Volkswagen GTI vs BMW X5

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 GTI	BMW X5
Complaints on file	1,950	4,578
Model years covered	1985–2024	2000–2026
Worst model year	2002	2021
Best model year	1999	2007
Crashes reported	63	190
Fires reported	23	236
Injuries reported	76	142
Deaths reported	7	7
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Engine & Cooling
Share of complaints involving harm	8.7%	12.6%

Volkswagen GTI by year

3 2 2 1 28 11 12 12 11 58 97 141 72 13 12 57 102 76 295 68 66 52 42 18 123 84 57 21 288 10 8 57 11 40

85 86 87 91 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 24

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

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 385 19.7%

Transmission & Drivetrain 317 16.3%

Electrical System 223 11.4%

Brakes 160 8.2%

Fuel & Propulsion 147 7.5%

Other & Unspecified 126 6.5%

Airbags 124 6.4%

Stability & Traction Control 81 4.2%

BMW X5 by year

37 215 136 134 93 109 221 119 319 203 190 395 374 215 130 203 113 111 101 274 159 166 118 48 253 107 35

00 01 02 03 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

Engine & Cooling 914 20.0%

Airbags 628 13.7%

Electrical System 546 11.9%

Transmission & Drivetrain 433 9.5%

Fuel & Propulsion 403 8.8%

Brakes 309 6.7%

Other & Unspecified 279 6.1%

Steering 138 3.0%