Nissan Xterra vs Volkswagen Passat

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	Volkswagen Passat
Complaints on file	4,194	10,333
Model years covered	2000–2015	1990–2022
Worst model year	2006	2003
Best model year	2009	1994
Crashes reported	173	332
Fires reported	60	366
Injuries reported	111	263
Deaths reported	8	13
Most complained-about part	Fuel & Propulsion	Airbags
Share of complaints involving harm	8.4%	9.4%

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%

Volkswagen Passat by year

50 30 60 90 36 142 48 57 476 854 625 558 772 816 348 172 779 341 240 211 226 27 662 1,027 788 389 179 175 65 18 24 28 20

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

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

What breaks

Airbags 1,660 16.1%

Engine & Cooling 1,590 15.4%

Electrical System 1,195 11.6%

Brakes 1,022 9.9%

Fuel & Propulsion 1,018 9.9%

Steering 584 5.7%

Transmission & Drivetrain 487 4.7%

Suspension 416 4.0%