Subaru GL vs BMW 320I

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	Subaru GL	BMW 320I
Complaints on file	99	247
Model years covered	1981–1993	1978–2018
Worst model year	—	2014
Best model year	—	2013
Crashes reported	9	36
Fires reported	5	8
Injuries reported	4	24
Deaths reported	0	0
Most complained-about part	Seat Belts	Engine & Cooling
Share of complaints involving harm	18.2%	27.5%

Subaru GL by year

2 2 5 5 10 17 26 22 9 1

81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 93

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

What breaks

Seat Belts 27 27.3%

Engine & Cooling 18 18.2%

Suspension 15 15.2%

Transmission & Drivetrain 8 8.1%

Body & Structure 8 8.1%

Brakes 5 5.1%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 5 5.1%

Electrical System 4 4.0%

BMW 320I by year

3 1 6 1 1 2 5 13 80 46 40 13 36

78 79 80 82 02 04 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

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

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 47 19.0%

Fuel & Propulsion 29 11.7%

Electrical System 27 10.9%

Airbags 25 10.1%

Other & Unspecified 23 9.3%

Transmission & Drivetrain 17 6.9%

Brakes 17 6.9%

Lights 14 5.7%