Volvo 240 vs Ford C-Max

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	Volvo 240	Ford C-Max
Complaints on file	186	458
Model years covered	1976–1994	2013–2018
Worst model year	—	2014
Best model year	—	2017
Crashes reported	37	30
Fires reported	8	12
Injuries reported	18	16
Deaths reported	0	0
Most complained-about part	Electrical System	Electrical System
Share of complaints involving harm	33.9%	12.7%

Volvo 240 by year

1 1 2 9 5 8 29 8 12 19 26 19 29 16 2

76 80 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94

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

What breaks

Electrical System 32 17.2%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 22 11.8%

Brakes 19 10.2%

Transmission & Drivetrain 18 9.7%

Airbags 17 9.1%

Tires 15 8.1%

Engine & Cooling 12 6.5%

Lights 9 4.8%

Ford C-Max by year

233 105 64 25 19 12

13 14 15 16 17 18

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

What breaks

Electrical System 86 18.8%

Transmission & Drivetrain 70 15.3%

Steering 64 14.0%

Other & Unspecified 62 13.5%

Engine & Cooling 27 5.9%

Body & Structure 18 3.9%

Airbags 16 3.5%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 16 3.5%