Buick Lesabre vs Hyundai Elantra

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	Buick Lesabre	Hyundai Elantra
Complaints on file	4,865	12,072
Model years covered	1971–2006	1992–2026
Worst model year	2000	2013
Best model year	1996	1993
Crashes reported	278	1,282
Fires reported	320	304
Injuries reported	213	748
Deaths reported	6	14
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Engine & Cooling
Share of complaints involving harm	16.8%	19.4%

Buick Lesabre by year

1 1 2 1 1 7 6 20 53 22 35 75 46 245 264 220 235 121 514 518 268 849 460 381 209 212 95 4

71 77 79 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

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

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 848 17.4%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 590 12.1%

Electrical System 562 11.6%

Brakes 476 9.8%

Fuel & Propulsion 319 6.6%

Airbags 293 6.0%

Body & Structure 293 6.0%

Transmission & Drivetrain 267 5.5%

Hyundai Elantra by year

46 39 110 179 138 196 75 183 259 445 431 310 209 180 209 365 424 319 504 589 920 1,862 550 356 395 1,074 405 330 333 214 142 156 93 31 1

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 24 25 26

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

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 1,958 16.2%

Airbags 1,362 11.3%

Steering 1,145 9.5%

Electrical System 1,090 9.0%

Brakes 1,079 8.9%

Other & Unspecified 821 6.8%

Transmission & Drivetrain 679 5.6%

Suspension 618 5.1%