all vehicles · every Explorer year · method

Ford Explorer 2018

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

0.45 per 1,000

better than this nameplate’s own median · from 119 complaints filed in the first three years, of 733 ever. 95% lower bound 0.37.

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 290 complaints

campaign structure	147	51%
notification campaign	135	46%
structure however	129	44%
part recall	122	42%
however part	121	42%
pillar	109	38%

Unknown Or Other 169 complaints

exhaust	32	19%
trim	31	19%
pillar	17	10%
flew	15	9%
fumes	14	9%
flew off	13	8%

Engine 96 complaints

water	25	26%
water pump	24	25%
ecoboost	10	11%

When it breaks

36% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 50,000 miles, from 291 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.

Hertz/Vehicles Rented with Open Recalls

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:

11072324 · 11073066 · 11075122 · 11075153 · 11078974 · 11080294

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.