2012 Ford Fusion
This year drew an ordinary 2,610 complaints for a Ford Fusion — the model's median is 1,949. What they were about is the unusual part: 48.2% of them mention power steering, against 1.1% across the other years of this generation.
Last year of its generation. This Ford Fusion ran from 2006 to 2012, so it had the whole run for its faults to be found and fixed. Last years are usually the most sorted of a generation.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 2,610 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 1,949 |
| Involving a crash | 111 |
| Involving a fire | 9 |
| Recalls | 6 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 23.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- power steering — 48.2% of this year's complaints, against 1.1% across the other years of this generation (43.3×).
- assist — 20.7% of this year's complaints, against 1.4% across the other years of this generation (15.2×). Owners wrote it as: assist, steering assist, fault, assist fault.
- steering wheel — 28.3% of this year's complaints, against 6.1% across the other years of this generation (4.6×). Owners wrote it as: steering wheel, difficult, became, difficult turn.
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
WHILE DRIVING 55 MPH, THE STEERING WHEEL SEIZED. THE CONTACT MENTIONED THAT THE STEERING WHEEL BECAME DIFFICULT TO STEER AND THE POWER STEERING ASSIST FAULT WARNING INDICATOR ILLUMINATED. THE VEHICLE WAS NOT TAKEN TO A LOCAL DEALER OR INDEPENDENT MECHANIC FOR…
while driving at an undisclosed speed and making a left or right turn, the steering wheel became difficult to maneuver. The power steering assist fault warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic where the cause of the failu…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19V001000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 17V024000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 15V340000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
- 21V158000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 21E013000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 21V081000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Ford Fusion 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 Fusion? What happened to yours?
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