Volkswagen Passat vs Hyundai Sonata

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	Hyundai Sonata
Complaints on file	10,345	22,302
Model years covered	1990–2022	1987–2026
Worst model year	2003	2013
Best model year	1994	2025
Crashes reported	335	1,151
Fires reported	366	851
Injuries reported	266	740
Deaths reported	13	21
Most complained-about part	Airbags	Engine & Cooling
Share of complaints involving harm	9.5%	12.4%

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%

Hyundai Sonata by year

4 18 25 41 43 46 7 93 37 74 68 187 378 293 407 249 288 217 1,422 906 554 612 415 4,627 2,280 2,657 1,082 1,667 998 1,001 552 214 276 184 142 140 75 21 2

87 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

Engine & Cooling 5,119 23.0%

Steering 2,378 10.7%

Airbags 2,068 9.3%

Electrical System 2,008 9.0%

Other & Unspecified 1,329 6.0%

Brakes 1,259 5.6%

Fuel & Propulsion 1,092 4.9%

Body & Structure 1,087 4.9%