Toyota 4RUNNER vs Volkswagen Jetta

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	Toyota 4RUNNER	Volkswagen Jetta
Complaints on file	6,482	13,865
Model years covered	1984–2026	1984–2026
Worst model year	2006	2002
Best model year	2026	1993
Crashes reported	396	696
Fires reported	64	390
Injuries reported	248	583
Deaths reported	13	9
Most complained-about part	Body & Structure	Electrical System
Share of complaints involving harm	11.1%	12.1%

Toyota 4RUNNER by year

2 2 13 7 12 7 95 55 73 58 15 52 92 200 168 312 520 206 261 718 847 553 520 204 134 33 175 182 112 48 91 116 105 48 78 87 43 54 55 42 11 64 12

84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

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

What breaks

Body & Structure 1,791 27.6%

Suspension 817 12.6%

Other & Unspecified 722 11.1%

Airbags 474 7.3%

Brakes 472 7.3%

Engine & Cooling 380 5.9%

Transmission & Drivetrain 357 5.5%

Steering 294 4.5%

Volkswagen Jetta by year

1 18 18 21 23 28 29 38 33 22 167 338 36 100 253 488 633 862 885 552 295 354 792 280 251 1,275 1,184 880 692 739 552 284 249 249 38 794 78 99 72 65 61 29 8

84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

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

What breaks

Electrical System 2,189 15.8%

Engine & Cooling 2,032 14.7%

Transmission & Drivetrain 1,646 11.9%

Fuel & Propulsion 1,408 10.2%

Brakes 981 7.1%

Airbags 871 6.3%

Other & Unspecified 800 5.8%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 655 4.7%