Honda Prelude vs BMW 335I

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	Honda Prelude	BMW 335I
Complaints on file	463	1,136
Model years covered	1981–2001	2007–2016
Worst model year	1997	2008
Best model year	2000	2015
Crashes reported	52	43
Fires reported	15	45
Injuries reported	29	22
Deaths reported	2	3
Most complained-about part	Transmission & Drivetrain	Fuel & Propulsion
Share of complaints involving harm	21.2%	9.9%

Honda Prelude by year

3 1 5 11 12 17 40 34 4 18 26 14 12 9 4 88 86 40 14 25

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

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

What breaks

Transmission & Drivetrain 106 22.9%

Engine & Cooling 53 11.4%

Electrical System 49 10.6%

Seat Belts 35 7.6%

Steering 33 7.1%

Airbags 26 5.6%

Suspension 25 5.4%

Fuel & Propulsion 25 5.4%

BMW 335I by year

388 276 128 58 136 30 70 31 16 3

07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

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

What breaks

Fuel & Propulsion 278 24.5%

Airbags 192 16.9%

Engine & Cooling 175 15.4%

Electrical System 147 12.9%

Transmission & Drivetrain 46 4.0%

Steering 36 3.2%

Other & Unspecified 35 3.1%

Lights 32 2.8%