Jeep Cherokee vs Ford Focus

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	Jeep Cherokee	Ford Focus
Complaints on file	20,992	29,786
Model years covered	1973–2026	1999–2018
Worst model year	2015	2000
Best model year	2006	1999
Crashes reported	997	1,631
Fires reported	443	424
Injuries reported	562	979
Deaths reported	23	54
Most complained-about part	Transmission & Drivetrain	Transmission & Drivetrain
Share of complaints involving harm	9.6%	10.4%

Jeep Cherokee by year

1 1 1 1 8 24 26 72 118 287 368 297 175 571 618 732 584 496 553 516 508 329 18 3,965 2,662 2,046 1,927 992 2,418 382 214 73 4 5

73 78 80 81 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 06 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 26

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

What breaks

Transmission & Drivetrain 5,604 26.7%

Engine & Cooling 2,904 13.8%

Electrical System 2,409 11.5%

Brakes 2,197 10.5%

Other & Unspecified 1,775 8.5%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 967 4.6%

Body & Structure 892 4.2%

Fuel & Propulsion 780 3.7%

Ford Focus by year

15 5,152 2,361 1,198 1,224 499 600 270 524 336 323 409 157 4,981 2,919 3,628 1,327 1,568 1,183 1,112

99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

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

What breaks

Transmission & Drivetrain 6,857 23.0%

Electrical System 4,474 15.0%

Engine & Cooling 3,622 12.2%

Fuel & Propulsion 2,723 9.1%

Steering 2,111 7.1%

Other & Unspecified 1,536 5.2%

Brakes 1,204 4.0%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 1,082 3.6%