Pontiac Sunfire vs Ford Crown Victoria

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 Sunfire	Ford Crown Victoria
Complaints on file	1,641	3,978
Model years covered	1985–2005	1980–2011
Worst model year	1996	1996
Best model year	2005	2010
Crashes reported	153	280
Fires reported	61	259
Injuries reported	102	178
Deaths reported	7	27
Most complained-about part	Electrical System	Engine & Cooling
Share of complaints involving harm	19.7%	18.7%

Pontiac Sunfire by year

2 1 2 154 320 257 149 128 169 83 128 113 41 94

85 91 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

Electrical System 339 20.7%

Engine & Cooling 259 15.8%

Brakes 172 10.5%

Airbags 125 7.6%

Steering 115 7.0%

Lights 109 6.6%

Transmission & Drivetrain 76 4.6%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 71 4.3%

Ford Crown Victoria by year

2 2 4 8 8 24 35 48 49 86 58 70 482 247 252 318 358 340 138 174 103 70 71 303 175 240 68 76 64 59 14 32

80 81 82 83 84 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

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

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 469 11.8%

Steering 440 11.1%

Lights 400 10.1%

Electrical System 393 9.9%

Brakes 376 9.5%

Suspension 320 8.0%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 291 7.3%

Fuel & Propulsion 267 6.7%