Volkswagen Golf vs Dodge Neon

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	Dodge Neon
Complaints on file	2,009	4,954
Model years covered	1985–2023	1993–2005
Worst model year	2015	1995
Best model year	2021	1994
Crashes reported	77	657
Fires reported	44	158
Injuries reported	74	422
Deaths reported	1	29
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Engine & Cooling
Share of complaints involving harm	9.8%	25.6%

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%

Dodge Neon by year

4 10 1,415 887 553 451 152 489 199 230 290 141 133

93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05

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

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 1,410 28.5%

Brakes 577 11.6%

Electrical System 488 9.9%

Airbags 430 8.7%

Transmission & Drivetrain 349 7.0%

Steering 249 5.0%

Lights 200 4.0%

Body & Structure 199 4.0%