Lincoln Continental vs Saturn ION

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	Lincoln Continental	Saturn ION
Complaints on file	2,566	5,471
Model years covered	1975–2020	2003–2008
Worst model year	1994	2006
Best model year	2001	2005
Crashes reported	115	334
Fires reported	114	23
Injuries reported	71	175
Deaths reported	9	4
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Steering
Share of complaints involving harm	12%	9.8%

Lincoln Continental by year

1 1 1 2 1 1 2 9 18 8 14 147 255 244 399 199 200 303 94 69 109 88 46 108 38 43 99 22 38 7

75 77 78 79 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 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 457 17.8%

Suspension 289 11.3%

Electrical System 260 10.1%

Brakes 219 8.5%

Transmission & Drivetrain 178 6.9%

Body & Structure 155 6.0%

Steering 152 5.9%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 117 4.6%

Saturn ION by year

961 1,124 755 1,537 1,090 4

03 04 05 06 07 08

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

What breaks

Steering 1,724 31.5%

Electrical System 1,598 29.2%

Fuel & Propulsion 583 10.7%

Engine & Cooling 288 5.3%

Airbags 263 4.8%

Transmission & Drivetrain 202 3.7%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 116 2.1%

Lights 106 1.9%