Ford Probe 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 Probe	Audi A4
Complaints on file	1,483	3,677
Model years covered	1984–1999	1995–2024
Worst model year	1993	2002
Best model year	1996	2022
Crashes reported	99	146
Fires reported	49	76
Injuries reported	70	84
Deaths reported	3	0
Most complained-about part	Seat Belts	Airbags
Share of complaints involving harm	14.9%	8.3%

Ford Probe by year

1 103 378 198 101 249 207 130 77 38 1

84 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 99

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

What breaks

Seat Belts 553 37.3%

Brakes 165 11.1%

Engine & Cooling 145 9.8%

Electrical System 128 8.6%

Transmission & Drivetrain 118 8.0%

Airbags 54 3.6%

Steering 50 3.4%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 49 3.3%

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%