all vehicles · every Explorer year · method

Ford Explorer 2012

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

0.92 per 1,000

1.0 times this nameplate’s own median · from 138 complaints filed in the first three years, of 829 ever. 95% lower bound 0.77.

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.

Steering 360 complaints

steering	346	96%
power	287	79%
power steering	279	77%
assist	134	37%
steering assist	114	32%
fault	71	20%

Structure 144 complaints

campaign structure	72	50%
structure however	65	45%
trim	65	45%
however part	63	43%
part recall	60	41%
tool	56	39%

Unknown Or Other 105 complaints

exhaust	35	33%
fumes	18	17%
headaches	13	13%
carbon	12	12%
exhaust fumes	11	11%
carbon monoxide	10	10%

When it breaks

19% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 70,000 miles, from 571 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

4 investigations covering this model year, 2 of which list a recall campaign. Owners had filed 22 complaints about this component over roughly 2 months before an investigation opened.

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:

10428832 · 10432703 · 10436374 · 10437069 · 10437068 · 10439743

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.