Mercury Sable vs Chevrolet Impala

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 Sable	Chevrolet Impala
Complaints on file	7,190	15,232
Model years covered	1984–2009	1963–2020
Worst model year	2000	2000
Best model year	2005	1994
Crashes reported	406	932
Fires reported	252	477
Injuries reported	264	631
Deaths reported	5	7
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Electrical System
Share of complaints involving harm	12.9%	13.4%

Mercury Sable by year

1 55 105 189 300 220 346 517 981 534 485 391 326 243 302 578 528 541 251 75 112 2 81 27

84 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 08 09

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

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 1,423 19.8%

Suspension 988 13.7%

Transmission & Drivetrain 844 11.7%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 520 7.2%

Brakes 499 6.9%

Electrical System 472 6.6%

Body & Structure 341 4.7%

Steering 337 4.7%

Chevrolet Impala by year

1 4 2 5 1 2 2 2 3 1 1 6 19 64 120 2 4 4 1,128 959 1,077 935 1,375 811 803 932 1,203 1,368 737 844 422 467 1,021 436 178 138 88 41 26

63 66 67 69 77 79 81 82 83 85 87 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

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

What breaks

Electrical System 3,503 23.0%

Engine & Cooling 1,960 12.9%

Steering 1,227 8.1%

Brakes 975 6.4%

Stability & Traction Control 971 6.4%

Airbags 963 6.3%

Transmission & Drivetrain 945 6.2%

Lights 737 4.8%