Chevrolet Cruze vs Volkswagen Jetta

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 Cruze	Volkswagen Jetta
Complaints on file	5,786	13,891
Model years covered	2010–2019	1984–2026
Worst model year	2014	2002
Best model year	2017	1993
Crashes reported	479	696
Fires reported	137	390
Injuries reported	226	583
Deaths reported	3	9
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Electrical System
Share of complaints involving harm	14.6%	12.1%

Chevrolet Cruze by year

2 1,116 1,354 936 1,106 383 395 295 166 33

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

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

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 1,401 24.2%

Electrical System 761 13.2%

Transmission & Drivetrain 677 11.7%

Other & Unspecified 468 8.1%

Brakes 383 6.6%

Stability & Traction Control 382 6.6%

Steering 377 6.5%

Fuel & Propulsion 273 4.7%

Volkswagen Jetta by year

1 18 18 21 23 28 29 38 33 22 167 338 36 100 253 488 633 862 885 552 295 354 792 280 251 1,275 1,184 880 692 739 552 286 250 249 38 796 79 101 72 66 68 39 8

84 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 24 25 26

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

What breaks

Electrical System 2,193 15.8%

Engine & Cooling 2,032 14.6%

Transmission & Drivetrain 1,648 11.9%

Fuel & Propulsion 1,409 10.1%

Brakes 981 7.1%

Airbags 871 6.3%

Other & Unspecified 803 5.8%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 658 4.7%