BMW 328I vs Nissan Maxima

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	BMW 328I	Nissan Maxima
Complaints on file	3,777	8,853
Model years covered	1996–2016	1982–2023
Worst model year	2013	2000
Best model year	1998	2013
Crashes reported	210	466
Fires reported	193	398
Injuries reported	159	330
Deaths reported	1	16
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Transmission & Drivetrain
Share of complaints involving harm	14.9%	13.7%

BMW 328I by year

36 29 34 125 146 5 574 375 297 231 799 198 392 237 203 96

96 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 1,093 28.9%

Electrical System 684 18.1%

Airbags 604 16.0%

Other & Unspecified 179 4.7%

Transmission & Drivetrain 174 4.6%

Fuel & Propulsion 149 3.9%

Brakes 114 3.0%

Body & Structure 112 3.0%

Nissan Maxima by year

4 8 40 64 74 194 73 78 138 99 140 102 128 195 117 123 133 215 467 225 278 249 1,725 1,152 733 169 99 460 399 138 137 71 126 2 224 155 46 28 33 4 6 2

82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 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

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

What breaks

Transmission & Drivetrain 2,465 27.8%

Engine & Cooling 957 10.8%

Electrical System 915 10.3%

Steering 528 6.0%

Airbags 517 5.8%

Fuel & Propulsion 503 5.7%

Brakes 441 5.0%

Body & Structure 355 4.0%