Mazda MAZDA3 vs Nissan Maxima

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	Mazda MAZDA3	Nissan Maxima
Complaints on file	4,006	8,853
Model years covered	2004–2026	1982–2023
Worst model year	2008	2000
Best model year	2020	2013
Crashes reported	322	466
Fires reported	42	398
Injuries reported	171	330
Deaths reported	4	16
Most complained-about part	Steering	Transmission & Drivetrain
Share of complaints involving harm	13.5%	13.7%

Mazda MAZDA3 by year

185 127 224 301 387 140 920 181 328 176 181 154 137 105 139 118 51 66 34 20 23 8 1

04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 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

Steering 399 10.0%

Electrical System 368 9.2%

Other & Unspecified 367 9.2%

Engine & Cooling 301 7.5%

Brakes 288 7.2%

Body & Structure 283 7.1%

Airbags 269 6.7%

Transmission & Drivetrain 251 6.3%

Nissan Maxima by year

4 8 40 64 74 194 73 78 138 99 140 102 128 195 117 123 133 215 467 225 278 249 1,725 1,152 733 169 99 460 399 138 137 71 126 2 224 155 46 28 33 4 6 2

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 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

Transmission & Drivetrain 2,465 27.8%

Engine & Cooling 957 10.8%

Electrical System 915 10.3%

Steering 528 6.0%

Airbags 517 5.8%

Fuel & Propulsion 503 5.7%

Brakes 441 5.0%

Body & Structure 355 4.0%