Ford F-250 vs Volkswagen Jetta

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 F-250	Volkswagen Jetta
Complaints on file	5,731	13,865
Model years covered	1979–2014	1984–2026
Worst model year	1999	2002
Best model year	1998	1993
Crashes reported	277	696
Fires reported	246	390
Injuries reported	149	583
Deaths reported	14	9
Most complained-about part	Steering	Electrical System
Share of complaints involving harm	12%	12.1%

Ford F-250 by year

1 14 5 145 149 183 156 238 212 348 76 702 417 269 189 151 201 207 332 84 255 92 109 384 423 153 236

79 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

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

What breaks

Steering 846 14.8%

Suspension 808 14.1%

Engine & Cooling 741 12.9%

Brakes 549 9.6%

Tires 516 9.0%

Transmission & Drivetrain 427 7.5%

Fuel & Propulsion 425 7.4%

Electrical System 315 5.5%

Volkswagen Jetta by year

1 18 18 21 23 28 29 38 33 22 167 338 36 100 253 488 633 862 885 552 295 354 792 280 251 1,275 1,184 880 692 739 552 284 249 249 38 794 78 99 72 65 61 29 8

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 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 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

Electrical System 2,189 15.8%

Engine & Cooling 2,032 14.7%

Transmission & Drivetrain 1,646 11.9%

Fuel & Propulsion 1,408 10.2%

Brakes 981 7.1%

Airbags 871 6.3%

Other & Unspecified 800 5.8%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 655 4.7%