2011 Ford Fusion
This year drew an ordinary 2,783 complaints for a Ford Fusion — the model's median is 1,949. What they were about is the unusual part: 42.8% of them mention power steering, against 1.1% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 1 of the Ford Fusion, which began in 2006 and ran to 2012. 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 | 2,783 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 1,949 |
| Involving a crash | 80 |
| Involving a fire | 10 |
| Recalls | 9 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 23.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- power steering — 42.8% of this year's complaints, against 1.1% across the other years of this generation (38.5×).
- assist — 22.6% of this year's complaints, against 1.4% across the other years of this generation (16.6×). Owners wrote it as: assist, steering assist, fault, assist fault.
- steering wheel — 22.9% of this year's complaints, against 5.5% across the other years of this generation (4.1×). Owners wrote it as: steering wheel, difficult, became, seized.
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
while driving at an undisclosed speed, the steering wheel became difficult to steer. The contact stated that the steering wheel seized upon arriving at her destination. The AdvanceTrac and the power steering assist warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle…
AFTER STARTING THE VEHICLE THE POWER STEERING ASSIST FAULT WARNING LIGHT DISPLAYED ON THE INSTRUMENT PANEL AND THE STEERING WHEEL BECAME DIFFICULT TO TURN IN EITHER DIRECTION. THE FAILURE OCCURRED ON MULTIPLE OCCASIONS. THE CAUSE OF THE FAILURE WAS NOT DETERMI…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19V001000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 16V384000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 15V340000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
- 15V793000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 14E028000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
- 11V574000 WHEELS
- 21V158000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 21V081000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 9. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
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 2011 Ford Fusion? What happened to yours?
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