Toyota Tercel vs Audi A3

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 Tercel	Audi A3
Complaints on file	389	946
Model years covered	1982–2000	2001–2025
Worst model year	1993	2016
Best model year	1997	2023
Crashes reported	105	33
Fires reported	18	9
Injuries reported	75	22
Deaths reported	4	0
Most complained-about part	Airbags	Airbags
Share of complaints involving harm	51.9%	6.8%

Toyota Tercel by year

2 9 12 5 8 15 9 32 23 18 27 50 45 58 45 25 4 1 1

82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00

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

What breaks

Airbags 82 21.1%

Seat Belts 53 13.6%

Engine & Cooling 52 13.4%

Brakes 31 8.0%

Electrical System 24 6.2%

Fuel & Propulsion 24 6.2%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 19 4.9%

Tires 18 4.6%

Audi A3 by year

1 2 7 140 63 46 66 60 51 48 25 135 115 75 47 15 19 12 10 1 8

01 03 04 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 15 16 17 18 19 20 22 23 24 25

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

What breaks

Airbags 339 35.8%

Transmission & Drivetrain 126 13.3%

Fuel & Propulsion 116 12.3%

Electrical System 86 9.1%

Engine & Cooling 75 7.9%

Other & Unspecified 39 4.1%

Lights 30 3.2%

Seat Belts 20 2.1%