Ford F Series vs Volkswagen Touareg

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 Series	Volkswagen Touareg
Complaints on file	391	945
Model years covered	1971–2008	2004–2017
Worst model year	2000	2004
Best model year	2005	2009
Crashes reported	13	22
Fires reported	58	30
Injuries reported	8	30
Deaths reported	0	0
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Fuel & Propulsion
Share of complaints involving harm	20.2%	8.7%

Ford F Series by year

1 1 2 4 3 2 7 3 7 7 20 17 55 32 44 55 54 43 1 8 12 7 5 1

71 84 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08

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

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 106 27.1%

Fuel & Propulsion 51 13.0%

Electrical System 47 12.0%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 34 8.7%

Brakes 23 5.9%

Body & Structure 23 5.9%

Tires 19 4.9%

Steering 14 3.6%

Volkswagen Touareg by year

373 106 52 9 73 25 37 20 37 42 35 35 67 34

04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

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

What breaks

Fuel & Propulsion 152 16.1%

Engine & Cooling 134 14.2%

Electrical System 102 10.8%

Transmission & Drivetrain 83 8.8%

Tires 54 5.7%

Airbags 53 5.6%

Steering 46 4.9%

Other & Unspecified 46 4.9%