Mercury Marquis vs Toyota 4 Runner

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	Toyota 4 Runner
Complaints on file	501	1,234
Model years covered	1977–2004	1994–2005
Worst model year	1997	1997
Best model year	2004	2005
Crashes reported	48	153
Fires reported	37	9
Injuries reported	43	105
Deaths reported	0	12
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Engine & Cooling
Share of complaints involving harm	25.5%	22.6%

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%

Toyota 4 Runner by year

61 149 111 163 135 134 118 34 45 188 76 20

94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05

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

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 290 23.5%

Brakes 144 11.7%

Tires 139 11.3%

Suspension 100 8.1%

Transmission & Drivetrain 97 7.9%

Airbags 50 4.1%

Fuel & Propulsion 49 4.0%

Electrical System 41 3.3%