2016 Ford Explorer
This year drew an ordinary 2,460 complaints for a Ford Explorer — the model's median is 416. What they were about is the unusual part: 6.2% of them mention body, against 2.5% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 2 of the Ford Explorer, which began in 2011 and ran to 2019. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 2,460 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 416 |
| Involving a crash | 38 |
| Involving a fire | 14 |
| Recalls | 15 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 20 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- body — 6.2% of this year's complaints, against 2.5% across the other years of this generation (2.5×). Owners wrote it as: body, throttle, throttle body.
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
VEHICLE LOST POWER IN THE CITY GOING ABOUT 35MPH, HAD TO COAST TO SIDE OF THE ROAD, BAD THROTTLE BODY...... 6600 MILES ON THE CAR SERVICE LIGHT CAME ON ZERO THROTTLE RESPONSE.
THROTTLE BODY FAILED ON VEHICLE AT HIGHWAY SPEED. LOST ALL POWER IN THE MIDDLE OF RUSH HOUR TRAFFIC BARELY MISSED A REAR END COLLISION FROM ANOTHER VEHICLE BECAUSE I COULD NOT ACCELERATE.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19V435000 SUSPENSION Fixed free of charge.
- 17E048000 WHEELS
- 16V475000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
- 17V767000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
- 15V605000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 16V183000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Fixed free of charge.
- 15V464000 PARKING BRAKE Fixed free of charge.
- 21V316000 STRUCTURE Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 15. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Ford Explorer 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 2016 Ford Explorer? What happened to yours?
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