Mercury Cougar vs Toyota 4RUNNER

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	Toyota 4RUNNER
Complaints on file	2,646	6,482
Model years covered	1962–2002	1984–2026
Worst model year	1999	2006
Best model year	1997	2026
Crashes reported	173	396
Fires reported	94	64
Injuries reported	129	248
Deaths reported	6	13
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Body & Structure
Share of complaints involving harm	15.2%	11.1%

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%

Toyota 4RUNNER by year

2 2 13 7 12 7 95 55 73 58 15 52 92 200 168 312 520 206 261 718 847 553 520 204 134 33 175 182 112 48 91 116 105 48 78 87 43 54 55 42 11 64 12

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 24 25 26

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

What breaks

Body & Structure 1,791 27.6%

Suspension 817 12.6%

Other & Unspecified 722 11.1%

Airbags 474 7.3%

Brakes 472 7.3%

Engine & Cooling 380 5.9%

Transmission & Drivetrain 357 5.5%

Steering 294 4.5%