all vehicles · every F-Series year · method

Ford F-Series 2012

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

0.81 per 1,000

1.1 times this nameplate’s own median · from 500 complaints filed in the first three years, of 2320 ever. 95% lower bound 0.74.

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	0.52	269
2009	0.23	107
2010	0.45	210
2011	0.80	445
2012	0.81	500
2013	0.53	373
2014	0.32	244
2015	0.57	438
2016	0.70	557
2017	1.29	1106
2018	0.96	869
2019	1.25	1126
2020	0.36	304
2021	0.77	585
2022	0.89	612
2023	0.73	512

What owners describe

Phrases over-represented in these complaints compared with the same component on every other vehicle. Counts are complaints containing the phrase.

Power Train 710 complaints

downshifted	167	23%
first gear	148	21%
lead	97	14%
frame	96	14%
speedometer	90	13%
lead frame	86	12%

Engine 573 complaints

truck	294	51%
ecoboost	121	21%
pass	107	19%
rain	54	9%
ecoboost engine	51	9%
passing	51	9%

Steering 415 complaints

truck	195	47%
wobble	129	31%
death	122	29%
death wobble	109	26%
violently	82	20%
bump	69	17%

When it breaks

26% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 64,632 miles, from 1891 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, 3 of which list a recall campaign. Owners had filed 665 complaints about this component over roughly 76 months before an investigation opened.

Brake Vacuum Pump 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:

10440155 · 10451899 · 10452914 · 10453331 · 10453990 · 10454934

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.