2011 Ford Mustang
This year drew an ordinary 466 complaints for a Ford Mustang — the model's median is 260. What they were about is the unusual part: 29.4% of them mention transmission, against 3.5% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 1 of the Ford Mustang, which began in 2005 and ran to 2014. 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 | 466 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 260 |
| Involving a crash | 20 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 5 |
| EPA combined | 20 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- transmission — 29.4% of this year's complaints, against 3.5% across the other years of this generation (8.4×).
- gear — 32% of this year's complaints, against 5.2% across the other years of this generation (6.1×). Owners wrote it as: gear, 2nd gear, grinding, engage.
- shifting — 38% of this year's complaints, against 10.1% across the other years of this generation (3.8×). Owners wrote it as: shifting, 2nd, manual, 1st.
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 CONTACT WAS DRIVING APPROXIMATELY 10 MPH WHEN A GRINDING NOISE WAS HEARD FROM THE VEHICLE. IN ADDITION, THERE WAS A DELAYED RESPONSE FROM THE MANUAL TRANSMISSION WHEN SHIFTING INTO SECOND OR THIRD GEAR. THE FAILURE RECURRED WHEN DRIVING BETWEEN 10-30 MPH.…
WHEN ATTEMPTING TO SHIFT GEARS MANUALLY FROM FIRST TO SECOND, THE VEHICLE WOULD SKIP SECOND AND SHIFT INTO THIRD GEAR, DISTORTING THE VEHICLES SPEED. ALSO, WHEN SHIFTING FROM FIRST TO SECOND GEAR, THE VEHICLE WOULD EXHIBIT A CLUNKING AND GRINDING NOISE. THE DE…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19V001000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 21V081000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 21E013000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 16V384000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 15V319000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Ford Mustang 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 Mustang? What happened to yours?
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