Audi A6 vs Ford Escort

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	Audi A6	Ford Escort
Complaints on file	2,209	5,050
Model years covered	1994–2026	1981–2003
Worst model year	2001	1997
Best model year	2025	2002
Crashes reported	94	629
Fires reported	87	610
Injuries reported	76	456
Deaths reported	2	24
Most complained-about part	Electrical System	Electrical System
Share of complaints involving harm	11.7%	34%

Audi A6 by year

2 22 71 26 158 276 201 148 113 85 44 119 83 63 79 22 24 26 86 79 48 29 77 24 16 196 39 21 4 2 1 11 14

94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

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

What breaks

Electrical System 401 18.2%

Airbags 322 14.6%

Engine & Cooling 248 11.2%

Fuel & Propulsion 229 10.4%

Brakes 170 7.7%

Transmission & Drivetrain 118 5.3%

Steering 113 5.1%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 84 3.8%

Ford Escort by year

2 5 7 27 31 53 65 206 199 128 413 222 480 351 725 257 729 470 413 128 85 41 13

81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03

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

What breaks

Electrical System 872 17.3%

Seat Belts 660 13.1%

Engine & Cooling 557 11.0%

Airbags 493 9.8%

Fuel & Propulsion 433 8.6%

Transmission & Drivetrain 324 6.4%

Suspension 310 6.1%

Brakes 291 5.8%