2014 Ford Flex
This year drew an ordinary 249 complaints for a Ford Flex — the model's median is 139. What they were about is the unusual part: 20.1% of them mention fuel, against 2.4% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 249 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 139 |
| Involving a crash | 11 |
| Involving a fire | 2 |
| Recalls | 4 |
| EPA combined | 19 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- fuel — 20.1% of this year's complaints, against 2.4% across the model's other years (8.4×).
- electric — 7.6% of this year's complaints, against 1.3% across the model's other years (5.7×). Owners wrote it as: electric, came back.
- difficult — 8.8% of this year's complaints, against 3.5% across the model's other years (2.5×). Owners wrote it as: difficult, very difficult, great.
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
STEERING INTERMITTENTLY BECOMES VERY DIFFICULT WITH GREAT EFFORT REQUIRED TO TURN STEERING WHEEL. STEERING WHEEL ALSO WILL FAIL TO ACCURATELY CONTROL STEERING. WHEEL WILL JERK IN HANDS. PROBLEM OCCURS WHEN STATIONARY AND WHEN DRIVING AT LOW TO MEDIUM SPEEDS.
PASSENGER AJAR SENSOR IS FAULTY, CONSTANTLY REMAINING ON. THIS KEEPS ALL LIGHTING ON WHEN REVERSING POSING A GREAT RISK WHEN BACKING THE VEHICLE UP ESPECIALLY IN EVENING HOURS. WE HAVE BEEN TOLD THIS IS A COMMON PROBLEM WITH NEWER FORD VEHICLES AND OUR SURPRIS…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 16V621000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 14V710000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
- 14V393000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 20V072000 SUSPENSION 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 2014 Ford Flex? What happened to yours?
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