Nissan Pathfinder vs Hyundai Sonata

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	Nissan Pathfinder	Hyundai Sonata
Complaints on file	10,298	22,259
Model years covered	1986–2026	1987–2026
Worst model year	2014	2013
Best model year	2026	2025
Crashes reported	417	1,148
Fires reported	71	850
Injuries reported	247	740
Deaths reported	14	21
Most complained-about part	Transmission & Drivetrain	Engine & Cooling
Share of complaints involving harm	7.3%	12.4%

Nissan Pathfinder by year

1 31 17 19 44 49 38 67 108 218 214 293 194 144 166 299 206 147 86 1,560 1,224 846 458 51 61 59 35 1,209 750 434 130 255 124 122 72 196 156 123 82 10

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 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

Transmission & Drivetrain 2,509 24.4%

Engine & Cooling 1,921 18.7%

Fuel & Propulsion 964 9.4%

Other & Unspecified 670 6.5%

Airbags 604 5.9%

Suspension 570 5.5%

Brakes 484 4.7%

Body & Structure 475 4.6%

Hyundai Sonata by year

4 18 25 41 43 46 7 93 37 74 68 187 378 293 407 249 288 217 1,422 906 554 612 415 4,621 2,280 2,651 1,080 1,660 996 1,000 548 212 268 180 142 140 74 21 2

87 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

Engine & Cooling 5,099 22.9%

Steering 2,377 10.7%

Airbags 2,068 9.3%

Electrical System 2,003 9.0%

Other & Unspecified 1,327 6.0%

Brakes 1,258 5.7%

Body & Structure 1,087 4.9%

Fuel & Propulsion 1,087 4.9%