2012 Ford F-150
This year drew an ordinary 5,151 complaints for a Ford F-150 — the model's median is 2,553. What they were about is the unusual part: 9.6% of them mention ecoboost, against 2.3% 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 | 5,151 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 2,553 |
| Involving a crash | 111 |
| Involving a fire | 42 |
| Recalls | 4 |
| EPA combined | 17 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- ecoboost — 9.6% of this year's complaints, against 2.3% across the other years of this generation (4.1×). Owners wrote it as: ecoboost, ecoboost engine, rainy.
- pass — 9.7% of this year's complaints, against 2.8% across the other years of this generation (3.5×). Owners wrote it as: pass, passing, slower, semi.
- accelerate — 9.9% of this year's complaints, against 3.7% across the other years of this generation (2.7×).
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
ON AT LEAST 6 OCCASIONS, TRUCK MISFIRES AND SHAKES VIOLENTLY WHEN UNDER LOAD OR ATTEMPTING TO ACCELERATE. PULL OFF ROAD OR LET OFF OF ACCELERATOR AND ENGINE RESUMES NORMAL OPERATION. HAPPENED ONCE PULLING EMPTY TRAILER, HAPPENED 4 TIMES MERGING ONTO INTERSTATE…
CODE P0016 TIMING CHAIN FAILURE. CAUSING CAR TO LOSE POWER WHEN ACCELERATING. THIS HAPPENED ON EXPRESSWAY WHEN I WAS TURNING INTO A LANE TO PASS A SEMI IN MY LANE. I HAD NO POWER TO GET GOING IN THE PASSING LANE AND ALMOST GOT REAR ENDED.ALSO CAUSES TRUCK TO J…
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.
- 12V198000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 12V190000 POWER TRAIN 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 2012 Ford F-150? What happened to yours?
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