2008 Ford Ranger
This year drew an ordinary 325 complaints for a Ford Ranger — the model's median is 125. What they were about is the unusual part: 68.9% of them mention takata, against 25.6% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 325 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 125 |
| Involving a crash | 8 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 6 |
| EPA combined | 17 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- takata — 68.9% of this year's complaints, against 25.6% across the model's other years (2.7×).
- july — 15.7% of this year's complaints, against 5.3% across the model's other years (3×). Owners wrote it as: july, july 2016, safety recall, ride.
- june — 6.8% of this year's complaints, against 1.6% across the model's other years (4.2×). Owners wrote it as: june, june 2016.
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
"TAKATA RECALL" SAFETY RECALL NOTICE 16S26/NHTSA RECALL 16V-384. I HAVE CALLED FORD DEALERSHIP TWICE ONLY TO BE TOLD THE PART IS NOT AVAILABLE. I WILL BE NOTIFIED WHEN THE PART IS MADE AVAILABLE. THE NOTICE IS DATED JULY 2016.
TAKATA RECALL.... ALMOST A YEAR AGO JULY 2016, I RECEIVED A RECALL LETTER, CALLED FORD DEALER HERE IN SAN ANTONIO, TX. , ON HIWAY 410. THAT THE PART IS NOT AVAILABLE. CALLED THEM IN JANUARY, 2017, AND STILL NO PART.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 21V158000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 21V081000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 21E013000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 17V024000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 16V384000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 11V352000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Ford Ranger 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 2008 Ford Ranger? What happened to yours?
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