Mercury Mountaineer vs Chevrolet Cavalier

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 Mountaineer	Chevrolet Cavalier
Complaints on file	2,646	6,452
Model years covered	1996–2010	1982–2005
Worst model year	1997	1997
Best model year	2010	2005
Crashes reported	191	554
Fires reported	91	167
Injuries reported	148	369
Deaths reported	5	21
Most complained-about part	Transmission & Drivetrain	Electrical System
Share of complaints involving harm	16.4%	17.2%

Mercury Mountaineer by year

3 399 298 182 164 32 504 220 271 113 153 119 156 8 24

96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

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

What breaks

Transmission & Drivetrain 399 15.1%

Tires 364 13.8%

Body & Structure 298 11.3%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 221 8.4%

Engine & Cooling 217 8.2%

Electrical System 190 7.2%

Brakes 142 5.4%

Seats 127 4.8%

Chevrolet Cavalier by year

1 17 10 4 21 27 14 71 70 77 178 237 310 392 748 751 473 337 447 356 254 867 428 362

82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 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

Electrical System 1,252 19.4%

Engine & Cooling 839 13.0%

Brakes 717 11.1%

Fuel & Propulsion 652 10.1%

Steering 415 6.4%

Airbags 346 5.4%

Transmission & Drivetrain 332 5.1%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 322 5.0%