all vehicles · every Explorer year · method

Ford Explorer 2014

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

1.14 per 1,000

1.2 times this nameplate’s own median · from 229 complaints filed in the first three years, of 1680 ever. 95% lower bound 0.99.

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	0.26	20
2009	0.11	7
2010	0.81	46
2011	1.92	259
2012	0.92	138
2013	1.30	231
2014	1.14	229
2015	1.93	443
2016	2.70	672
2017	1.56	405
2018	0.45	119
2019	0.18	41
2020	1.64	339
2021	0.70	156
2022	0.60	129
2023	0.39	77

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 499 complaints

steering	483	97%
rack pinion	77	16%
steering gear	55	11%
explorers	48	10%
traction	48	10%
assist fault	43	9%

Unknown Or Other 337 complaints

exhaust	143	42%
fumes	74	22%
odor	57	17%
exhaust fumes	45	13%
carbon	44	13%
monoxide	43	13%

Structure 276 complaints

campaign structure	158	57%
notification campaign	153	55%
structure however	145	52%
amount recall	143	52%
part recall	142	51%
however part	140	51%

When it breaks

20% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 66,500 miles, from 1021 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

4 investigations covering this model year, 1 of which list a recall campaign. Owners had filed 13 complaints about this component over roughly 2 months before an investigation opened.

Front Brake Hose 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:

10533188 · 10536610 · 10537328 · 10551743 · 10552700 · 10553234

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 verified against a published figure.