Hyundai Elantra vs Ford Taurus

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	Hyundai Elantra	Ford Taurus
Complaints on file	12,072	23,971
Model years covered	1992–2026	1977–2019
Worst model year	2013	2000
Best model year	1993	2019
Crashes reported	1,282	1,482
Fires reported	304	685
Injuries reported	748	926
Deaths reported	14	38
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Engine & Cooling
Share of complaints involving harm	19.4%	13.1%

Hyundai Elantra by year

46 39 110 179 138 196 75 183 259 445 431 310 209 180 209 365 424 319 504 589 920 1,862 550 356 395 1,074 405 330 333 214 142 156 93 31 1

92 93 94 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 25 26

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

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 1,958 16.2%

Airbags 1,362 11.3%

Steering 1,145 9.5%

Electrical System 1,090 9.0%

Brakes 1,079 8.9%

Other & Unspecified 821 6.8%

Transmission & Drivetrain 679 5.6%

Suspension 618 5.1%

Ford Taurus by year

2 2 1 4 2 150 355 462 762 542 946 1,009 2,206 1,284 1,597 1,132 1,003 680 1,100 1,497 1,264 1,759 1,524 482 1,005 415 196 240 77 280 251 100 755 296 353 103 53 65 17

77 81 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 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

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

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 3,716 15.5%

Suspension 3,366 14.0%

Transmission & Drivetrain 3,035 12.7%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 2,128 8.9%

Electrical System 1,721 7.2%

Brakes 1,501 6.3%

Steering 1,445 6.0%

Body & Structure 1,087 4.5%