Toyota Avalon vs Volkswagen Passat

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 Avalon	Volkswagen Passat
Complaints on file	4,245	10,333
Model years covered	1995–2022	1990–2022
Worst model year	2006	2003
Best model year	2021	1994
Crashes reported	672	332
Fires reported	34	366
Injuries reported	350	263
Deaths reported	26	13
Most complained-about part	Acceleration & Cruise Control	Airbags
Share of complaints involving harm	25.5%	9.4%

Toyota Avalon by year

92 121 155 205 113 220 168 148 353 252 303 449 313 417 110 53 130 35 187 123 64 33 17 31 98 13 29 13

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

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

What breaks

Acceleration & Cruise Control 604 14.2%

Airbags 594 14.0%

Steering 369 8.7%

Lights 302 7.1%

Electrical System 297 7.0%

Engine & Cooling 296 7.0%

Brakes 292 6.9%

Transmission & Drivetrain 215 5.1%

Volkswagen Passat by year

50 30 60 90 36 142 48 57 476 854 625 558 772 816 348 172 779 341 240 211 226 27 662 1,027 788 389 179 175 65 18 24 28 20

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

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

What breaks

Airbags 1,660 16.1%

Engine & Cooling 1,590 15.4%

Electrical System 1,195 11.6%

Brakes 1,022 9.9%

Fuel & Propulsion 1,018 9.9%

Steering 584 5.7%

Transmission & Drivetrain 487 4.7%

Suspension 416 4.0%