2007 Ford Explorer
This year drew an ordinary 208 complaints for a Ford Explorer — the model's median is 568. What they were about is the unusual part: 10.6% of them mention driver seat, against 1.7% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 1 of the Ford Explorer, which began in 2006 and ran to 2010. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 208 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 568 |
| Involving a crash | 11 |
| Involving a fire | 5 |
| Recalls | 3 |
| EPA combined | 15.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- driver seat — 10.6% of this year's complaints, against 1.7% across the other years of this generation (6.1×). Owners wrote it as: driver seat, reach, seat moves, pedals.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
DRIVER'S SEAT MOVES BACKWARD WHILE DRIVING RESULTING IN DRIVER'S INABILITY TO REACH GAS/BREAK PEDALS. OCCURS AT TIMES WHEN HIT BUMPS, WHILE TURNING, AND/OR UNKNOWN REASONS. DEFINITELY A SAFETY ISSUE AND CAN RESULT IN TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS/FATALITIES. I CAN MAKE TH…
MY 2007 EXPLORER DRIVER SEAT MOVE AT WILL, FORWARD OR BACKWARD EVEN WHILE DRIVING. I AM SHORT AND THE POWER SEAT MOVES BACK TO WHERE MY FEET NO LONGER REACH THE PEDALS. THIS HAPPENS CONSISTENTLY WHEN DRIVING OR JUST STATIONARY WHILE CHANGING GEARS AND HAS BECO…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 07E104000 VISIBILITY Fixed free of charge.
- 10E043000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
- 07V181000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Ford Explorer was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2007 Ford Explorer? What happened to yours?
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