTSA, by model year. Bar colour is the FaultScore grade: A B C D F ungraded

What breaks

Equipment & Accessories 109 21.6%

Brakes 70 13.9%

Airbags 52 10.3%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 41 8.1%

Transmission & Drivetrain 39 7.7%

Engine & Cooling 30 5.9%

Electrical System 24 4.8%

Seat Belts 23 4.6%

BMW 528I by year

1 2 49 39 59 53 3 1 181 33 87 164 145 119 92 106 105

79 80 97 98 99 00 01 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Complaints filed with NHTSA, by model year. Bar colour is the FaultScore grade: A B C D F ungraded

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 384 31.0%

Electrical System 183 14.8%

Transmission & Drivetrain 106 8.6%

Fuel & Propulsion 104 8.4%

Airbags 98 7.9%

Other & Unspecified 66 5.3%

Lights 63 5.1%

Brakes 36 2.9%