Dodge Colt vs Pontiac Firebird

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	Dodge Colt	Pontiac Firebird
Complaints on file	328	802
Model years covered	1982–1996	1976–2002
Worst model year	—	1995
Best model year	—	2001
Crashes reported	14	86
Fires reported	6	53
Injuries reported	15	52
Deaths reported	1	5
Most complained-about part	Seat Belts	Brakes
Share of complaints involving harm	11%	24.4%

Dodge Colt by year

2 1 1 24 44 28 37 14 17 14 121 23 2

82 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 96

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

What breaks

Seat Belts 217 66.2%

Engine & Cooling 20 6.1%

Transmission & Drivetrain 16 4.9%

Electrical System 10 3.0%

Brakes 8 2.4%

Fuel & Propulsion 7 2.1%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 7 2.1%

Seats 7 2.1%

Pontiac Firebird by year

1 1 3 2 2 5 6 20 22 27 11 10 23 10 29 33 18 72 112 50 59 91 76 35 36 48

76 77 78 79 80 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02

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

What breaks

Brakes 148 18.5%

Electrical System 86 10.7%

Fuel & Propulsion 70 8.7%

Seat Belts 68 8.5%

Engine & Cooling 67 8.4%

Transmission & Drivetrain 54 6.7%

Airbags 45 5.6%

Steering 39 4.9%