Volkswagen Golf Sportwagen vs Ford F-550 SD

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	Ford F-550 SD
Complaints on file	246	613
Model years covered	2013–2019	1997–2026
Worst model year	2015	1999
Best model year	2019	2005
Crashes reported	18	16
Fires reported	2	45
Injuries reported	16	21
Deaths reported	0	1
Most complained-about part	Electrical System	Fuel & Propulsion
Share of complaints involving harm	14.6%	13.5%

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%

Ford F-550 SD by year

2 92 85 35 31 40 67 41 55 25 31 1 2 4 8 3 10 18 4 5 4 7 16 15 1 5 3 3

97 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 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

Fuel & Propulsion 185 30.2%

Engine & Cooling 107 17.5%

Transmission & Drivetrain 64 10.4%

Tires 63 10.3%

Electrical System 36 5.9%

Brakes 31 5.1%

Wheels 26 4.2%

Suspension 20 3.3%