GEO Prizm vs Volkswagen GTI

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	GEO Prizm	Volkswagen GTI
Complaints on file	795	1,949
Model years covered	1990–2002	1985–2024
Worst model year	1994	2002
Best model year	1998	1999
Crashes reported	197	63
Fires reported	25	23
Injuries reported	138	76
Deaths reported	2	7
Most complained-about part	Airbags	Engine & Cooling
Share of complaints involving harm	45.5%	8.7%

GEO Prizm by year

54 72 75 95 173 130 68 63 11 33 9 9 3

90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02

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

What breaks

Airbags 177 22.3%

Seat Belts 107 13.5%

Engine & Cooling 66 8.3%

Body & Structure 66 8.3%

Brakes 60 7.5%

Electrical System 52 6.5%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 43 5.4%

Transmission & Drivetrain 37 4.7%

Volkswagen GTI by year

3 2 2 1 28 11 12 12 11 58 97 141 72 13 12 57 102 76 295 68 66 52 42 18 123 84 57 21 288 10 8 56 11 40

85 86 87 91 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

Engine & Cooling 384 19.7%

Transmission & Drivetrain 317 16.3%

Electrical System 223 11.4%

Brakes 160 8.2%

Fuel & Propulsion 147 7.5%

Other & Unspecified 126 6.5%

Airbags 124 6.4%

Stability & Traction Control 81 4.2%