all vehicles · every Escape year · method

Ford Escape 2016

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

0.46 per 1,000

0.6 times this nameplate’s own median · from 141 complaints filed in the first three years, of 1157 ever. 95% lower bound 0.38.

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.

Power Train 320 complaints

transmission fault	36	11%
part recall	28	9%
determined transmission	24	7%
bushing	23	7%
towed independent	21	7%
illuminated towed	20	6%

Back Over Prevention 241 complaints

back prevention	187	76%
prevention	187	76%
campaign	182	74%
campaign back	176	71%
notification	170	69%
notification campaign	166	67%

Engine 200 complaints

coolant	72	36%
intrusion	20	10%
overheating	18	9%
coolant intrusion	17	9%
head gasket	16	8%
coolant leaking	14	7%

When it breaks

16% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 78,000 miles, from 633 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

No NHTSA investigation covers this model year.

That is not a clean bill of health, and not a criticism of the agency: investigations open for many reasons and complaint volume is only one of them.

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:

10779154 · 10840053 · 10851954 · 10852761 · 10862552 · 10865277

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.