Volkswagen Passat vs Chevrolet Silverado 1500

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 Passat	Chevrolet Silverado 1500
Complaints on file	10,333	23,432
Model years covered	1990–2022	1994–2026
Worst model year	2003	2019
Best model year	1994	2012
Crashes reported	332	1,086
Fires reported	366	354
Injuries reported	263	547
Deaths reported	13	52
Most complained-about part	Airbags	Brakes
Share of complaints involving harm	9.4%	8.7%

Volkswagen Passat by year

50 30 60 90 36 142 48 57 476 854 625 558 772 816 348 172 779 341 240 211 226 27 662 1,027 788 389 179 175 65 18 24 28 20

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

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

What breaks

Airbags 1,660 16.1%

Engine & Cooling 1,590 15.4%

Electrical System 1,195 11.6%

Brakes 1,022 9.9%

Fuel & Propulsion 1,018 9.9%

Steering 584 5.7%

Transmission & Drivetrain 487 4.7%

Suspension 416 4.0%

Chevrolet Silverado 1500 by year

10 6 10 693 452 711 731 627 620 960 951 643 462 1,056 1,094 553 451 698 278 392 2,200 1,426 1,050 957 752 1,545 1,038 1,068 845 522 396 135 100

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

Brakes 4,765 20.3%

Engine & Cooling 2,949 12.6%

Electrical System 2,656 11.3%

Transmission & Drivetrain 2,437 10.4%

Airbags 2,406 10.3%

Other & Unspecified 1,550 6.6%

Steering 1,524 6.5%

Body & Structure 929 4.0%