all vehicles · every Fusion year · method

Ford Fusion 2013

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

1.04 per 1,000

1.6 times this nameplate’s own median · from 278 complaints filed in the first three years, of 1957 ever. 95% lower bound 0.91.

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	0.16	23
2009	0.20	33
2010	2.79	558
2011	2.38	557
2012	1.72	421
2013	1.04	278
2014	0.65	195
2015	0.46	139
2016	0.89	252
2017	0.80	190
2018	0.22	42
2019	0.31	52
2020	0.28	39

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 418 complaints

steering	401	95%
assist	157	37%
steering assist	118	28%
fault	93	22%
message	68	16%
included	65	16%

Engine 400 complaints

cooling	71	18%
engine engine	70	18%
overheating	68	17%
engine cooling	64	16%
campaign engine	60	15%
overheated	41	10%

Power Train 316 complaints

cable	61	19%
shifter	61	19%
bushing	38	12%
shifter cable	28	9%
assist	25	8%
gear shifter	24	8%

When it breaks

17% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 75,000 miles, from 1465 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

6 investigations covering this model year, 4 of which list a recall campaign.

Door Latch Failure

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:

10487483 · 10487538 · 10488829 · 10490793 · 10492931 · 10494673

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.