2020 Ford Ranger
This year drew an ordinary 125 complaints for a Ford Ranger — the model's median is 168. What they were about is the unusual part: 12% of them mention changed, against 4.5% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 1 of the Ford Ranger, which began in 2019 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 | 125 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 168 |
| Involving a crash | 6 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 7 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 22 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- changed — 12% of this year's complaints, against 4.5% across the other years of this generation (2.7×). Owners wrote it as: changed, additional, transmission replacement, having pay.
- end — 12% of this year's complaints, against 4.5% across the other years of this generation (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: end, rear end, almost rear, other vehicles.
- each — 8% of this year's complaints, against 2.7% across the other years of this generation (3×). Owners wrote it as: each, different, each time, two different.
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
Transmission replacement needed. Truck has been at dealership going on 3 months with continued delays. It was acknowledged cooperate was covering replacement now story changed that owner/myself having to pay $4000+. Cooperate covering $000 . Current owner/myse…
Driver seat belt will not automatically/fully return. I have brought the issue to the attention of Service Advisors at two different Ford dealership's. They acknowledge the problem but note there is no fix available from Ford. Aside from having to manually fee…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 21V765000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
- 21V811000 SEAT BELTS Fixed free of charge.
- 20V575000 BACK OVER PREVENTION Fixed free of charge.
- 20V197000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 23V379000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
- 25V442000 BACK OVER PREVENTION Fixed free of charge.
- 25V685000 EQUIPMENT 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 2020 Ford Ranger? What happened to yours?
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