Coscienzios

Model years to avoid

Ford Mustang

What it says about you

Opinion

Rear-drive, loud, and it means something to you that it does not mean to the person selling it. There is a photograph of an older one somewhere.

Not measured, not from the data, and offered in fun. Everything below this is not.

22 model years on record, 6,405 complaints filed.

The years to look at closely: 2005 (speedometer). Everything else drew a normal number of complaints for this model.

What owners report, and when

Faults that dominated the complaints of more than one model year. Not the same question as which year to avoid — a car can have an ordinary number of complaints every year and have most of them be about the same thing.

  • shifting 2011, 2012, 2018, 2020 peak 38% of that year's complaints
  • fuel 2005, 2021, 2022 peak 25.5% of that year's complaints
  • transmission 2011, 2012 peak 29.4% of that year's complaints
  • check 2019, 2021 peak 21.7% of that year's complaints
  • wrench 2012, 2013 peak 11.4% of that year's complaints

Every year

  1. 2026 3 recalls 5 complaints
  2. 2025 5 recalls 14 complaints
  3. 2024 11 recalls 73 complaints
  4. 2023 6 recalls 0 complaints
  5. 2022 9 recalls 49 complaints
  6. 2021 6 recalls 110 complaints
  7. 2020 8 recalls 234 complaints
  8. 2019 6 recalls 253 complaints
  9. 2018 4 recalls 187 complaints
  10. 2017 6 recalls 264 complaints
  11. 2016 5 recalls 371 complaints
  12. 2015 11 recalls 436 complaints
  13. 2014 4 recalls 359 complaints
  14. 2013 6 recalls 271 complaints
  15. 2012 7 recalls 469 complaints
  16. 2011 5 recalls 466 complaints
  17. 2010 6 recalls 260 complaints
  18. 2009 6 recalls 181 complaints
  19. 2008 8 recalls 347 complaints
  20. 2007 9 recalls 615 complaints
  21. 2006 9 recalls 573 complaints
  22. 2005 speedometer 868 complaints

What does a Ford Mustang say about you?

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Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints — compared against itself rather than against other cars, so popularity and age do not decide the answer.