Chevrolet C20 vs BMW 320I

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	Chevrolet C20	BMW 320I
Complaints on file	100	247
Model years covered	1970–1997	1978–2018
Worst model year	1995	2014
Best model year	1993	2013
Crashes reported	14	36
Fires reported	7	8
Injuries reported	7	24
Deaths reported	0	0
Most complained-about part	Brakes	Engine & Cooling
Share of complaints involving harm	28%	27.5%

Chevrolet C20 by year

1 1 1 1 1 5 1 1 1 6 2 3 4 2 6 7 2 25 13 15 2

70 71 72 74 78 80 81 82 83 84 85 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 97

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

What breaks

Brakes 22 22.0%

Seat Belts 13 13.0%

Tires 9 9.0%

Transmission & Drivetrain 8 8.0%

Fuel & Propulsion 7 7.0%

Engine & Cooling 6 6.0%

Electrical System 6 6.0%

Body & Structure 5 5.0%

BMW 320I by year

3 1 6 1 1 2 5 13 80 46 40 13 36

78 79 80 82 02 04 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

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

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 47 19.0%

Fuel & Propulsion 29 11.7%

Electrical System 27 10.9%

Airbags 25 10.1%

Other & Unspecified 23 9.3%

Transmission & Drivetrain 17 6.9%

Brakes 17 6.9%

Lights 14 5.7%