Ford Flex 2013

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

3.40 per 1,000

5.5 times this nameplate’s own median · from 92 complaints filed in the first three years, of 580 ever. 95% lower bound 2.70.

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
2009	1.16	45
2010	0.69	25
2011	0.62	19
2012	0.43	12
2013	3.40	92
2014	1.25	31
2015	1.01	22
2016	0.43	9
2017	0.13	3
2018	0.61	13
2019	0.31	7

What owners describe

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

Electrical System 201 complaints

door	165	82%
ajar	111	55%
door ajar	97	48%
lights stay	40	20%
door closed	37	19%
door sensor	29	15%

Steering 149 complaints

steering assist	46	31%
included	38	26%
fault	29	20%
displayed	19	13%
assist fault	18	12%
included recall	16	11%

Unknown Or Other 78 complaints

ajar	38	49%
door ajar	34	44%
alarm	25	32%
lights stay	11	15%
door sensor	10	13%
lock doors	10	13%

When it breaks

8% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 65,000 miles, from 435 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

No NHTSA investigation covers this model year.

That is not a clean bill of health, and not a criticism of the agency: investigations open for many reasons and complaint volume is only one of them.

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:

10476566 · 10522238 · 10526432 · 10531792 · 10532412 · 10533510

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.