Mercury Cougar vs Chevrolet Cavalier

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	Mercury Cougar	Chevrolet Cavalier
Complaints on file	2,646	6,452
Model years covered	1962–2002	1982–2005
Worst model year	1999	1997
Best model year	1997	2005
Crashes reported	173	554
Fires reported	94	167
Injuries reported	129	369
Deaths reported	6	21
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Electrical System
Share of complaints involving harm	15.2%	17.2%

Mercury Cougar by year

1 3 2 3 2 2 25 22 20 49 72 104 104 98 122 236 178 160 77 112 1 740 283 103 127

62 73 78 80 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02

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

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 450 17.0%

Electrical System 342 12.9%

Brakes 299 11.3%

Fuel & Propulsion 238 9.0%

Transmission & Drivetrain 177 6.7%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 164 6.2%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 141 5.3%

Lights 136 5.1%

Chevrolet Cavalier by year

1 17 10 4 21 27 14 71 70 77 178 237 310 392 748 751 473 337 447 356 254 867 428 362

82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05

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

What breaks

Electrical System 1,252 19.4%

Engine & Cooling 839 13.0%

Brakes 717 11.1%

Fuel & Propulsion 652 10.1%

Steering 415 6.4%

Airbags 346 5.4%

Transmission & Drivetrain 332 5.1%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 322 5.0%