Federal complaint record · Ford Escape · model year 2018

2018 Ford Escape

Owners submitted 1,739 federal complaint reports about this model year, placing it at the 91th percentile for complaint intensity within its 2016 to 2020 compact suv cohort. The largest reported component group is engine. Sample sizes and limitations are shown below.

Engine · 68% · group n = 1,442Powertrain · 13% · group n = 265Other · 5% · group n = 106Electrical · 3% · group n = 54Fuel system · 2% · group n = 51
1,739
Complaint records on file
80,000
Median mileage at the reported problem · 663 complaints reported mileage
68%
Of classified component reports name engine · group n = 1,442
91th
Complaint-intensity percentile in a cohort of 40 model years

Engine · 7 in ten classified complaints

Where this record concentrates

All failure files
Component group 01 · Engine68%

Engine reports

Ford Escape · model year 2018

Reports in this group1,442
Share of classified reports68%
Component groups on file6
Open the failure files

Adjacent model years · same badge, different data

The complaint signal has a shape

Compare model years
2017
1.0complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
2,632 matched incidents
This car
2018
0.8complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
1,739 matched incidents
2019
0.3complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
563 matched incidents

The line compares submitted complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years, not failures per 1,000 cars. Vehicle-years use compiled US sales, a 0.25 prior-calendar-year plus 0.75 current-calendar-year model-year allocation, and the shipped survival curve. Rates appear only where estimated vehicles in operation are at least 5,000.

From the record · recurring narrative clusters

What recurring complaint clusters describe

How clusters are built
Fire or smoke · 442 reports

Reports describe smoke, burning smells, or fire

Cluster 1 of 32018 Ford Escape
Warning indicators · 297 reports

Reports describe warning lights before service

Cluster 2 of 32018 Ford Escape
Transmission behavior · 146 reports

Reports describe harsh shifting, slipping, or shuddering

Cluster 3 of 32018 Ford Escape

Cluster summaries paraphrase recurring symptoms reported to NHTSA. They are aggregate descriptions, not individual verbatim reports.

Records through 2026-07-19Published 2026-08-02 · Updated 2026-07-19

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NHTSA consumer complaint records can reveal recurring patterns across published model years. MotorCensus summarizes those records as one complaint-signal index, with a 95% interval and sample size, updated with each data snapshot.

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