2013 Ford Escape
This year drew an ordinary 2,748 complaints for a Ford Escape — the model's median is 1,077. What they were about is the unusual part: 6.6% of them mention escape driving, against 0.9% across the other years of this generation.
First year of a new generation. The Ford Escape was redesigned for 2013. 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 | 2,748 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 1,077 |
| Involving a crash | 50 |
| Involving a fire | 89 |
| Recalls | 18 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 25 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- escape driving — 6.6% of this year's complaints, against 0.9% across the other years of this generation (6.9×). Owners wrote it as: escape driving, indicator illuminated.
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 60 MPH, THE VEHICLE STALLED AND THE "ENGINE MALFUNCTION" INDICATOR ILLUMINATED. THE VEHICLE WAS NOT DIAGNOSED OR REPAIRED. THE [VIN] WAS NOT MADE AWARE OF THE ISSUE. THE APPROXIMATE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 30,000.
WHILE DRIVING 45 MPH, THE POWER STEERING ASSIST FAULT INDICATOR ILLUMINATED AND THE STEERING WHEEL SEIZED. THE VEHICLE WAS NOT TAKEN TO A DEALER TO BE DIAGNOSED OR REPAIRED. THE [VIN] WAS NOT NOTIFIED OF THE FAILURE. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS APPROXIMATELY 97,00…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 18V471000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 14V239000 STRUCTURE Fixed free of charge.
- 15V813000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 16V643000 LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES Fixed free of charge.
- 14V597000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 14V237000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 14V495000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 14V164000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 18. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
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 2013 Ford Escape? What happened to yours?
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