all vehicles · every Escape year · method

Ford Escape 2018

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

0.38 per 1,000

better than this nameplate’s own median · from 110 complaints filed in the first three years, of 1816 ever. 95% lower bound 0.31.

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.

Engine 1165 complaints

coolant	879	75%
intrusion	365	31%
coolant intrusion	357	31%
coolant leaking	172	15%
program	110	9%
intrusion engine	94	8%

Engine And Engine Cooling 344 complaints

mileage	324	94%
coolant	298	86%
intrusion	190	55%
coolant intrusion	187	54%
intrusion engine	92	27%
satisfaction program	61	18%

Power Train 275 complaints

coolant	95	34%
intrusion	52	19%
coolant intrusion	49	18%
block	38	14%
misfire	24	9%
cylinders	22	8%

When it breaks

16% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 80,851 miles, from 670 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:

11062210 · 11088921 · 11093294 · 11093920 · 11096357 · 11101854

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.