Mini Cooper S vs Ford Escort

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	Mini Cooper S	Ford Escort
Complaints on file	2,181	5,050
Model years covered	2002–2025	1981–2003
Worst model year	2003	1997
Best model year	2012	2002
Crashes reported	57	629
Fires reported	152	610
Injuries reported	54	456
Deaths reported	4	24
Most complained-about part	Steering	Electrical System
Share of complaints involving harm	12.2%	34%

Mini Cooper S by year

105 258 279 383 243 300 197 151 78 46 30 32 17 20 10 8 7 8 1 2 6

02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 19 20 22 24 25

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

What breaks

Steering 682 31.3%

Engine & Cooling 528 24.2%

Airbags 281 12.9%

Electrical System 174 8.0%

Transmission & Drivetrain 114 5.2%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 70 3.2%

Fuel & Propulsion 55 2.5%

Other & Unspecified 52 2.4%

Ford Escort by year

2 5 7 27 31 53 65 206 199 128 413 222 480 351 725 257 729 470 413 128 85 41 13

81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03

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

What breaks

Electrical System 872 17.3%

Seat Belts 660 13.1%

Engine & Cooling 557 11.0%

Airbags 493 9.8%

Fuel & Propulsion 433 8.6%

Transmission & Drivetrain 324 6.4%

Suspension 310 6.1%

Brakes 291 5.8%