Sterling · vehicle model
Sterling L-Line
9 NHTSA complaints and 25 safety recalls across model years 2001–2009.
- Complaints
- 9
- Recalls
- 25
- Model years
- 5
The verdict
The Sterling L-Line pairs below-average complaint volume with 25 recalls (heavily recalled).
- Top 34%
- fewest complaints, US models
- 25
- recall campaigns
Sterling L-Line vs. all tracked models
Total NHTSA ODI complaints across models with substantive safety data
9 Lower than most lower than 65% of 3,088 models
tracked vehicle models, bucketed by value
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more models. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation · August 2026
The SterlingL-Line appears in NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation database with 9 consumer safety complaints and 25 recall campaigns across 5 model years (2001–2009). That averages roughly 2 complaints per model year. Report counts can differ between model years for many reasons; this dataset does not establish the cause of a difference.
Complaint volume on a nameplate alone is not a reliability verdict: a long-running bestseller can accumulate more filings than a low-volume niche model because more vehicles are on the road. The table below shows report counts and published NHTSA crash-test ratings side by side for each model year. The filing-year histogram shows the timing of submitted reports, not a causal trend.
NHTSA has 1 investigation file tied to this model. Investigation records, complaint reports, and recall campaigns each provide different context. Use the official NHTSA VIN lookup and the underlying notices to research a specific vehicle; PlainCars does not infer a vehicle-risk or pricing conclusion from these records.
Complaints by Year
Complaint Filing Trend
NHTSA complaint volume by year filed (not model year).
Year filed (bar labels show the complaint count).
Compare SterlingL-Line to Similar Vehicles
NHTSA Investigations
Frequently Asked Questions
How reliable is the Sterling L-Line?▼
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Data sources
Data vintage: August 2026. Sources: NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) complaints database, NHTSA recall campaign API, NHTSA NCAP crash-test ratings, and NHTSA FARS for fatality cross-reference.
Every figure on PlainCars is rendered directly from NHTSA complaint and safety data, no number is typed in by an editor. Sterling L-Line totals are aggregated from the linked NHTSA model-year rows; no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of August 2026.