Lincoln Town CAR vs KIA Optima

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 Town CAR	KIA Optima
Complaints on file	4,329	10,355
Model years covered	1977–2011	2001–2020
Worst model year	1996	2013
Best model year	2010	2005
Crashes reported	404	499
Fires reported	512	641
Injuries reported	232	312
Deaths reported	8	22
Most complained-about part	Electrical System	Engine & Cooling
Share of complaints involving harm	26.7%	14.2%

Lincoln Town CAR by year

2 1 1 1 4 6 19 24 54 40 123 97 267 278 312 226 212 241 316 395 194 203 147 207 71 242 99 161 207 114 31 6 17 11

77 78 80 81 82 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

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

What breaks

Electrical System 558 12.9%

Engine & Cooling 520 12.0%

Brakes 504 11.6%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 469 10.8%

Suspension 334 7.7%

Airbags 329 7.6%

Steering 240 5.5%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 186 4.3%

KIA Optima by year

231 168 190 306 180 214 217 188 166 99 778 1,263 1,885 786 1,400 1,076 354 333 318 203

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 3,390 32.7%

Electrical System 938 9.1%

Other & Unspecified 842 8.1%

Steering 756 7.3%

Airbags 571 5.5%

Body & Structure 565 5.5%

Brakes 534 5.2%

Transmission & Drivetrain 503 4.9%