all vehicles · every F-Series year · method

Ford F-Series 2018

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

0.96 per 1,000

1.3 times this nameplate’s own median · from 869 complaints filed in the first three years, of 2937 ever. 95% lower bound 0.90.

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	0.52	269
2009	0.23	107
2010	0.45	210
2011	0.80	445
2012	0.81	500
2013	0.53	373
2014	0.32	244
2015	0.57	438
2016	0.70	557
2017	1.29	1106
2018	0.96	869
2019	1.25	1126
2020	0.36	304
2021	0.77	585
2022	0.89	612
2023	0.73	512

What owners describe

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

Power Train 1035 complaints

truck	389	37%
shifting	323	31%
hard	226	22%
shifts	163	16%
speed transmission	143	14%
cdf	92	9%

Engine 533 complaints

cam	164	31%
phasers	110	21%
cam phasers	100	19%
rattling	87	16%
phaser	78	15%
cam phaser	74	14%

Steering 441 complaints

truck	247	56%
wobble	217	49%
death	197	45%
death wobble	191	43%
rough	56	13%
bridge	52	12%

When it breaks

46% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 34,000 miles, from 1487 complaints that recorded one).

No clear early or late pattern.

What NHTSA did

5 investigations covering this model year, 3 of which list a recall campaign. Owners had filed 29 complaints about this component over roughly 8 months before an investigation opened.

Seatbelt Pretensioner Fire

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:

11055541 · 11063837 · 11064893 · 11066460 · 11072824 · 11073318

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.