2006 Ford Fusion
This year drew an ordinary 730 complaints for a Ford Fusion — the model's median is 2,048. What they were about is the unusual part: 15.5% of them mention gear, against 5.2% across the other years of this generation.
First year of a new generation. The Ford Fusion was redesigned for 2006. A first year carries problems nobody has found yet, and they are found by the people who buy it — which is worth knowing before you become one of them.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 730 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 2,048 |
| Involving a crash | 38 |
| Involving a fire | 4 |
| Recalls | 5 |
| EPA combined | 23 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- gear — 15.5% of this year's complaints, against 5.2% across the other years of this generation (3×). Owners wrote it as: gear, out gear, slipping, slips.
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
THE TRANSMISSION SLIPS WHEN ACCELERATING AND VIOLENTLY LURCHES THE CAR FORWARD. THIS IS EXTREMELY UNSAFE AND THERE'S NO REASON WHY THE TRANSMISSION SHOULD BE REPLACED. I AM NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO EXPERIENCES THIS, THERE ARE TONS OF REPORTS OF INDIVIDUALS WITH TH…
MY CAR SLIPS OUT FO GEAR, SLOWS DOWN ON THE HIGHWAY, REVVS AT HIGH RPM'S, AND WON'T ACCELERATE AGAIN UNLESS I SLAM THE GAS PEDAL DOWN. IT ONLY DOES THIS SOMETIMES. ALSO, I HAVE BEEN EXPERIENCING INTERMITTENT BRAKE FAILURE. I APPLY MY FOOT ONTO THE BREAK, AND I…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 21V158000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 19V904000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.
- 17V024000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 16V384000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 14E028000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Ford Fusion 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 2006 Ford Fusion? What happened to yours?
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