2018 Ford Fusion
This year drew an ordinary 493 complaints for a Ford Fusion — the model's median is 2,048. What they were about is the unusual part: 31.2% of them mention intrusion, against 12.1% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 2 of the Ford Fusion, which began in 2013. 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 | 493 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 2,048 |
| Involving a crash | 17 |
| Involving a fire | 2 |
| Recalls | 2 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 25 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- intrusion — 31.2% of this year's complaints, against 12.1% across the other years of this generation (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: intrusion, coolant intrusion, program, 21n12.
- customer — 10.3% of this year's complaints, against 3.4% across the other years of this generation (3×).
- cylinders — 8.9% of this year's complaints, against 3.5% across the other years of this generation (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
upon taking the vehicle into the dealer for an oil change, the contact was informed that the engine was empty of coolant. No warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, who determined coolant intrusion had caused damage to the cylinde…
while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle briefly began to shake violently before returning to normal functionality. The check engine warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, who determined that coolant intrusion into variou…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 18V167000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
- 23V162000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC 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 2018 Ford Fusion? What happened to yours?
Loading comments…