Volkswagen Jetta vs Chevrolet Malibu

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 Jetta	Chevrolet Malibu
Complaints on file	13,865	29,413
Model years covered	1984–2026	1964–2025
Worst model year	2002	2010
Best model year	1993	2022
Crashes reported	696	1,224
Fires reported	390	234
Injuries reported	583	743
Deaths reported	9	38
Most complained-about part	Electrical System	Steering
Share of complaints involving harm	12.1%	7.6%

Volkswagen Jetta by year

1 18 18 21 23 28 29 38 33 22 167 338 36 100 253 488 633 862 885 552 295 354 792 280 251 1,275 1,184 880 692 739 552 284 249 249 38 794 78 99 72 65 61 29 8

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 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

Electrical System 2,189 15.8%

Engine & Cooling 2,032 14.7%

Transmission & Drivetrain 1,646 11.9%

Fuel & Propulsion 1,408 10.2%

Brakes 981 7.1%

Airbags 871 6.3%

Other & Unspecified 800 5.8%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 655 4.7%

Chevrolet Malibu by year

1 1 2 2 4 6 3 3 1 1 3 693 1,480 1,227 1,379 1,005 755 773 1,639 1,386 1,475 1,253 1,489 2,356 2,204 1,526 1,472 1,383 563 399 1,443 1,174 1,215 307 332 132 149 103 59 15

64 74 75 78 79 80 81 82 83 86 89 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 25

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

What breaks

Steering 5,713 19.4%

Electrical System 4,816 16.4%

Engine & Cooling 3,161 10.7%

Brakes 2,824 9.6%

Lights 2,060 7.0%

Transmission & Drivetrain 1,682 5.7%

Stability & Traction Control 1,330 4.5%

Other & Unspecified 1,290 4.4%