Volkswagen Jetta vs Ford Focus

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	Ford Focus
Complaints on file	13,865	29,786
Model years covered	1984–2026	1999–2018
Worst model year	2002	2000
Best model year	1993	1999
Crashes reported	696	1,631
Fires reported	390	424
Injuries reported	583	979
Deaths reported	9	54
Most complained-about part	Electrical System	Transmission & Drivetrain
Share of complaints involving harm	12.1%	10.4%

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%

Ford Focus by year

15 5,152 2,361 1,198 1,224 499 600 270 524 336 323 409 157 4,981 2,919 3,628 1,327 1,568 1,183 1,112

99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

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

What breaks

Transmission & Drivetrain 6,857 23.0%

Electrical System 4,474 15.0%

Engine & Cooling 3,622 12.2%

Fuel & Propulsion 2,723 9.1%

Steering 2,111 7.1%

Other & Unspecified 1,536 5.2%

Brakes 1,204 4.0%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 1,082 3.6%