2012 Ford Flex
This year drew an ordinary 64 complaints for a Ford Flex — the model's median is 144. What they were about is the unusual part: 34.4% of them mention power steering, against 9.7% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 64 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 144 |
| Involving a crash | 4 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 2 |
| EPA combined | 18 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- power steering — 34.4% of this year's complaints, against 9.7% across the model's other years (3.5×).
- said — 21.9% of this year's complaints, against 7.3% across the model's other years (3×).
- wheel — 20.3% of this year's complaints, against 7.8% across the model's other years (2.6×).
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
Complete loss of power steering and steering effectiveness. Warning message on display said “power steering assist fault”.
Recall on power steering rack and pinion but my model didn't get covered in this recall and this the second time my service advance track came on and it's totally hard to turn my steering and I took it to Ford dealership in merced ca just to see if the cam tur…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 16V247000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 15V340000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Ford Flex 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 2012 Ford Flex? What happened to yours?
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