Volkswagen Golf vs GMC Sierra

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	GMC Sierra
Complaints on file	2,009	4,896
Model years covered	1985–2023	1976–2017
Worst model year	2015	2000
Best model year	2021	2011
Crashes reported	77	354
Fires reported	44	84
Injuries reported	74	189
Deaths reported	1	11
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Brakes
Share of complaints involving harm	9.8%	13%

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%

GMC Sierra by year

2 4 1 5 2 6 22 30 12 33 109 221 327 310 302 230 721 557 333 291 248 224 152 65 71 84 48 43 67 46 46 132 67 8 77

76 77 82 83 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

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

What breaks

Brakes 1,507 30.8%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 527 10.8%

Transmission & Drivetrain 345 7.0%

Steering 264 5.4%

Electrical System 262 5.4%

Engine & Cooling 242 4.9%

Body & Structure 206 4.2%

Airbags 196 4.0%