Volkswagen Golf Sportwagen vs Cadillac STS

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	Volkswagen Golf Sportwagen	Cadillac STS
Complaints on file	246	610
Model years covered	2013–2019	1998–2011
Worst model year	2015	2005
Best model year	2019	2002
Crashes reported	18	74
Fires reported	2	26
Injuries reported	16	43
Deaths reported	0	0
Most complained-about part	Electrical System	Airbags
Share of complaints involving harm	14.6%	23.4%

Volkswagen Golf Sportwagen by year

3 85 73 54 19 12

13 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

Electrical System 37 15.0%

Airbags 37 15.0%

Other & Unspecified 32 13.0%

Engine & Cooling 27 11.0%

Suspension 27 11.0%

Fuel & Propulsion 23 9.3%

Transmission & Drivetrain 14 5.7%

Body & Structure 14 5.7%

Cadillac STS by year

3 16 15 17 10 15 9 145 197 67 77 24 6 9

98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11

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

What breaks

Airbags 106 17.4%

Electrical System 86 14.1%

Engine & Cooling 83 13.6%

Transmission & Drivetrain 47 7.7%

Fuel & Propulsion 42 6.9%

Brakes 34 5.6%

Stability & Traction Control 31 5.1%

Steering 25 4.1%