Oldsmobile Cutlass vs Ford Escort

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 Cutlass	Ford Escort
Complaints on file	2,251	5,050
Model years covered	1976–1999	1981–2003
Worst model year	1993	1997
Best model year	1999	2002
Crashes reported	142	629
Fires reported	59	610
Injuries reported	95	456
Deaths reported	7	24
Most complained-about part	Brakes	Electrical System
Share of complaints involving harm	13.5%	34%

Oldsmobile Cutlass by year

3 4 2 3 8 1 8 24 22 31 22 107 164 151 266 182 193 200 199 160 161 223 117

76 77 79 80 81 82 83 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

Brakes 600 26.7%

Engine & Cooling 239 10.6%

Electrical System 239 10.6%

Seat Belts 119 5.3%

Steering 118 5.2%

Suspension 109 4.8%

Body & Structure 108 4.8%

Transmission & Drivetrain 106 4.7%

Ford Escort by year

2 5 7 27 31 53 65 206 199 128 413 222 480 351 725 257 729 470 413 128 85 41 13

81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03

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

What breaks

Electrical System 872 17.3%

Seat Belts 660 13.1%

Engine & Cooling 557 11.0%

Airbags 493 9.8%

Fuel & Propulsion 433 8.6%

Transmission & Drivetrain 324 6.4%

Suspension 310 6.1%

Brakes 291 5.8%