2023 Ford Explorer
This year drew an ordinary 104 complaints for a Ford Explorer — the model's median is 568. What they were about is the unusual part: 9.6% of them mention less than, against 3.6% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 3 of the Ford Explorer, which began in 2020. 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 | 104 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 568 |
| Involving a crash | 8 |
| Involving a fire | 2 |
| Recalls | 15 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 22 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- less than — 9.6% of this year's complaints, against 3.6% across the other years of this generation (2.7×). Owners wrote it as: less than, facing, concerning, car parked.
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
I have had 4 Ford Explorers that have the same problem that Ford has not commented on when I complain. If the car is parked facing down a hill with less than 1/4 tank of gas it won't start. The design of the tank precludes gas from reaching the engine. Unable…
Side seat airbag has exhaust port facing inwards, instead of outward, towards the door of the vehicle, that caused the hot chemical from the airbag to push out all the gas at the left side of my body, melting my clothes and causing chemical burns to my side wh…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 23V022000 BACK OVER PREVENTION Fixed free of charge.
- 23V070000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 23V342000 BACK OVER PREVENTION Fixed free of charge.
- 23V597000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Fixed free of charge.
- 23V686000 BACK OVER PREVENTION Fixed free of charge.
- 24V091000 SUSPENSION Fixed free of charge.
- 24V852000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
- 25V159000 BACK OVER PREVENTION 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 2023 Ford Explorer? What happened to yours?
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