Mercury Villager vs Ford Freestyle

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 Villager	Ford Freestyle
Complaints on file	2,205	5,155
Model years covered	1992–2002	2002–2007
Worst model year	1993	2005
Best model year	2002	2004
Crashes reported	130	153
Fires reported	64	21
Injuries reported	91	39
Deaths reported	5	0
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Acceleration & Cruise Control
Share of complaints involving harm	13.2%	4.1%

Mercury Villager by year

1 516 323 477 253 152 100 252 90 21 20

92 93 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 429 19.5%

Fuel & Propulsion 247 11.2%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 192 8.7%

Brakes 185 8.4%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 153 6.9%

Body & Structure 133 6.0%

Seat Belts 120 5.4%

Lights 108 4.9%

Ford Freestyle by year

1 14 2,018 1,872 1,250

02 04 05 06 07

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

What breaks

Acceleration & Cruise Control 1,617 31.4%

Transmission & Drivetrain 1,308 25.4%

Engine & Cooling 681 13.2%

Fuel & Propulsion 397 7.7%

Electrical System 269 5.2%

Brakes 227 4.4%

Other & Unspecified 190 3.7%

Body & Structure 102 2.0%