Mercury Mountaineer vs Toyota 4RUNNER

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	Toyota 4RUNNER
Complaints on file	2,646	6,482
Model years covered	1996–2010	1984–2026
Worst model year	1997	2006
Best model year	2010	2026
Crashes reported	191	396
Fires reported	91	64
Injuries reported	148	248
Deaths reported	5	13
Most complained-about part	Transmission & Drivetrain	Body & Structure
Share of complaints involving harm	16.4%	11.1%

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%

Toyota 4RUNNER by year

2 2 13 7 12 7 95 55 73 58 15 52 92 200 168 312 520 206 261 718 847 553 520 204 134 33 175 182 112 48 91 116 105 48 78 87 43 54 55 42 11 64 12

84 85 86 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 26

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

What breaks

Body & Structure 1,791 27.6%

Suspension 817 12.6%

Other & Unspecified 722 11.1%

Airbags 474 7.3%

Brakes 472 7.3%

Engine & Cooling 380 5.9%

Transmission & Drivetrain 357 5.5%

Steering 294 4.5%