Oldsmobile 88 vs Buick Lacrosse

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	Oldsmobile 88	Buick Lacrosse
Complaints on file	1,226	2,921
Model years covered	1972–1999	2005–2019
Worst model year	1998	2006
Best model year	1994	2018
Crashes reported	97	153
Fires reported	108	88
Injuries reported	65	80
Deaths reported	3	1
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Electrical System
Share of complaints involving harm	22.3%	11%

Oldsmobile 88 by year

1 2 1 2 4 13 9 7 33 22 46 32 28 16 109 99 91 150 113 129 213 106

72 76 77 79 81 82 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99

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

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 276 22.5%

Brakes 180 14.7%

Electrical System 114 9.3%

Transmission & Drivetrain 86 7.0%

Fuel & Propulsion 79 6.4%

Airbags 73 6.0%

Steering 65 5.3%

Seat Belts 57 4.6%

Buick Lacrosse by year

415 383 327 343 146 278 244 308 200 90 54 64 42 19 8

05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

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

What breaks

Electrical System 595 20.4%

Lights 502 17.2%

Engine & Cooling 257 8.8%

Airbags 253 8.7%

Steering 229 7.8%

Brakes 144 4.9%

Suspension 142 4.9%

Transmission & Drivetrain 139 4.8%