Lexus ES vs Plymouth Neon

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	Lexus ES	Plymouth Neon
Complaints on file	862	2,016
Model years covered	1996–2025	1994–2001
Worst model year	2005	1995
Best model year	2006	1999
Crashes reported	155	230
Fires reported	26	66
Injuries reported	87	161
Deaths reported	0	11
Most complained-about part	Airbags	Engine & Cooling
Share of complaints involving harm	31.1%	23.2%

Lexus ES by year

2 2 3 8 9 3 48 37 21 75 12 164 78 29 47 60 36 49 4 7 13 2 8 55 22 29 9 12 9 9

96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

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

What breaks

Airbags 228 26.5%

Other & Unspecified 90 10.4%

Body & Structure 74 8.6%

Transmission & Drivetrain 58 6.7%

Electrical System 58 6.7%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 55 6.4%

Engine & Cooling 54 6.3%

Brakes 49 5.7%

Plymouth Neon by year

3 711 476 234 237 82 199 74

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

Engine & Cooling 625 31.0%

Brakes 233 11.6%

Electrical System 170 8.4%

Airbags 169 8.4%

Steering 119 5.9%

Transmission & Drivetrain 114 5.7%

Other & Unspecified 81 4.0%

Body & Structure 75 3.7%