2011 Ford F-150
This year drew an ordinary 6,411 complaints for a Ford F-150 — the model's median is 2,553. What they were about is the unusual part: 6.6% of them mention pass, against 1.2% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 2 of the Ford F-150, which began in 2009 and ran to 2014. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
| Complaints filed | 6,411 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 2,553 |
| Involving a crash | 123 |
| Involving a fire | 54 |
| Recalls | 6 |
| EPA combined | 17 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- pass — 6.6% of this year's complaints, against 1.2% across the other years of this generation (5.3×).
- ecoboost — 7.8% of this year's complaints, against 2.3% across the other years of this generation (3.4×). Owners wrote it as: ecoboost, ecoboost engine.
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
MY ECOBOOST ENGINE STALLED DURING ACCELERATION WHILE ATTEMPTING TO PASS ON A 2 LANE ROAD. THIS PUT ME AND MY FAMILY IN A VERY DANGEROUS SITUATION WHERE I WAS IN THE OPPOSING LANE WITH NO POWER. I HAVE ATTEMPTED TO HAVE THIS FIXED AT THE DEALER MORE THAN 5 TIME…
THIS IS A ECOBOOST ENGINE. WHEN I GO TO PASS SOMEONE THE ENGINE STARTS SPUTTERING AS IF IT IS GOING TO CUT OFF. LOSES POWER AND IS VERY DANGEROUS. I NOTICED WHERE THIS WAS UNDER INVESTIGATION BUT THAT HAS BEEN DROPPED. SOMEONE IS GOING TO BE KILLED. THIS HAPPE…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19V075000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 16V248000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 12V190000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 11V582000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 11V128000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 10V659000 STRUCTURE Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Ford F-150 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 2011 Ford F-150? What happened to yours?
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