Pontiac Aztek vs Volkswagen Golf

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	Pontiac Aztek	Volkswagen Golf
Complaints on file	829	2,009
Model years covered	2001–2005	1985–2023
Worst model year	2001	2015
Best model year	2005	2021
Crashes reported	43	77
Fires reported	18	44
Injuries reported	38	74
Deaths reported	0	1
Most complained-about part	Fuel & Propulsion	Engine & Cooling
Share of complaints involving harm	11.9%	9.8%

Pontiac Aztek by year

329 173 188 96 43

01 02 03 04 05

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

What breaks

Fuel & Propulsion 129 15.6%

Electrical System 120 14.5%

Engine & Cooling 94 11.3%

Brakes 84 10.1%

Transmission & Drivetrain 55 6.6%

Suspension 52 6.3%

Equipment & Accessories 41 4.9%

Airbags 38 4.6%

Volkswagen Golf by year

15 20 4 9 41 10 11 6 11 57 84 4 7 28 76 118 152 98 32 33 27 16 2 1 5 97 151 68 67 14 185 115 145 38 88 8 12 132 22

85 86 87 88 89 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 23

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

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 312 15.5%

Fuel & Propulsion 309 15.4%

Electrical System 212 10.6%

Airbags 195 9.7%

Transmission & Drivetrain 158 7.9%

Other & Unspecified 111 5.5%

Brakes 100 5.0%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 97 4.8%