Volkswagen Golf vs Chevrolet Colorado

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	Chevrolet Colorado
Complaints on file	2,009	4,906
Model years covered	1985–2023	2004–2026
Worst model year	2015	2005
Best model year	2021	2010
Crashes reported	77	189
Fires reported	44	95
Injuries reported	74	133
Deaths reported	1	9
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Steering
Share of complaints involving harm	9.8%	8.7%

Volkswagen Golf by year

15 20 4 9 41 10 11 6 11 57 84 4 7 28 76 118 152 98 32 33 27 16 2 1 5 97 151 68 67 14 185 115 145 38 88 8 12 132 22

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

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

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 312 15.5%

Fuel & Propulsion 309 15.4%

Electrical System 212 10.6%

Airbags 195 9.7%

Transmission & Drivetrain 158 7.9%

Other & Unspecified 111 5.5%

Brakes 100 5.0%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 97 4.8%

Chevrolet Colorado by year

502 459 323 199 130 87 48 54 60 2 1 641 940 285 247 195 101 106 68 208 182 47 21

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

Steering 939 19.1%

Electrical System 762 15.5%

Transmission & Drivetrain 554 11.3%

Engine & Cooling 429 8.7%

Brakes 428 8.7%

Other & Unspecified 280 5.7%

Lights 212 4.3%

Airbags 184 3.8%