Dodge Dakota vs Honda Civic

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 Dakota	Honda Civic
Complaints on file	9,238	20,348
Model years covered	1985–2011	1979–2026
Worst model year	2002	2001
Best model year	2009	1994
Crashes reported	692	2,377
Fires reported	178	247
Injuries reported	357	1,478
Deaths reported	24	37
Most complained-about part	Suspension	Airbags
Share of complaints involving harm	13.5%	20.3%

Dodge Dakota by year

3 1 21 65 88 88 161 314 159 240 294 250 650 793 1,011 1,096 945 946 420 287 598 386 167 131 23 48 53

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

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

What breaks

Suspension 2,348 25.4%

Brakes 1,449 15.7%

Transmission & Drivetrain 1,060 11.5%

Steering 723 7.8%

Airbags 692 7.5%

Engine & Cooling 597 6.5%

Electrical System 465 5.0%

Fuel & Propulsion 238 2.6%

Honda Civic by year

1 1 1 10 7 17 54 41 51 88 110 143 113 178 171 252 383 452 502 404 351 1,357 876 619 424 396 1,709 1,466 1,083 499 489 221 620 443 386 488 1,374 781 889 545 303 209 1,158 334 174 124 51

79 81 82 83 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

Airbags 2,932 14.4%

Steering 2,559 12.6%

Engine & Cooling 1,886 9.3%

Transmission & Drivetrain 1,809 8.9%

Electrical System 1,570 7.7%

Other & Unspecified 1,358 6.7%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 1,138 5.6%

Brakes 1,073 5.3%