Volkswagen Jetta vs Ford Fusion

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 Fusion
Complaints on file	13,865	28,743
Model years covered	1984–2026	2006–2020
Worst model year	2002	2010
Best model year	1993	2018
Crashes reported	696	1,133
Fires reported	390	255
Injuries reported	583	562
Deaths reported	9	14
Most complained-about part	Electrical System	Steering
Share of complaints involving harm	12.1%	6.8%

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 Fusion by year

920 1,277 1,533 1,168 7,026 3,654 3,057 2,368 1,760 1,276 2,075 1,386 574 407 262

06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

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

What breaks

Steering 5,786 20.1%

Engine & Cooling 4,041 14.1%

Airbags 3,536 12.3%

Transmission & Drivetrain 3,141 10.9%

Brakes 2,716 9.4%

Electrical System 1,654 5.8%

Fuel & Propulsion 1,542 5.4%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 1,416 4.9%