Smart Fortwo vs Ford Econoline

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	Smart Fortwo	Ford Econoline
Complaints on file	475	1,154
Model years covered	2005–2019	1979–2019
Worst model year	2008	1994
Best model year	2017	2001
Crashes reported	28	87
Fires reported	68	102
Injuries reported	22	63
Deaths reported	1	5
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Brakes
Share of complaints involving harm	25.1%	22.3%

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%

Ford Econoline by year

1 1 1 2 10 15 7 19 33 41 38 37 113 71 164 98 96 100 61 102 46 31 25 27 1 1 2 3 7 1

79 80 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 09 10 12 16 17 19

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

What breaks

Brakes 211 18.3%

Engine & Cooling 139 12.0%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 123 10.7%

Fuel & Propulsion 103 8.9%

Electrical System 96 8.3%

Tires 81 7.0%

Suspension 55 4.8%

Steering 54 4.7%