Nissan Stanza vs Acura RL

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 Stanza	Acura RL
Complaints on file	212	525
Model years covered	1983–1996	1996–2015
Worst model year	—	2000
Best model year	—	1998
Crashes reported	16	26
Fires reported	18	8
Injuries reported	17	13
Deaths reported	2	0
Most complained-about part	Fuel & Propulsion	Airbags
Share of complaints involving harm	25%	9%

Nissan Stanza by year

1 2 7 18 32 7 11 47 43 38 2 1 1 2

83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96

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

What breaks

Fuel & Propulsion 77 36.3%

Engine & Cooling 26 12.3%

Seat Belts 24 11.3%

Transmission & Drivetrain 18 8.5%

Body & Structure 12 5.7%

Brakes 11 5.2%

Electrical System 7 3.3%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 7 3.3%

Acura RL by year

26 24 16 26 79 12 54 11 16 153 39 24 14 14 10 3 1 3

96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 15

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

What breaks

Airbags 141 26.9%

Lights 63 12.0%

Electrical System 60 11.4%

Transmission & Drivetrain 42 8.0%

Brakes 34 6.5%

Engine & Cooling 24 4.6%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 19 3.6%

Other & Unspecified 17 3.2%