Nissan Xterra vs Chevrolet Cobalt

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 Xterra	Chevrolet Cobalt
Complaints on file	4,194	10,115
Model years covered	2000–2015	1996–2017
Worst model year	2006	2006
Best model year	2009	2010
Crashes reported	173	885
Fires reported	60	101
Injuries reported	111	485
Deaths reported	8	69
Most complained-about part	Fuel & Propulsion	Steering
Share of complaints involving harm	8.4%	15.2%

Nissan Xterra by year

258 197 214 97 110 1,175 1,034 770 174 26 58 27 17 7 15 15

00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15

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

What breaks

Fuel & Propulsion 1,106 26.4%

Transmission & Drivetrain 1,045 24.9%

Engine & Cooling 823 19.6%

Electrical System 209 5.0%

Airbags 179 4.3%

Other & Unspecified 121 2.9%

Brakes 114 2.7%

Steering 110 2.6%

Chevrolet Cobalt by year

1 1 2 2,231 3,056 2,004 1,104 916 795 2 1 1 1

96 00 02 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 16 17

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

What breaks

Steering 3,925 38.8%

Fuel & Propulsion 1,623 16.0%

Electrical System 1,491 14.7%

Airbags 615 6.1%

Engine & Cooling 476 4.7%

Transmission & Drivetrain 372 3.7%

Brakes 243 2.4%

Suspension 222 2.2%