2020 Ford Explorer
This year drew an ordinary 1,189 complaints for a Ford Explorer — the model's median is 416. What they were about is the unusual part: 23.5% of them mention transmission, against 8.1% across the other years of this generation.
First year of a new generation. The Ford Explorer was redesigned for 2020. 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 | 1,189 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 416 |
| Involving a crash | 35 |
| Involving a fire | 11 |
| Recalls | 33 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 23.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- transmission — 23.5% of this year's complaints, against 8.1% across the other years of this generation (2.9×).
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
Transmission oil cooler leaking transmission fluid cooler inlet and outlet leaking.
Cracked Transmission Cooler where hoses attach. Replaced/repaired at owners expense.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19V859000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 20V788000 ENGINE Fixed free of charge.
- 21V154000 SUSPENSION Fixed free of charge.
- 21V735000 BACK OVER PREVENTION Fixed free of charge.
- 20V549000 SEAT BELTS Fixed free of charge.
- 20V693000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 20V575000 BACK OVER PREVENTION Fixed free of charge.
- 20V730000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 33. 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 2020 Ford Explorer? What happened to yours?
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