all vehicles · every Escape year · method

Ford Escape 2010

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

0.92 per 1,000

1.3 times this nameplate’s own median · from 167 complaints filed in the first three years, of 2126 ever. 95% lower bound 0.78.

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.

Vehicle Speed Control 566 complaints

throttle	414	73%
body	354	63%
throttle body	349	62%
wrench	164	29%
wrench light	82	15%
waited	48	9%

Power Train 513 complaints

throttle	298	58%
body	243	47%
throttle body	236	46%
wrench	236	46%
wrench light	136	27%
restarted	118	23%

Engine 505 complaints

throttle	291	58%
body	242	48%
throttle body	238	47%
wrench	168	33%
restarted	123	24%
wrench light	90	18%

When it breaks

10% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 60,000 miles, from 1821 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

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

Electronic Throttle Body Malfunction

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:

10296396 · 10298531 · 10299662 · 10302043 · 10303653 · 10308912

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.