Buick Park Avenue vs Ford Contour

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	Ford Contour
Complaints on file	1,880	4,570
Model years covered	1984–2005	1993–2001
Worst model year	1998	1995
Best model year	2005	1994
Crashes reported	95	211
Fires reported	174	167
Injuries reported	64	174
Deaths reported	4	6
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Engine & Cooling
Share of complaints involving harm	17.9%	12.2%

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%

Ford Contour by year

5 13 1,323 858 314 1,189 616 248 4

93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01

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

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 704 15.4%

Electrical System 646 14.1%

Transmission & Drivetrain 435 9.5%

Brakes 366 8.0%

Suspension 305 6.7%

Fuel & Propulsion 284 6.2%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 232 5.1%

Body & Structure 231 5.1%