Ford Escort vs Chevrolet Blazer

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 Escort	Chevrolet Blazer
Complaints on file	5,050	11,236
Model years covered	1981–2003	1973–2026
Worst model year	1997	1996
Best model year	2002	2005
Crashes reported	629	1,104
Fires reported	610	258
Injuries reported	456	569
Deaths reported	24	36
Most complained-about part	Electrical System	Brakes
Share of complaints involving harm	34%	17.5%

Ford Escort by year

2 5 7 27 31 53 65 206 199 128 413 222 480 351 725 257 729 470 413 128 85 41 13

81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 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 872 17.3%

Seat Belts 660 13.1%

Engine & Cooling 557 11.0%

Airbags 493 9.8%

Fuel & Propulsion 433 8.6%

Transmission & Drivetrain 324 6.4%

Suspension 310 6.1%

Brakes 291 5.8%

Chevrolet Blazer by year

1 1 2 2 1 1 1 2 8 10 35 21 38 45 47 42 267 337 616 774 1,707 1,579 1,098 1,025 612 885 464 301 103 67 18 20 11 5 290 354 198 76 63 68 40 1

73 76 77 78 79 80 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 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

Brakes 2,978 26.5%

Engine & Cooling 1,165 10.4%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 995 8.9%

Transmission & Drivetrain 855 7.6%

Electrical System 832 7.4%

Suspension 717 6.4%

Fuel & Propulsion 638 5.7%

Lights 425 3.8%