Nissan Stanza vs Mercedes Benz CLA250

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	Mercedes Benz CLA250
Complaints on file	212	519
Model years covered	1983–1996	2012–2017
Worst model year	—	2014
Best model year	—	2013
Crashes reported	16	33
Fires reported	18	7
Injuries reported	17	30
Deaths reported	2	2
Most complained-about part	Fuel & Propulsion	Engine & Cooling
Share of complaints involving harm	25%	13.9%

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%

Mercedes Benz CLA250 by year

9 11 280 83 99 37

12 13 14 15 16 17

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

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 108 20.8%

Electrical System 68 13.1%

Other & Unspecified 61 11.8%

Airbags 45 8.7%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 41 7.9%

Transmission & Drivetrain 36 6.9%

Body & Structure 29 5.6%

Stability & Traction Control 25 4.8%