Buick Park Avenue vs BMW X5

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 Park Avenue	BMW X5
Complaints on file	1,880	4,530
Model years covered	1984–2005	2000–2026
Worst model year	1998	2021
Best model year	2005	2007
Crashes reported	95	189
Fires reported	174	234
Injuries reported	64	142
Deaths reported	4	7
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Engine & Cooling
Share of complaints involving harm	17.9%	12.6%

Buick Park Avenue by year

2 15 16 14 21 28 12 134 104 102 63 164 68 355 327 174 104 71 41 38 17 10

84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05

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

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 356 18.9%

Brakes 281 14.9%

Electrical System 198 10.5%

Seat Belts 142 7.6%

Fuel & Propulsion 117 6.2%

Steering 114 6.1%

Transmission & Drivetrain 102 5.4%

Body & Structure 97 5.2%

BMW X5 by year

37 215 136 134 93 109 221 119 319 203 190 395 374 215 130 199 110 111 100 267 151 158 111 48 250 105 30

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 902 19.9%

Airbags 628 13.9%

Electrical System 538 11.9%

Transmission & Drivetrain 426 9.4%

Fuel & Propulsion 400 8.8%

Brakes 308 6.8%

Other & Unspecified 275 6.1%

Steering 136 3.0%