Saturn Aura vs Ford Escort

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	Saturn Aura	Ford Escort
Complaints on file	2,227	5,050
Model years covered	2000–2010	1981–2003
Worst model year	2007	1997
Best model year	2009	2002
Crashes reported	79	629
Fires reported	19	610
Injuries reported	41	456
Deaths reported	5	24
Most complained-about part	Steering	Electrical System
Share of complaints involving harm	6.5%	34%

Saturn Aura by year

4 6 950 677 588 2

00 05 07 08 09 10

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

What breaks

Steering 396 17.8%

Transmission & Drivetrain 387 17.4%

Electrical System 257 11.5%

Brakes 214 9.6%

Stability & Traction Control 154 6.9%

Airbags 150 6.7%

Lights 147 6.6%

Engine & Cooling 113 5.1%

Ford Escort by year

2 5 7 27 31 53 65 206 199 128 413 222 480 351 725 257 729 470 413 128 85 41 13

81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03

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

What breaks

Electrical System 872 17.3%

Seat Belts 660 13.1%

Engine & Cooling 557 11.0%

Airbags 493 9.8%

Fuel & Propulsion 433 8.6%

Transmission & Drivetrain 324 6.4%

Suspension 310 6.1%

Brakes 291 5.8%