Volkswagen Passat vs Toyota Camry

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	Toyota Camry
Complaints on file	10,333	23,365
Model years covered	1990–2022	1983–2024
Worst model year	2003	2009
Best model year	1994	1993
Crashes reported	332	3,870
Fires reported	366	557
Injuries reported	263	2,075
Deaths reported	13	77
Most complained-about part	Airbags	Acceleration & Cruise Control
Share of complaints involving harm	9.4%	28.2%

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%

Toyota Camry by year

6 10 19 35 70 88 138 160 186 646 334 364 373 567 685 751 661 577 356 1,183 946 799 905 393 3,670 1,140 1,616 766 781 810 377 640 362 253 206 1,092 565 386 196 88 93 72

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 20 21 22 23 24

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

What breaks

Acceleration & Cruise Control 3,184 13.6%

Engine & Cooling 2,782 11.9%

Brakes 2,310 9.9%

Body & Structure 1,801 7.7%

Transmission & Drivetrain 1,761 7.5%

Airbags 1,696 7.3%

Windows, Mirrors & Wipers 1,547 6.6%

Other & Unspecified 1,487 6.4%