Saturn SL vs Mercury Sable

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 SL	Mercury Sable
Complaints on file	2,891	7,190
Model years covered	1991–2002	1984–2009
Worst model year	1995	2000
Best model year	2001	2005
Crashes reported	433	406
Fires reported	50	252
Injuries reported	304	264
Deaths reported	11	5
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Engine & Cooling
Share of complaints involving harm	27.6%	12.9%

Saturn SL by year

31 173 228 376 481 369 286 222 232 202 137 154

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

Engine & Cooling 463 16.0%

Brakes 377 13.0%

Electrical System 322 11.1%

Transmission & Drivetrain 317 11.0%

Seats 231 8.0%

Seat Belts 181 6.3%

Airbags 164 5.7%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 140 4.8%

Mercury Sable by year

1 55 105 189 300 220 346 517 981 534 485 391 326 243 302 578 528 541 251 75 112 2 81 27

84 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 08 09

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

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 1,423 19.8%

Suspension 988 13.7%

Transmission & Drivetrain 844 11.7%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 520 7.2%

Brakes 499 6.9%

Electrical System 472 6.6%

Body & Structure 341 4.7%

Steering 337 4.7%