KIA RIO vs Buick Regal

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 RIO	Buick Regal
Complaints on file	1,816	4,456
Model years covered	2000–2023	1978–2020
Worst model year	2002	1996
Best model year	2023	2004
Crashes reported	229	227
Fires reported	149	335
Injuries reported	163	169
Deaths reported	8	5
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Brakes
Share of complaints involving harm	30.2%	16.5%

KIA RIO by year

4 355 171 103 53 46 89 64 57 54 38 32 75 218 75 69 110 37 42 29 37 23 15 20

00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

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

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 399 22.0%

Airbags 274 15.1%

Brakes 184 10.1%

Electrical System 159 8.8%

Other & Unspecified 130 7.2%

Fuel & Propulsion 102 5.6%

Transmission & Drivetrain 98 5.4%

Seat Belts 64 3.5%

Buick Regal by year

1 3 1 4 6 10 14 28 181 150 107 303 204 118 146 218 273 174 376 301 245 229 150 139 94 8 1 1 2 441 138 137 51 50 61 26 33 29 3

78 79 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 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

Brakes 867 19.5%

Engine & Cooling 811 18.2%

Electrical System 591 13.3%

Steering 325 7.3%

Lights 241 5.4%

Transmission & Drivetrain 210 4.7%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 172 3.9%

Airbags 149 3.3%