Volkswagen Tiguan vs Nissan Maxima

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 Tiguan	Nissan Maxima
Complaints on file	3,543	8,854
Model years covered	2009–2026	1982–2023
Worst model year	2018	2000
Best model year	2026	2013
Crashes reported	106	466
Fires reported	41	398
Injuries reported	72	330
Deaths reported	1	16
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Transmission & Drivetrain
Share of complaints involving harm	6.2%	13.7%

Volkswagen Tiguan by year

247 159 241 214 227 131 106 146 104 457 293 211 194 478 93 104 88 50

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 726 20.5%

Electrical System 533 15.0%

Other & Unspecified 381 10.8%

Airbags 320 9.0%

Driver Assist & Collision Avoidance 272 7.7%

Transmission & Drivetrain 207 5.8%

Fuel & Propulsion 200 5.6%

Steering 186 5.2%

Nissan Maxima by year

4 8 40 64 74 194 73 78 138 99 140 102 128 195 117 123 133 215 467 225 278 249 1,725 1,152 733 169 99 460 399 138 137 71 127 2 224 155 46 28 33 4 6 2

82 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

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

What breaks

Transmission & Drivetrain 2,466 27.9%

Engine & Cooling 957 10.8%

Electrical System 915 10.3%

Steering 528 6.0%

Airbags 517 5.8%

Fuel & Propulsion 503 5.7%

Brakes 441 5.0%

Body & Structure 355 4.0%