Federal complaint record · Ford Escape · model year 2009

2009 Ford Escape

Owners submitted 1,691 federal complaint reports about this model year, placing it at the 94th percentile for complaint intensity within its 2007 to 2011 compact suv cohort. The largest reported component group is steering. Sample sizes and limitations are shown below.

Steering · 35% · group n = 828Powertrain · 13% · group n = 302Engine · 12% · group n = 292Speed control · 12% · group n = 281Fuel system · 9% · group n = 203
1,691
Complaint records on file
90,000
Median mileage at the reported problem · 1,412 complaints reported mileage
35%
Of classified component reports name steering · group n = 828
94th
Complaint-intensity percentile in a cohort of 39 model years

Steering · 4 in ten classified complaints

Where this record concentrates

All failure files
Component group 01 · Steering35%

Steering reports

Ford Escape · model year 2009

Reports in this group828
Share of classified reports35%
Component groups on file6
Open the failure files

Adjacent model years · same badge, different data

The complaint signal has a shape

Compare model years
2008
0.8complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
1,972 matched incidents
This car
2009
0.7complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
1,691 matched incidents
2010
0.8complaints per 1,000 estimated vehicle-years
2,068 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 · 659 reports

Reports describe steering effort or control concerns

Cluster 1 of 32009 Ford Escape
Stalling or shutdown · 256 reports

Reports describe the vehicle stalling or shutting off while driving

Cluster 2 of 32009 Ford Escape
Loss of propulsion · 181 reports

Reports describe reduced power or hesitation while driving

Cluster 3 of 32009 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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