Mercury Mariner vs Toyota Avalon

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	Toyota Avalon
Complaints on file	1,722	4,245
Model years covered	2005–2011	1995–2022
Worst model year	2008	2006
Best model year	2007	2021
Crashes reported	48	672
Fires reported	4	34
Injuries reported	32	350
Deaths reported	0	26
Most complained-about part	Steering	Acceleration & Cruise Control
Share of complaints involving harm	4.9%	25.5%

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%

Toyota Avalon by year

92 121 155 205 113 220 168 148 353 252 303 449 313 417 110 53 130 35 187 123 64 33 17 31 98 13 29 13

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

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

What breaks

Acceleration & Cruise Control 604 14.2%

Airbags 594 14.0%

Steering 369 8.7%

Lights 302 7.1%

Electrical System 297 7.0%

Engine & Cooling 296 7.0%

Brakes 292 6.9%

Transmission & Drivetrain 215 5.1%