Volkswagen Jetta vs Ford Taurus

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 Taurus
Complaints on file	13,891	23,982
Model years covered	1984–2026	1977–2019
Worst model year	2002	2000
Best model year	1993	2019
Crashes reported	696	1,482
Fires reported	390	685
Injuries reported	583	926
Deaths reported	9	38
Most complained-about part	Electrical System	Engine & Cooling
Share of complaints involving harm	12.1%	13.1%

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 1,184 880 692 739 552 286 250 249 38 796 79 101 72 66 68 39 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 2,193 15.8%

Engine & Cooling 2,032 14.6%

Transmission & Drivetrain 1,648 11.9%

Fuel & Propulsion 1,409 10.1%

Brakes 981 7.1%

Airbags 871 6.3%

Other & Unspecified 803 5.8%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 658 4.7%

Ford Taurus by year

2 2 1 4 2 150 355 462 762 542 946 1,009 2,206 1,284 1,597 1,132 1,003 680 1,100 1,497 1,264 1,759 1,524 482 1,005 415 196 240 77 280 251 100 755 297 358 104 53 67 19

77 81 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 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

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

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 3,718 15.5%

Suspension 3,366 14.0%

Transmission & Drivetrain 3,035 12.7%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 2,128 8.9%

Electrical System 1,721 7.2%

Brakes 1,501 6.3%

Steering 1,445 6.0%

Body & Structure 1,088 4.5%