Saturn SC vs Audi A3

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 SC	Audi A3
Complaints on file	379	945
Model years covered	1991–2002	2001–2025
Worst model year	1994	2016
Best model year	1998	2023
Crashes reported	58	33
Fires reported	8	9
Injuries reported	31	22
Deaths reported	2	0
Most complained-about part	Seats	Airbags
Share of complaints involving harm	26.1%	6.8%

Saturn SC by year

6 24 29 59 50 41 44 17 27 8 29 45

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

Seats 54 14.2%

Engine & Cooling 52 13.7%

Electrical System 47 12.4%

Seat Belts 39 10.3%

Airbags 30 7.9%

Brakes 29 7.7%

Transmission & Drivetrain 20 5.3%

Body & Structure 15 4.0%

Audi A3 by year

1 2 7 140 63 46 66 60 51 48 25 134 115 75 47 15 19 12 10 1 8

01 03 04 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 15 16 17 18 19 20 22 23 24 25

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

What breaks

Airbags 339 35.9%

Transmission & Drivetrain 126 13.3%

Fuel & Propulsion 115 12.2%

Electrical System 86 9.1%

Engine & Cooling 75 7.9%

Other & Unspecified 39 4.1%

Lights 30 3.2%

Seat Belts 20 2.1%