Volkswagen Passat vs Honda Cr-V

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	Honda Cr-V
Complaints on file	10,333	21,242
Model years covered	1990–2022	1997–2026
Worst model year	2003	2019
Best model year	1994	2001
Crashes reported	332	1,258
Fires reported	366	226
Injuries reported	263	783
Deaths reported	13	27
Most complained-about part	Airbags	Engine & Cooling
Share of complaints involving harm	9.4%	10.8%

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%

Honda Cr-V by year

129 136 158 156 159 661 580 603 602 522 1,162 1,221 447 588 648 512 500 798 975 545 2,642 2,994 1,536 464 459 319 656 539 356 175

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

Engine & Cooling 2,751 13.0%

Electrical System 2,522 11.9%

Airbags 2,392 11.3%

Driver Assist & Collision Avoidance 1,934 9.1%

Steering 1,707 8.0%

Other & Unspecified 1,656 7.8%

Fuel & Propulsion 1,633 7.7%

Transmission & Drivetrain 1,019 4.8%