Land Rover Defender vs Lincoln Mark Viii

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	Land Rover Defender	Lincoln Mark Viii
Complaints on file	400	984
Model years covered	1990–2026	1989–2000
Worst model year	2020	1993
Best model year	2025	1997
Crashes reported	5	49
Fires reported	8	21
Injuries reported	5	18
Deaths reported	0	6
Most complained-about part	Electrical System	Lights
Share of complaints involving harm	4.5%	9.6%

Land Rover Defender by year

1 2 1 1 1 4 3 75 45 93 108 43 17 6

90 93 95 99 01 02 03 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

Electrical System 97 24.3%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 59 14.8%

Lights 53 13.3%

Engine & Cooling 41 10.3%

Driver Assist & Collision Avoidance 30 7.5%

Other & Unspecified 27 6.8%

Steering 26 6.5%

Transmission & Drivetrain 20 5.0%

Lincoln Mark Viii by year

1 1 286 190 172 120 103 108 2 1

89 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00

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

What breaks

Lights 576 58.5%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 72 7.3%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 51 5.2%

Brakes 45 4.6%

Electrical System 43 4.4%

Transmission & Drivetrain 36 3.7%

Suspension 28 2.8%

Steering 22 2.2%