BMW 528I vs Cadillac CTS

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 528I	Cadillac CTS
Complaints on file	1,244	3,106
Model years covered	1979–2016	2003–2019
Worst model year	2008	2005
Best model year	2009	2019
Crashes reported	29	301
Fires reported	74	60
Injuries reported	45	194
Deaths reported	0	13
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Transmission & Drivetrain
Share of complaints involving harm	11.9%	18.3%

BMW 528I by year

1 2 49 39 59 53 3 1 181 33 87 164 145 119 94 109 105

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 386 31.0%

Electrical System 185 14.9%

Transmission & Drivetrain 107 8.6%

Fuel & Propulsion 104 8.4%

Airbags 98 7.9%

Other & Unspecified 66 5.3%

Lights 63 5.1%

Brakes 36 2.9%

Cadillac CTS by year

450 294 396 371 314 252 222 101 148 81 106 198 67 47 33 10 16

03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

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

What breaks

Transmission & Drivetrain 480 15.5%

Airbags 393 12.7%

Electrical System 387 12.5%

Engine & Cooling 337 10.8%

Brakes 323 10.4%

Steering 163 5.2%

Other & Unspecified 119 3.8%

Suspension 118 3.8%