Mercury Mariner vs Subaru Legacy

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 Mariner	Subaru Legacy
Complaints on file	1,722	4,165
Model years covered	2005–2011	1987–2025
Worst model year	2008	2015
Best model year	2007	2024
Crashes reported	48	393
Fires reported	4	75
Injuries reported	32	206
Deaths reported	0	6
Most complained-about part	Steering	Engine & Cooling
Share of complaints involving harm	4.9%	16.3%

Mercury Mariner by year

100 91 40 554 422 394 121

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

Steering 560 32.5%

Transmission & Drivetrain 235 13.6%

Engine & Cooling 193 11.2%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 180 10.5%

Fuel & Propulsion 147 8.5%

Electrical System 105 6.1%

Brakes 67 3.9%

Other & Unspecified 57 3.3%

Subaru Legacy by year

1 1 1 103 121 66 90 67 230 161 179 155 119 119 90 71 69 55 250 135 45 83 75 218 236 119 84 73 232 193 140 162 143 143 43 42 12 29 10

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

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

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 473 11.4%

Electrical System 438 10.5%

Airbags 407 9.8%

Transmission & Drivetrain 377 9.1%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 368 8.8%

Brakes 336 8.1%

Other & Unspecified 290 7.0%

Fuel & Propulsion 222 5.3%