Vehicle report
Technical service bulletins are instructions a manufacturer sent its dealers about a known fault. They are not recalls and the work is usually not free, but they are the clearest signal of a problem the manufacturer already knows about.
TBB971702
RECALL 97V-018- THANKS FOR EXPEDITING THE INITIAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT FOR 97V-018- WE EXPECT TO BEGIN SENDING NOTIFICATION LETTERS FOR THIS RECALL ON MARCH 31, 1997. NOTIFICATION SHOULD BE COMPLETE ONE WEEK LATER. RECALL 97V-018. *JD
Complaint counts are reports filed with NHTSA, not failure rates. A common model collects more of them than a rare one that breaks more often.