Jaguar XJ vs Honda Prelude

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	Jaguar XJ	Honda Prelude
Complaints on file	186	463
Model years covered	1984–2019	1981–2001
Worst model year	2011	1997
Best model year	1998	2000
Crashes reported	28	52
Fires reported	7	15
Injuries reported	17	29
Deaths reported	0	2
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Transmission & Drivetrain
Share of complaints involving harm	28%	21.2%

Jaguar XJ by year

1 1 1 1 12 14 3 2 18 9 15 7 9 27 10 10 17 15 9 3 1 1

84 86 95 97 98 00 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 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 40 21.5%

Brakes 18 9.7%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 16 8.6%

Other & Unspecified 16 8.6%

Transmission & Drivetrain 15 8.1%

Electrical System 14 7.5%

Fuel & Propulsion 13 7.0%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 8 4.3%

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%