GMC Sierra 2500 vs Ford Escort

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	GMC Sierra 2500	Ford Escort
Complaints on file	2,284	5,050
Model years covered	1994–2026	1981–2003
Worst model year	2001	1997
Best model year	1998	2002
Crashes reported	111	629
Fires reported	64	610
Injuries reported	59	456
Deaths reported	4	24
Most complained-about part	Brakes	Electrical System
Share of complaints involving harm	10.4%	34%

GMC Sierra 2500 by year

2 14 19 42 63 171 164 193 175 159 78 98 78 37 11 81 40 57 39 100 77 51 46 40 107 65 53 40 135 35 14

94 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 26

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

What breaks

Brakes 522 22.9%

Electrical System 289 12.7%

Engine & Cooling 208 9.1%

Transmission & Drivetrain 199 8.7%

Airbags 167 7.3%

Fuel & Propulsion 145 6.3%

Other & Unspecified 138 6.0%

Steering 132 5.8%

Ford Escort by year

2 5 7 27 31 53 65 206 199 128 413 222 480 351 725 257 729 470 413 128 85 41 13

81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03

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

What breaks

Electrical System 872 17.3%

Seat Belts 660 13.1%

Engine & Cooling 557 11.0%

Airbags 493 9.8%

Fuel & Propulsion 433 8.6%

Transmission & Drivetrain 324 6.4%

Suspension 310 6.1%

Brakes 291 5.8%