Pontiac Bonneville vs Saturn ION

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 Bonneville	Saturn ION
Complaints on file	2,580	5,471
Model years covered	1977–2005	2003–2008
Worst model year	1998	2006
Best model year	2004	2005
Crashes reported	135	334
Fires reported	180	23
Injuries reported	117	175
Deaths reported	0	4
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Steering
Share of complaints involving harm	16.7%	9.8%

Pontiac Bonneville by year

1 4 2 2 1 1 2 3 24 20 35 45 26 139 183 123 330 181 188 359 176 301 179 113 67 38 37

77 78 79 81 82 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 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

Engine & Cooling 615 23.8%

Electrical System 324 12.6%

Brakes 256 9.9%

Steering 218 8.4%

Transmission & Drivetrain 171 6.6%

Fuel & Propulsion 169 6.6%

Airbags 150 5.8%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 133 5.2%

Saturn ION by year

961 1,124 755 1,537 1,090 4

03 04 05 06 07 08

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

What breaks

Steering 1,724 31.5%

Electrical System 1,598 29.2%

Fuel & Propulsion 583 10.7%

Engine & Cooling 288 5.3%

Airbags 263 4.8%

Transmission & Drivetrain 202 3.7%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 116 2.1%

Lights 106 1.9%