2018 Ford F-150
This year drew an ordinary 5,540 complaints for a Ford F-150 — the model's median is 2,553. What they were about is the unusual part: 9.3% of them mention gears, against 3.5% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 3 of the Ford F-150, which began in 2015 and ran to 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 | 5,540 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 2,553 |
| Involving a crash | 174 |
| Involving a fire | 87 |
| Recalls | 19 |
| EPA combined | 19 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- gears — 9.3% of this year's complaints, against 3.5% across the other years of this generation (2.7×).
- shifts — 6.2% of this year's complaints, against 1.9% across the other years of this generation (3.3×).
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
Trans hard shifts between 2-4. It skips gears and aggressively slams into the next. Also it slams into reverse.
When my truck shifts, your be going down the road and then it downshifts and RPM going up, then it goes in between gears..
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 20V097000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING Fixed free of charge.
- 21V983000 LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES Fixed free of charge.
- 21V155000 TIRES Fixed free of charge.
- 21E027000 SUSPENSION Fixed free of charge.
- 18V894000 ENGINE Fixed free of charge.
- 18V392000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 19V633000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
- 19V278000 ENGINE Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 19. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
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 2018 Ford F-150? What happened to yours?
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