Coscienzios

Model years to avoid

Ford Escape

What it says about you

Opinion

Bought quickly, bought sensibly, and thought about very little since. There is nothing wrong with this and you would find any further discussion of it baffling.

Not measured, not from the data, and offered in fun. Everything below this is not.

22 model years on record, 27,688 complaints filed. No year stood out against this model's own history — which means it has not drawn unusual complaints, not that it is a good car.

What owners report, and when

Faults that dominated the complaints of more than one model year. Not the same question as which year to avoid — a car can have an ordinary number of complaints every year and have most of them be about the same thing.

  • amount time 2011, 2012, 2021, 2022 peak 29.5% of that year's complaints
  • intrusion 2017, 2018, 2019 peak 29.4% of that year's complaints
  • cylinder 2017, 2018, 2019 peak 26.6% of that year's complaints
  • check engine 2017, 2018 peak 32.2% of that year's complaints
  • shock 2005, 2006 peak 30.5% of that year's complaints
  • abs 2006, 2008 peak 26.5% of that year's complaints
  • window 2020, 2021 peak 23.3% of that year's complaints

Every year

  1. 2026 2 recalls 3 complaints
  2. 2025 9 recalls 21 complaints
  3. 2024 8 recalls 80 complaints
  4. 2023 11 recalls 116 complaints
  5. 2022 19 recalls 292 complaints
  6. 2021 19 recalls 664 complaints
  7. 2020 23 recalls 1,792 complaints
  8. 2019 3 recalls 571 complaints
  9. 2018 4 recalls 1,763 complaints
  10. 2017 4 recalls 2,652 complaints
  11. 2016 4 recalls 1,077 complaints
  12. 2015 9 recalls 1,057 complaints
  13. 2014 16 recalls 2,074 complaints
  14. 2013 18 recalls 2,748 complaints
  15. 2012 2 recalls 1,198 complaints
  16. 2011 3 recalls 2,648 complaints
  17. 2010 5 recalls 2,127 complaints
  18. 2009 3 recalls 1,692 complaints
  19. 2008 5 recalls 2,416 complaints
  20. 2007 4 recalls 393 complaints
  21. 2006 5 recalls 720 complaints
  22. 2005 5 recalls 1,584 complaints

What does a Ford Escape say about you?

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Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints — compared against itself rather than against other cars, so popularity and age do not decide the answer.