Ford Escort vs Jeep Liberty

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	Jeep Liberty
Complaints on file	5,050	11,711
Model years covered	1981–2003	2000–2012
Worst model year	1997	2002
Best model year	2002	2009
Crashes reported	629	820
Fires reported	610	218
Injuries reported	456	631
Deaths reported	24	19
Most complained-about part	Electrical System	Suspension
Share of complaints involving harm	34%	14.4%

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%

Jeep Liberty by year

7 12 2,330 1,732 1,440 1,461 1,812 941 766 146 271 241 552

00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12

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

What breaks

Suspension 2,062 17.6%

Fuel & Propulsion 1,786 15.3%

Airbags 1,356 11.6%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 1,213 10.4%

Electrical System 901 7.7%

Body & Structure 895 7.6%

Engine & Cooling 605 5.2%

Transmission & Drivetrain 516 4.4%