all vehicles · every Explorer year · method

Ford Explorer 2016

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

2.70 per 1,000

2.9 times this nameplate’s own median · from 672 complaints filed in the first three years, of 2479 ever. 95% lower bound 2.50.

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	0.26	20
2009	0.11	7
2010	0.81	46
2011	1.92	259
2012	0.92	138
2013	1.30	231
2014	1.14	229
2015	1.93	443
2016	2.70	672
2017	1.56	405
2018	0.45	119
2019	0.18	41
2020	1.64	339
2021	0.70	156
2022	0.60	129
2023	0.39	77

What owners describe

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

Structure 596 complaints

trim	340	57%
pillar	298	50%
structure however	290	48%
pillar trim	213	35%
mileage tool	142	24%
trim detached	113	19%

Steering 534 complaints

rack	215	40%
pinion	134	25%
rack pinion	131	24%
steering rack	100	19%
grinding	69	13%
hill	48	9%

Unknown Or Other 442 complaints

exhaust	136	31%
carbon	73	17%
carbon monoxide	71	16%
monoxide	71	16%
exhaust fumes	40	9%
headaches	39	9%

When it breaks

34% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 48,000 miles, from 1521 complaints that recorded one).

No clear early or late pattern.

What NHTSA did

2 investigations covering this model year, 1 of which list a recall campaign.

Exhaust Odor in Passenger Cab

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:

10765252 · 10795268 · 10808487 · 10817212 · 10821021 · 10824409

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 verified against a published figure.