Ford E-250 vs Mazda RX-8

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-250	Mazda RX-8
Complaints on file	421	1,004
Model years covered	1990–2022	2004–2011
Worst model year	1999	2004
Best model year	2013	2008
Crashes reported	47	35
Fires reported	24	17
Injuries reported	38	30
Deaths reported	2	0
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Transmission & Drivetrain
Share of complaints involving harm	26.4%	8.2%

Ford E-250 by year

1 11 30 7 14 19 24 31 30 56 21 18 18 22 14 12 14 7 10 2 12 9 13 13 7 2 3 1

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 16 17 22

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

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 63 15.0%

Brakes 61 14.5%

Tires 43 10.2%

Suspension 37 8.8%

Transmission & Drivetrain 33 7.8%

Electrical System 32 7.6%

Fuel & Propulsion 24 5.7%

Steering 23 5.5%

Mazda RX-8 by year

625 212 74 51 23 9 5 5

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

Transmission & Drivetrain 238 23.7%

Engine & Cooling 194 19.3%

Airbags 116 11.6%

Steering 112 11.2%

Fuel & Propulsion 72 7.2%

Electrical System 47 4.7%

Other & Unspecified 36 3.6%

Body & Structure 34 3.4%