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	10,345	23,671
Model years covered	1990–2022	1994–2026
Worst model year	2003	2019
Best model year	1994	2012
Crashes reported	335	1,091
Fires reported	366	355
Injuries reported	266	547
Deaths reported	13	52
Most complained-about part	Airbags	Brakes
Share of complaints involving harm	9.5%	8.6%

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 1,027 791 389 179 177 65 18 31 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 1,661 16.1%

Engine & Cooling 1,590 15.4%

Electrical System 1,199 11.6%

Brakes 1,023 9.9%

Fuel & Propulsion 1,019 9.9%

Steering 584 5.6%

Transmission & Drivetrain 487 4.7%

Suspension 416 4.0%

Chevrolet Silverado 1500 by year

10 6 10 693 452 711 732 627 620 960 951 643 464 1,056 1,094 553 453 698 279 392 2,201 1,431 1,054 957 756 1,568 1,075 1,102 875 538 429 151 130

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 4,779 20.2%

Engine & Cooling 3,057 12.9%

Electrical System 2,683 11.3%

Transmission & Drivetrain 2,479 10.5%

Airbags 2,407 10.2%

Other & Unspecified 1,560 6.6%

Steering 1,530 6.5%

Body & Structure 934 3.9%