Chevrolet Cavalier vs Toyota Prius

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 Cavalier	Toyota Prius
Complaints on file	6,452	15,583
Model years covered	1982–2005	2000–2026
Worst model year	1997	2010
Best model year	2005	2025
Crashes reported	554	1,469
Fires reported	167	101
Injuries reported	369	602
Deaths reported	21	18
Most complained-about part	Electrical System	Brakes
Share of complaints involving harm	17.2%	14.1%

Chevrolet Cavalier by year

1 17 10 4 21 27 14 71 70 77 178 237 310 392 748 751 473 337 447 356 254 867 428 362

82 83 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

Electrical System 1,252 19.4%

Engine & Cooling 839 13.0%

Brakes 717 11.1%

Fuel & Propulsion 652 10.1%

Steering 415 6.4%

Airbags 346 5.4%

Transmission & Drivetrain 332 5.1%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 322 5.0%

Toyota Prius by year

4 215 201 123 737 1,298 1,690 2,451 1,894 644 3,482 664 544 544 281 215 215 127 46 53 23 11 31 26 31 28 5

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

Brakes 4,567 29.3%

Lights 3,536 22.7%

Electrical System 1,607 10.3%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 1,048 6.7%

Engine & Cooling 784 5.0%

Other & Unspecified 557 3.6%

Airbags 436 2.8%

Body & Structure 430 2.8%