all vehicles · every Fusion year · method

Ford Fusion 2016

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

0.89 per 1,000

1.4 times this nameplate’s own median · from 252 complaints filed in the first three years, of 1719 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	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.

Engine 464 complaints

coolant	257	55%
intrusion	68	15%
coolant intrusion	63	14%
white	59	13%
coolant leaking	53	11%
white smoke	52	11%

Power Train 317 complaints

shifter	107	34%
cable	88	28%
bushing	77	24%
shifter cable	56	18%
gear shifter	41	13%
cable bushing	28	9%

Unknown Or Other 225 complaints

camera	46	21%
reverse	29	13%
shifter	24	11%
cable	22	10%
backup	20	9%
latch	19	9%

When it breaks

15% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 77,000 miles, from 962 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, 4 of which list a recall campaign. Owners had filed 99 complaints about this component over roughly 31 months before an investigation opened.

Desiccated Air Bag Inflator Rupture

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:

10750248 · 10764244 · 10805760 · 10819919 · 10840404 · 10851865

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.