Pontiac Sunfire vs Mazda MAZDA3

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	Mazda MAZDA3
Complaints on file	1,641	4,006
Model years covered	1985–2005	2004–2026
Worst model year	1996	2008
Best model year	2005	2020
Crashes reported	153	322
Fires reported	61	42
Injuries reported	102	171
Deaths reported	7	4
Most complained-about part	Electrical System	Steering
Share of complaints involving harm	19.7%	13.5%

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%

Mazda MAZDA3 by year

185 127 224 301 387 140 920 181 328 176 181 154 137 105 139 118 51 66 34 20 23 8 1

04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

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

What breaks

Steering 399 10.0%

Electrical System 368 9.2%

Other & Unspecified 367 9.2%

Engine & Cooling 301 7.5%

Brakes 288 7.2%

Body & Structure 283 7.1%

Airbags 269 6.7%

Transmission & Drivetrain 251 6.3%