Ford Explorer: which model years to avoid
Complaint and recall totals for every Ford Explorer model year we track, ranked by severity.
| Model year | Complaints | Recalls | Crashes | Fires | Severity | Most-reported system |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 822 | 7 | 10 | 6 | 21.9 Low | STEERING |
| 2013 | 2,224 | 12 | 44 | 11 | 34.6 Low | STEERING |
| 2014 | 1,672 | 7 | 32 | 6 | 32.8 Low | STEERING |
| 2015 | 1,755 | 9 | 36 | 1 | 51.9 Medium | STRUCTURE |
| 2016 | 2,432 | 15 | 38 | 14 | 29.1 Low | STRUCTURE |
| 2017 | 1,671 | 14 | 33 | 10 | 35.4 Medium | STRUCTURE |
| 2018 | 712 | 7 | 15 | 7 | 27.8 Low | STRUCTURE |
| 2019 | 287 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 19.5 Low | STRUCTURE |
| 2020 | 1,169 | 33 | 35 | 10 | 42.4 Medium | POWER TRAIN |
| 2021 | 402 | 26 | 13 | 5 | 50.2 Medium | POWER TRAIN |
| 2022 | 248 | 24 | 17 | 1 | 104.0 High | POWER TRAIN |
| 2023 | 102 | 15 | 7 | 2 | 109.8 High | UNKNOWN OR OTHER |
| 2024 | 19 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 178.9 High | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE |
| 2025 | 87 | 19 | 6 | 0 | 55.2 Medium | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM |
Across 14 model years, the 2024 Ford Explorer carries the highest severity index (178.9, driven by forward collision avoidance), while the 2019 is the cleanest at 19.5.
Source. NHTSA public complaint and recall APIs. Complaint counts are not normalised by units sold; a high-volume seller will attract more filings than a rare trim.