Mercedes Benz E320 vs Audi A4

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	Mercedes Benz E320	Audi A4
Complaints on file	1,516	3,677
Model years covered	1994–2009	1995–2024
Worst model year	2005	2002
Best model year	2008	2022
Crashes reported	75	146
Fires reported	48	76
Injuries reported	77	84
Deaths reported	1	0
Most complained-about part	Fuel & Propulsion	Airbags
Share of complaints involving harm	13.3%	8.3%

Mercedes Benz E320 by year

19 129 62 80 51 109 81 54 27 281 243 287 49 20 13 11

94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09

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

What breaks

Fuel & Propulsion 383 25.3%

Brakes 223 14.7%

Electrical System 207 13.7%

Engine & Cooling 116 7.7%

Airbags 111 7.3%

Suspension 111 7.3%

Transmission & Drivetrain 67 4.4%

Body & Structure 39 2.6%

Audi A4 by year

1 133 119 321 242 115 153 218 282 225 267 343 226 204 150 77 17 23 28 38 24 18 75 80 16 230 19 10 19 4

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 24

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

What breaks

Airbags 520 14.1%

Engine & Cooling 489 13.3%

Electrical System 483 13.1%

Brakes 402 10.9%

Lights 375 10.2%

Fuel & Propulsion 217 5.9%

Transmission & Drivetrain 205 5.6%

Other & Unspecified 162 4.4%