Plymouth Acclaim vs Volvo S80

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	Plymouth Acclaim	Volvo S80
Complaints on file	538	1,321
Model years covered	1988–1996	1999–2016
Worst model year	1994	2000
Best model year	1995	2009
Crashes reported	72	65
Fires reported	29	30
Injuries reported	51	34
Deaths reported	4	0
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Acceleration & Cruise Control
Share of complaints involving harm	29%	9.8%

Plymouth Acclaim by year

1 47 70 120 84 102 78 35 1

88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96

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

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 86 16.0%

Transmission & Drivetrain 74 13.8%

Suspension 65 12.1%

Airbags 62 11.5%

Electrical System 43 8.0%

Seat Belts 32 5.9%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 29 5.4%

Brakes 22 4.1%

Volvo S80 by year

288 442 218 59 30 63 26 22 32 38 20 36 8 11 8 1 12 7

99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

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

What breaks

Acceleration & Cruise Control 228 17.3%

Engine & Cooling 185 14.0%

Electrical System 166 12.6%

Fuel & Propulsion 143 10.8%

Transmission & Drivetrain 89 6.7%

Suspension 86 6.5%

Brakes 69 5.2%

Airbags 55 4.2%