2008 Ford Escape
This year drew an ordinary 2,416 complaints for a Ford Escape — the model's median is 1,077. What they were about is the unusual part: 12.8% of them mention abs, against 3.1% across the other years of this generation.
First year of a new generation. The Ford Escape was redesigned for 2008. A first year carries problems nobody has found yet, and they are found by the people who buy it — which is worth knowing before you become one of them.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 2,416 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 1,077 |
| Involving a crash | 72 |
| Involving a fire | 7 |
| Recalls | 5 |
| EPA combined | 21 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- abs — 12.8% of this year's complaints, against 3.1% across the other years of this generation (4.2×). Owners wrote it as: abs, unit, disabled, regen.
- column — 10.8% of this year's complaints, against 3.8% across the other years of this generation (2.9×). Owners wrote it as: column, steering column, column needed.
- fluid — 6.1% of this year's complaints, against 1.2% across the other years of this generation (5.2×). Owners wrote it as: fluid, cooler, transmission fluid, transmission cooler.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
WHILE DRIVING, THE BRAKE LIGHT AND ABS LIGHT CAME ON. MESSAGE ALSO SHOWED ON DASH SAYING, "CHECK BRAKE SYSTEM, REGEN BRAKES DISABLED. TOOK IT TO A LOCAL DEALERSHIP WHO SAID THE HYDRAULIC CONTROL UNIT MUST BE REPLACED AT A COST OF $5,600. DOING SOME RESEARCH ON…
WHEN RUNNING THE CAR (STATIONARY, AND THEN MOVING), ABS LIGHT CAME ON, THE BRAKE LIGHT CAME ON, AND IT SAID "REGEN BRAKES DISABLED". ATTEMPTING TO DRIVE THE CAR, THE BRAKES SEEMED TO WORK MOST OF THE TIME, BUT WERE MORE DIFFICULT TO DEPRESS SOMETIMES. AFTER TA…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 15E045000 SUSPENSION Fixed free of charge.
- 14V526000 HYBRID PROPULSION SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 15V606000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 14V284000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
- 10E043000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Ford Escape was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2008 Ford Escape? What happened to yours?
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