Mercury Grand Marquis vs Hyundai Elantra

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 Grand Marquis	Hyundai Elantra
Complaints on file	4,953	12,072
Model years covered	1977–2011	1992–2026
Worst model year	2003	2013
Best model year	2011	1993
Crashes reported	395	1,282
Fires reported	277	304
Injuries reported	239	748
Deaths reported	15	14
Most complained-about part	Lights	Engine & Cooling
Share of complaints involving harm	18.7%	19.4%

Mercury Grand Marquis by year

1 1 2 8 14 24 29 22 57 98 69 63 106 330 178 197 222 282 370 168 202 216 207 101 449 422 634 188 111 101 35 35 11

77 78 81 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

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

What breaks

Lights 950 19.2%

Electrical System 556 11.2%

Engine & Cooling 535 10.8%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 459 9.3%

Brakes 369 7.5%

Steering 365 7.4%

Airbags 248 5.0%

Transmission & Drivetrain 238 4.8%

Hyundai Elantra by year

46 39 110 179 138 196 75 183 259 445 431 310 209 180 209 365 424 319 504 589 920 1,862 550 356 395 1,074 405 330 333 214 142 156 93 31 1

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

Engine & Cooling 1,958 16.2%

Airbags 1,362 11.3%

Steering 1,145 9.5%

Electrical System 1,090 9.0%

Brakes 1,079 8.9%

Other & Unspecified 821 6.8%

Transmission & Drivetrain 679 5.6%

Suspension 618 5.1%