KIA Optima 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	KIA Optima	Ford Taurus
Complaints on file	10,387	23,982
Model years covered	2001–2020	1977–2019
Worst model year	2013	2000
Best model year	2005	2019
Crashes reported	505	1,482
Fires reported	647	685
Injuries reported	315	926
Deaths reported	22	38
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Engine & Cooling
Share of complaints involving harm	14.3%	13.1%

KIA Optima by year

231 168 190 306 180 214 218 188 166 99 781 1,263 1,889 791 1,403 1,079 355 334 321 211

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

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

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 3,400 32.7%

Electrical System 944 9.1%

Other & Unspecified 847 8.2%

Steering 756 7.3%

Airbags 573 5.5%

Body & Structure 565 5.4%

Brakes 534 5.1%

Transmission & Drivetrain 506 4.9%

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 77 280 251 100 755 297 358 104 53 67 19

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 3,718 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 1,088 4.5%