Audi A6 vs Saturn ION

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	Saturn ION
Complaints on file	2,209	5,471
Model years covered	1994–2026	2003–2008
Worst model year	2001	2006
Best model year	2025	2005
Crashes reported	94	334
Fires reported	87	23
Injuries reported	76	175
Deaths reported	2	4
Most complained-about part	Electrical System	Steering
Share of complaints involving harm	11.7%	9.8%

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%

Saturn ION by year

961 1,124 755 1,537 1,090 4

03 04 05 06 07 08

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

What breaks

Steering 1,724 31.5%

Electrical System 1,598 29.2%

Fuel & Propulsion 583 10.7%

Engine & Cooling 288 5.3%

Airbags 263 4.8%

Transmission & Drivetrain 202 3.7%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 116 2.1%

Lights 106 1.9%