Acura RL vs Pontiac Trans Sport

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 RL	Pontiac Trans Sport
Complaints on file	525	1,262
Model years covered	1996–2015	1984–2003
Worst model year	2000	1998
Best model year	1998	1996
Crashes reported	26	75
Fires reported	8	45
Injuries reported	13	46
Deaths reported	0	2
Most complained-about part	Airbags	Engine & Cooling
Share of complaints involving harm	9%	13.3%

Acura RL by year

26 24 16 26 79 12 54 11 16 153 39 24 14 14 10 3 1 3

96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 15

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

What breaks

Airbags 141 26.9%

Lights 63 12.0%

Electrical System 60 11.4%

Transmission & Drivetrain 42 8.0%

Brakes 34 6.5%

Engine & Cooling 24 4.6%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 19 3.6%

Other & Unspecified 17 3.2%

Pontiac Trans Sport by year

1 1 64 46 96 77 128 151 76 307 287 18 2 4 4

84 86 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 03

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

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 164 13.0%

Body & Structure 136 10.8%

Seat Belts 119 9.4%

Steering 107 8.5%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 104 8.2%

Brakes 100 7.9%

Transmission & Drivetrain 84 6.7%

Lights 80 6.3%