Oldsmobile Cutlass vs Ford Freestyle

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 Freestyle
Complaints on file	2,251	5,155
Model years covered	1976–1999	2002–2007
Worst model year	1993	2005
Best model year	1999	2004
Crashes reported	142	153
Fires reported	59	21
Injuries reported	95	39
Deaths reported	7	0
Most complained-about part	Brakes	Acceleration & Cruise Control
Share of complaints involving harm	13.5%	4.1%

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 Freestyle by year

1 14 2,018 1,872 1,250

02 04 05 06 07

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

What breaks

Acceleration & Cruise Control 1,617 31.4%

Transmission & Drivetrain 1,308 25.4%

Engine & Cooling 681 13.2%

Fuel & Propulsion 397 7.7%

Electrical System 269 5.2%

Brakes 227 4.4%

Other & Unspecified 190 3.7%

Body & Structure 102 2.0%