2010 Ford Flex
This year drew an ordinary 139 complaints for a Ford Flex — the model's median is 144. What they were about is the unusual part: 18% of them mention hard, against 6.1% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 139 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 144 |
| Involving a crash | 9 |
| Involving a fire | 2 |
| Recalls | 1 |
| EPA combined | 18 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- hard — 18% of this year's complaints, against 6.1% across the model's other years (3×). Owners wrote it as: hard, vehicle off, eco, boost.
- ecoboost — 11.5% of this year's complaints, against 2% across the model's other years (5.7×). Owners wrote it as: ecoboost, turbos, limited, turbo.
- acceleration — 7.2% of this year's complaints, against 0.7% across the model's other years (9.6×). Owners wrote it as: acceleration, sudden acceleration, red light.
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
WE HAVE REPLACED THE TURBOS IN OR FORD FLEX ECOBOOST 5 TIMES WITHIN 2.5 YEARS!! THE FRONT AND REAR TURBOS BOTH JUST WENT AGAIN WITHIN ONE MONTH OF EACH OTHER!! WE WERE FINALLY TOLD BY A LINCOLN MECHANIC THE ISSUE IS A BAD/FAULTY OIL SEPERATOR MADE BY FORD. IT…
I TURNED MY CAR ON TO BACK OUT OF MY DRIVEWAY AND HAD NO POWER STEERING AND ON MY DASH IT SAID POWER STEERING FAULT. THIS IS A FORD LIMITED 2010 WITH ECOBOOST ENGINE AND PARKING ASSIST. THIS PART HAS BEEN RECALLED ON EVERY OTHER FORD BUT MY YEAR. IT IS UNDRIVA…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 16V247000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Ford Flex 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 2010 Ford Flex? What happened to yours?
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