Volkswagen Golf vs Mercury Grand Marquis

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	Mercury Grand Marquis
Complaints on file	2,009	4,953
Model years covered	1985–2023	1977–2011
Worst model year	2015	2003
Best model year	2021	2011
Crashes reported	77	395
Fires reported	44	277
Injuries reported	74	239
Deaths reported	1	15
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Lights
Share of complaints involving harm	9.8%	18.7%

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%

Mercury Grand Marquis by year

1 1 2 8 14 24 29 22 57 98 69 63 106 330 178 197 222 282 370 168 202 216 207 101 449 422 634 188 111 101 35 35 11

77 78 81 82 83 84 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

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

What breaks

Lights 950 19.2%

Electrical System 556 11.2%

Engine & Cooling 535 10.8%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 459 9.3%

Brakes 369 7.5%

Steering 365 7.4%

Airbags 248 5.0%

Transmission & Drivetrain 238 4.8%