2005 Ford Mustang
Complaints about this year name speedometer far more often than the other years of this generation — 19% of them, about 47× the usual rate of 0.4%.
First year of a new generation. The Ford Mustang was redesigned for 2005. A first year carries problems nobody has found yet, and they are found by the people who buy it — which is worth knowing before you become one of them.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 868 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 260 |
| Involving a crash | 40 |
| Involving a fire | 8 |
| Recalls | 9 |
| EPA combined | 18.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- speedometer — 34.2% of this year's complaints, against 6.6% across the other years of this generation (5.2×). Owners wrote it as: speedometer, gauge, working, cluster.
- gauges — 10.4% of this year's complaints, against 0.2% across the other years of this generation (51.8×). Owners wrote it as: gauges, temp.
- fuel — 15.1% of this year's complaints, against 1.4% across the other years of this generation (10.8×).
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.
Also unusual this year
- gauge — 15% of complaints, 37× usual
- cluster — 11% of complaints, 28× usual
- fuel — 15% of complaints, 11× usual
What owners wrote
INSTRUMENT CLUSTER (PANEL) - SPEEDOMETER, TACHOMETER, FUEL GAUGE ALL NOT WORKING. CAN'T TELL HOW FAST I AM GOING OR HOW MUCH GAS I HAVE ECT ALL 6 GAUGES DO NOT REGISTER AT ALL.
THE INSTRUMENT PANEL WAS INOPERABLE INCLUDING THE FUEL, [VIN] AND SPEEDOMETER GAUGES. BOTH THE DEALER AND [VIN] ADVISED THE CONTACT TO REPLACE THE INSTRUMENT CLUSTER AND ADVISED HER THAT THERE WERE NO RECALLS ASSOCIATED WITH THE FAILURE. THE VEHICLE WAS NOT RE…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 21V081000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 21E013000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 17V024000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 16V384000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 15V319000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 08V082000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 09E025000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING
- 09E012000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING
Showing 8 of 9. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Ford Mustang 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 2005 Ford Mustang? What happened to yours?
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