Ford Windstar vs Chevrolet Malibu

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 Windstar	Chevrolet Malibu
Complaints on file	19,460	29,413
Model years covered	1985–2005	1964–2025
Worst model year	1995	2010
Best model year	2004	2022
Crashes reported	712	1,224
Fires reported	561	234
Injuries reported	457	743
Deaths reported	12	38
Most complained-about part	Brakes	Steering
Share of complaints involving harm	9%	7.6%

Ford Windstar by year

7 11 3 3 12 25 4,799 1,855 249 1,949 2,040 2,191 2,297 1,928 2,057 33 1

85 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05

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

What breaks

Brakes 3,678 18.9%

Engine & Cooling 3,104 16.0%

Transmission & Drivetrain 2,729 14.0%

Suspension 2,092 10.8%

Electrical System 1,630 8.4%

Body & Structure 1,278 6.6%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 907 4.7%

Steering 742 3.8%

Chevrolet Malibu by year

1 1 2 2 4 6 3 3 1 1 3 693 1,480 1,227 1,379 1,005 755 773 1,639 1,386 1,475 1,253 1,489 2,356 2,204 1,526 1,472 1,383 563 399 1,443 1,174 1,215 307 332 132 149 103 59 15

64 74 75 78 79 80 81 82 83 86 89 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

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

What breaks

Steering 5,713 19.4%

Electrical System 4,816 16.4%

Engine & Cooling 3,161 10.7%

Brakes 2,824 9.6%

Lights 2,060 7.0%

Transmission & Drivetrain 1,682 5.7%

Stability & Traction Control 1,330 4.5%

Other & Unspecified 1,290 4.4%