all vehicles · every Escape year · method

Ford Escape 2008

Safety complaints filed by owners in the first three years, per 1,000 sold.

1.44 per 1,000

2.0 times this nameplate’s own median · from 226 complaints filed in the first three years, of 2416 ever. 95% lower bound 1.25.

Against its own model years

The model year carries far more information than the badge, so this is the comparison that matters.

Model year	Per 1,000	Complaints
2008	1.44	226
2009	0.55	90
2010	0.92	167
2011	2.03	451
2012	0.48	123
2013	1.40	389
2014	0.64	192
2015	0.34	104
2016	0.46	141
2017	0.72	221
2018	0.38	110
2019	0.28	71
2020	0.93	196
2021	1.17	189
2022	1.43	202
2023	0.62	86

What owners describe

Phrases over-represented in these complaints compared with the same component on every other vehicle. Counts are complaints containing the phrase.

Steering 1237 complaints

steering	1207	97%
power	877	70%
power steering	832	67%
column	262	21%
sensor	255	21%
steering column	253	20%

Power Train 372 complaints

fluid	102	27%
cooler	74	20%
transmission fluid	69	18%
wrench	63	17%
leaking	62	16%
transmission cooler	59	16%

Service Brakes 292 complaints

regen	71	24%
disabled	68	23%
hydraulic control	50	17%
brakes disabled	42	15%
check brake	42	15%
regen brakes	40	14%

When it breaks

7% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 100,000 miles, from 2127 complaints that recorded one).

Failures arrive late and spread out, which looks like wear. Service history matters more than model year here.

What NHTSA did

4 investigations covering this model year, 1 of which list a recall campaign. Owners had filed 14 complaints about this component over roughly 2 months before an investigation opened.

Electronic Throttle Body Malfunction

What owners and forums say

Not built yet. This panel is meant to carry community sentiment beside the filed-complaint data, so the two can be compared. Showing something weaker here would defeat its purpose.

Check this yourself

Example records behind this page:

10192718 · 10192861 · 10199433 · 10202069 · 10202967 · 10203068

Limits of this figure. It counts safety complaints filed with the federal government, which is a floor on failures and not a census: problems that only cost money are under-reported. Complaint rates also reflect how likely a brand’s owners are to file, which cannot be separated from how often the car fails. Sales are calendar-year and the denominator for this nameplate is automated checks only, not verified against an external source.