Ford Five Hundred vs Audi A4

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 Five Hundred	Audi A4
Complaints on file	1,527	3,677
Model years covered	2004–2007	1995–2024
Worst model year	2005	2002
Best model year	2007	2022
Crashes reported	87	146
Fires reported	22	76
Injuries reported	26	84
Deaths reported	0	0
Most complained-about part	Transmission & Drivetrain	Airbags
Share of complaints involving harm	8.8%	8.3%

Ford Five Hundred by year

1 716 523 287

04 05 06 07

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

What breaks

Transmission & Drivetrain 305 20.0%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 292 19.1%

Engine & Cooling 208 13.6%

Electrical System 168 11.0%

Fuel & Propulsion 118 7.7%

Brakes 99 6.5%

Body & Structure 59 3.9%

Other & Unspecified 44 2.9%

Audi A4 by year

1 133 119 321 242 115 153 218 282 225 267 343 226 204 150 77 17 23 28 38 24 18 75 80 16 230 19 10 19 4

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

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

What breaks

Airbags 520 14.1%

Engine & Cooling 489 13.3%

Electrical System 483 13.1%

Brakes 402 10.9%

Lights 375 10.2%

Fuel & Propulsion 217 5.9%

Transmission & Drivetrain 205 5.6%

Other & Unspecified 162 4.4%