Pontiac Trans AM vs Smart Fortwo

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 Trans AM	Smart Fortwo
Complaints on file	196	475
Model years covered	1969–2002	2005–2019
Worst model year	2002	2008
Best model year	1998	2017
Crashes reported	18	28
Fires reported	6	68
Injuries reported	9	22
Deaths reported	2	1
Most complained-about part	Brakes	Engine & Cooling
Share of complaints involving harm	17.9%	25.1%

Pontiac Trans AM by year

1 2 1 1 2 10 10 3 1 1 2 10 1 13 5 8 14 22 23 13 10 43

69 77 79 80 82 84 86 87 88 89 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02

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

What breaks

Brakes 24 12.2%

Engine & Cooling 23 11.7%

Transmission & Drivetrain 18 9.2%

Body & Structure 17 8.7%

Electrical System 13 6.6%

Steering 13 6.6%

Lights 13 6.6%

Fuel & Propulsion 13 6.6%

Smart Fortwo by year

4 177 139 8 23 11 35 14 10 39 13 1 1

05 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

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

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 106 22.3%

Transmission & Drivetrain 71 14.9%

Electrical System 57 12.0%

Other & Unspecified 45 9.5%

Seat Belts 35 7.4%

Fuel & Propulsion 31 6.5%

Body & Structure 26 5.5%

Brakes 20 4.2%