Compare car reliability

Each page takes two cars people shop against each other and lines them up over the model years both have on file. Complaint totals aren't adjusted for sales, and a model with more cars on the road will usually draw more reports, so the pages lean on numbers that don't grow with sales.

The main ones are the share of each model's complaints that lands on each system (steering, engine, brakes and so on) and the mileage owners give when a problem shows up. Recall campaigns are counted per model year, and each model year is set against a typical year of the same model. A scorecard at the top counts where one side looks better, and the problem and year sections link to the model-year pages behind them.

A comparison can't see a problem nobody reported, and it can't tell you how a particular car was driven or kept. Use it to know what to ask about and which model years to look at hardest. Whether a given car is covered by a recall depends on its VIN, which NHTSA's own lookup will check.