For every car sold, owners filed more complaints about the 2018 Outlander than about the typical Outlander year: 1.3 times as many. Among the 4 Outlander years with enough complaints to compare, owners filed the fewest about the 2023 (0.74 per 1,000 sold) and the most about the 2022 (4.30).
Safety complaints filed by owners in the first three years, per 1,000 sold.
1.3 times this nameplate’s own median
Counted from 37 complaints filed in the first three years, of 72 ever. 95% lower bound 0.65.
The model year carries far more information than the badge, so this is the comparison that matters. The bar is how many complaints each rate rests on.
| Model year | Per 1,000 | Complaints | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 0.67 | 9 | |
| 2009 | 0.25 | 3 | |
| 2010 | 0.53 | 6 | |
| 2011 | 0.72 | 8 | |
| 2013 | 0.70 | 7 | |
| 2014 | 1.58 | 20 | |
| 2015 | 1.43 | 23 | |
| 2016 | 1.49 | 34 | |
| 2017 | 0.77 | 24 | |
| 2018 | 0.96 | 37 | |
| 2019 | 0.34 | 14 | |
| 2020 | 0.23 | 8 | |
| 2022 | 4.30 | 170 | |
| 2023 | 0.74 | 34 |
No phrase appears often enough in these complaints to describe them reliably.
Failures cluster early, which is the signature of how the car was built rather than of wear. A low-mileage example has not yet passed the risk window.
Pedestrian alert sounds
For every car sold, owners filed more complaints about the 2018 Outlander than about the typical Outlander year: 1.3 times as many. Among the 4 Outlander years with enough complaints to compare, owners filed the fewest about the 2023 (0.74 per 1,000 sold) and the most about the 2022 (4.30). The typical year is the median across its model years.
The parts owners named most often in complaints filed to date: Electrical System (14), Engine (13), Unknown Or Other (11).
Complaint records cannot settle that on their own. They count safety problems owners chose to report to the federal government, not every repair. What they do show is how this year compares with the other Outlander years: for every car sold, owners filed more complaints about the 2018 Outlander than about the typical Outlander year: 1.3 times as many.
Among years with enough complaints to compare, the 2023, at 0.74 per 1,000 sold. Every Outlander year, ranked.
Of the 4 guides that rate the 2018 Outlander, none list it among the years to avoid, 1 as a year for caution and 1 among the best. The complaint records here put it above the typical Outlander year, counted per car sold.
| Guide | Its verdict on 2018 | Based on |
|---|---|---|
| REREVcomplaint and recall records, and owner forums | Best | complaint and recall records, and owner forums |
| CarWhereNHTSA complaints, weighted by severity | Caution | NHTSA complaints, weighted by severity |
| Auto Reliability IndexNHTSA recalls and complaints, as a 0-100 score | Not singled out | NHTSA recalls and complaints, as a 0-100 score |
| SlashGearthe editors, citing J.D. Power and RepairPal | Not singled out | the editors, citing J.D. Power and RepairPal |
Read on 2026-11-14. Each verdict is the guide’s own: we record only the years it names, and link to it. A guide that counts complaints without dividing by sales can flag a year simply because more of it were sold.
Example records behind this page, each on NHTSA’s own site: