Mercury Mystique vs Volkswagen Beetle

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 Mystique	Volkswagen Beetle
Complaints on file	1,510	3,621
Model years covered	1994–2002	1965–2019
Worst model year	1995	2000
Best model year	1997	2018
Crashes reported	76	173
Fires reported	61	160
Injuries reported	69	101
Deaths reported	1	4
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Transmission & Drivetrain
Share of complaints involving harm	13.7%	12.1%

Mercury Mystique by year

2 524 303 100 326 169 81 2 3

94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02

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

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 250 16.6%

Electrical System 204 13.5%

Transmission & Drivetrain 151 10.0%

Suspension 128 8.5%

Brakes 125 8.3%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 92 6.1%

Body & Structure 76 5.0%

Fuel & Propulsion 76 5.0%

Volkswagen Beetle by year

5 1 1 1 4 289 280 373 291 231 405 469 330 161 79 109 39 42 88 125 71 108 63 19 21 16

65 69 70 73 74 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

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

What breaks

Transmission & Drivetrain 616 17.0%

Airbags 546 15.1%

Electrical System 508 14.0%

Engine & Cooling 372 10.3%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 370 10.2%

Lights 205 5.7%

Body & Structure 166 4.6%

Brakes 134 3.7%