Mercury Marquis vs BMW 528I

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 Marquis	BMW 528I
Complaints on file	501	1,239
Model years covered	1977–2004	1979–2016
Worst model year	1997	2008
Best model year	2004	2009
Crashes reported	48	28
Fires reported	37	72
Injuries reported	43	45
Deaths reported	0	0
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Engine & Cooling
Share of complaints involving harm	25.5%	11.7%

Mercury Marquis by year

1 1 1 23 6 4 5 14 11 8 10 30 25 44 26 40 62 40 31 24 27 11 42 15

77 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04

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

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 67 13.4%

Brakes 65 13.0%

Electrical System 61 12.2%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 54 10.8%

Lights 42 8.4%

Steering 28 5.6%

Transmission & Drivetrain 25 5.0%

Suspension 25 5.0%

BMW 528I by year

1 2 49 39 59 53 3 1 181 33 87 164 145 119 92 106 105

79 80 97 98 99 00 01 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

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

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 384 31.0%

Electrical System 183 14.8%

Transmission & Drivetrain 106 8.6%

Fuel & Propulsion 104 8.4%

Airbags 98 7.9%

Other & Unspecified 66 5.3%

Lights 63 5.1%

Brakes 36 2.9%