Cadillac Catera vs Volkswagen Golf

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	Cadillac Catera	Volkswagen Golf
Complaints on file	826	2,009
Model years covered	1997–2003	1985–2023
Worst model year	1997	2015
Best model year	1999	2021
Crashes reported	44	77
Fires reported	11	44
Injuries reported	34	74
Deaths reported	0	1
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Engine & Cooling
Share of complaints involving harm	10.8%	9.8%

Cadillac Catera by year

269 267 140 107 38 2 3

97 98 99 00 01 02 03

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

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 212 25.7%

Electrical System 100 12.1%

Suspension 59 7.1%

Tires 57 6.9%

Brakes 55 6.7%

Steering 41 5.0%

Airbags 37 4.5%

Lights 37 4.5%

Volkswagen Golf by year

15 20 4 9 41 10 11 6 11 57 84 4 7 28 76 118 152 98 32 33 27 16 2 1 5 97 151 68 67 14 185 115 145 38 88 8 12 132 22

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

Engine & Cooling 312 15.5%

Fuel & Propulsion 309 15.4%

Electrical System 212 10.6%

Airbags 195 9.7%

Transmission & Drivetrain 158 7.9%

Other & Unspecified 111 5.5%

Brakes 100 5.0%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 97 4.8%