2018 Ford Mustang
This year drew an ordinary 187 complaints for a Ford Mustang — the model's median is 264. What they were about is the unusual part: 9.1% of them mention help, against 2% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 2 of the Ford Mustang, which began in 2015 and ran to 2023. 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 | 187 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 264 |
| Involving a crash | 8 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 4 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 23 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- help — 9.1% of this year's complaints, against 2% across the other years of this generation (4.5×). Owners wrote it as: help, piston, please help, obvious.
- shift — 8.6% of this year's complaints, against 3% across the other years of this generation (2.9×). Owners wrote it as: shift, stalls.
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
CAR HAS A LOUD TICKING SOUND ONCE WARMED UP AND AT IDLE. ALSO OCCURS WHEN RPMS ARE BETWEEN 1500-2000. DEALER TOLD ME IT'S THE NEW DIRECT FUEL INJECTION SYSTEM. RESEARCH ONLINE SHOWS MANY OTHER MUSTANG GT OWNERS HAVING THE SAME PROBLEMS AND FOUND EVIDENCE OF PI…
PISTON SLAP NOISE FROM ENGINE. TICKING AND THUDDING NOISE FROM IDLE TO 2500 RPMS. CAN HEAR DIESEL TYPE SOUND INSIDE THE CAR WHEN AT IDLE. CHECK ENGINE LIGHT WITH CODE P0300 FOR ENGINE MISFIRE. CAR IS 1 YEAR OLD AND HAS OIL CONSUMPTION ISSUES. DEALER IS OF NO H…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 18E035000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Fixed free of charge.
- 17V814000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 18V213000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 25V572000 BACK OVER PREVENTION 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 2018 Ford Mustang? What happened to yours?
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