Federal complaint record · Ford Escape · model year 2008

2008 Ford Escape

Owners submitted 1,972 federal complaint reports about this model year, placing it at the 96th percentile for complaint intensity within its 2006 to 2010 compact suv cohort. The largest reported component group is steering. Sample sizes and limitations are shown below.

Steering · 47% · group n = 1,131Powertrain · 14% · group n = 335Speed control · 7% · group n = 177Brakes · 6% · group n = 140Electrical · 6% · group n = 137
1,972
Complaint records on file
100,000
Median mileage at the reported problem · 1,707 complaints reported mileage
47%
Of classified component reports name steering · group n = 1,131
96th
Complaint-intensity percentile in a cohort of 38 model years

Steering · 5 in ten classified complaints

Where this record concentrates

All failure files
Component group 01 · Steering47%

Steering reports

Ford Escape · model year 2008

Reports in this group1,131
Share of classified reports47%
Component groups on file6
Open the failure files

Adjacent model years · same badge, different data

The complaint signal has a shape

Compare model years
2007
0.1complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
254 matched incidents
This car
2008
0.8complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
1,972 matched incidents
2009
0.7complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
1,691 matched incidents

The line compares submitted complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years, not failures per 1,000 cars. Vehicle-years use compiled US sales, a 0.25 prior-calendar-year plus 0.75 current-calendar-year model-year allocation, and the shipped survival curve. Rates appear only where estimated vehicles in operation are at least 5,000.

From the record · recurring narrative clusters

What recurring complaint clusters describe

How clusters are built
Steering effort · 911 reports

Reports describe steering effort or control concerns

Cluster 1 of 32008 Ford Escape
Transmission behavior · 221 reports

Reports describe harsh shifting, slipping, or shuddering

Cluster 2 of 32008 Ford Escape
Brake performance · 165 reports

Reports describe braking performance concerns

Cluster 3 of 32008 Ford Escape

Cluster summaries paraphrase recurring symptoms reported to NHTSA. They are aggregate descriptions, not individual verbatim reports.

Records through 2026-07-19Published 2026-08-02 · Updated 2026-07-19

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NHTSA consumer complaint records can reveal recurring patterns across published model years. MotorCensus summarizes those records as one complaint-signal index, with a 95% interval and sample size, updated with each data snapshot.

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