Mercury Cougar vs Chrysler 300

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	Chrysler 300
Complaints on file	2,646	6,476
Model years covered	1962–2002	1970–2023
Worst model year	1999	2005
Best model year	1997	2021
Crashes reported	173	355
Fires reported	94	191
Injuries reported	129	207
Deaths reported	6	9
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Electrical System
Share of complaints involving harm	15.2%	11.8%

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%

Chrysler 300 by year

1 4 1,062 1,267 620 956 114 150 266 621 403 321 142 102 102 207 86 10 27 6 9

70 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

Electrical System 1,496 23.1%

Airbags 1,168 18.0%

Transmission & Drivetrain 966 14.9%

Engine & Cooling 641 9.9%

Fuel & Propulsion 369 5.7%

Other & Unspecified 367 5.7%

Brakes 230 3.6%

Steering 211 3.3%