YearsTellEspaƱol

2018 Ford Ecosport

For every car sold, owners filed about as many complaints about the 2018 Ecosport as about the typical Ecosport year. Among the 2 Ecosport years with enough complaints to compare, owners filed the fewest about this one, the 2018 (0.46 per 1,000 sold) and the most about the 2021 (0.53).

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

0.46 per 1,000

1.0 times this nameplate’s own median

Counted from 25 complaints filed in the first three years, of 728 ever. 95% lower bound 0.28.

Every Ecosport model yearComplaints per 1,000 sold, first three years
This yearOther yearsToo few complaints to rankTypical year, 0.46

Against its own model years

The model year carries far more information than the badge, so this is the comparison that matters. The bar is how many complaints each rate rests on.

Model yearPer 1,000Complaints
20180.4625
20190.2213
20200.1912
20210.5327

Issues owners of the 2018 Ecosport report

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

Engine 357 complaints

pressure18452%
oil pressure17248%
oil pump11532%
low oil7722%
belt6518%
low engine4813%

Engine And Engine Cooling 311 complaints

engine engine26786%
engine cooling26284%
cooling26284%
campaign engine25482%
however part19763%
cooling however19663%

Power Train 67 complaints

oil pressure2842%
oil pump2334%
low oil1624%
engine oil1421%

When it breaks

11% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 65,000 miles, from 267 complaints that recorded one).

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

By engine

The VIN an owner files names the engine, which places 713 of this year’s 728 complaints. Sales by engine are not published, so these are not rates and say nothing about which engine drew more complaints. What can be compared is what each engine’s owners reported.

EngineComplaintsAbout the engine or fuel systemOf those, before 30,000 miles
1.0 L 3-cylinder66294%6% of 230
2.0 L 4-cylinder5135%too few mileages

Engines as NHTSA’s VIN decoder (vPIC) reads them from the first eleven characters of each VIN. “Turbo” is shown only where every VIN records one; the decoder leaves it blank on many turbo engines. 15 complaints are not in the table: no usable VIN, an engine vPIC could not decode, or an engine with fewer than 25 complaints.

What NHTSA did

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

Oil Pump Failure

Questions buyers ask about the 2018 Ford Ecosport

Is 2018 a good year or a bad year for the Ecosport?

For every car sold, owners filed about as many complaints about the 2018 Ecosport as about the typical Ecosport year. Among the 2 Ecosport years with enough complaints to compare, owners filed the fewest about this one, the 2018 (0.46 per 1,000 sold) and the most about the 2021 (0.53). The typical year is the median across its model years.

What problems does the 2018 Ecosport have?

The parts owners named most often in complaints filed to date: Engine (357), Engine And Engine Cooling (311), Power Train (67). The phrases they used are listed above.

Is the 2018 Ecosport reliable?

Complaint records cannot settle that on their own. They count safety problems owners chose to report to the federal government, not every repair. What they do show is how this year compares with the other Ecosport years: for every car sold, owners filed about as many complaints about the 2018 Ecosport as about the typical Ecosport year.

Which Ecosport year has the fewest complaints?

Among years with enough complaints to compare, the 2018, at 0.46 per 1,000 sold. Every Ecosport year, ranked.

What the used-car guides say

No guide we read covers the Ecosport.

Check this yourself

Example records behind this page, each on NHTSA’s own site:

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 taken year by year from published US sales figures, each one quoted from a named source.