Ford E-150 vs Cadillac CTS

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	Ford E-150	Cadillac CTS
Complaints on file	1,311	3,104
Model years covered	1989–2021	2003–2019
Worst model year	1999	2005
Best model year	2007	2019
Crashes reported	81	301
Fires reported	70	60
Injuries reported	54	194
Deaths reported	2	13
Most complained-about part	Brakes	Transmission & Drivetrain
Share of complaints involving harm	15.8%	18.3%

Ford E-150 by year

2 2 20 86 95 180 104 81 122 81 115 61 52 37 31 36 24 22 15 12 10 14 30 19 29 9 10 11 1

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 21

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

What breaks

Brakes 209 15.9%

Engine & Cooling 163 12.4%

Fuel & Propulsion 147 11.2%

Electrical System 103 7.9%

Steering 99 7.6%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 88 6.7%

Suspension 87 6.6%

Transmission & Drivetrain 83 6.3%

Cadillac CTS by year

450 294 396 371 314 252 222 101 148 81 106 198 65 47 33 10 16

03 04 05 06 07 08 09 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

Transmission & Drivetrain 480 15.5%

Airbags 393 12.7%

Electrical System 387 12.5%

Engine & Cooling 337 10.9%

Brakes 323 10.4%

Steering 162 5.2%

Suspension 118 3.8%

Other & Unspecified 118 3.8%