Ford E150 vs Saturn Saturn

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 E150	Saturn Saturn
Complaints on file	113	280
Model years covered	1976–2006	1991–2003
Worst model year	—	1994
Best model year	—	2002
Crashes reported	2	35
Fires reported	26	4
Injuries reported	3	35
Deaths reported	1	1
Most complained-about part	Electrical System	Electrical System
Share of complaints involving harm	28.3%	26.8%

Ford E150 by year

3 2 3 1 3 3 12 20 15 35 15 1

76 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 06

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

What breaks

Electrical System 36 31.9%

Fuel & Propulsion 21 18.6%

Tires 14 12.4%

Engine & Cooling 10 8.8%

Steering 6 5.3%

Brakes 5 4.4%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 5 4.4%

Transmission & Drivetrain 3 2.7%

Saturn Saturn by year

1 20 28 48 36 30 39 20 10 18 9 10 11

91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03

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

What breaks

Electrical System 38 13.6%

Transmission & Drivetrain 29 10.4%

Brakes 29 10.4%

Seats 28 10.0%

Engine & Cooling 27 9.6%

Airbags 24 8.6%

Seat Belts 18 6.4%

Suspension 11 3.9%