2020 Ford Mustang
This year drew an ordinary 234 complaints for a Ford Mustang — the model's median is 264. What they were about is the unusual part: 12.8% of them mention broke, against 4.1% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 2 of the Ford Mustang, which began in 2015 and ran to 2023. 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 | 234 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 264 |
| Involving a crash | 26 |
| Involving a fire | 10 |
| Recalls | 8 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 19 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- broke — 12.8% of this year's complaints, against 4.1% across the other years of this generation (3.1×). Owners wrote it as: broke, loose, inconvenience, posed.
- app — 8.5% of this year's complaints, against 3.2% across the other years of this generation (2.7×). Owners wrote it as: app, spark, ford app, soon.
- gears — 6.8% of this year's complaints, against 2.7% across the other years of this generation (2.5×). Owners wrote it as: gears, brand, brand new, 10r80.
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
IMRC actuator rod broke causing the air/fuel mix to be sporadic. Creating a misfire on random cylinders. Major loss of power and very jerky motions, causing the vehicle to loose control. Luckily it was on an open spacious road. Unfortunately this has been an o…
3 lug nuts on the front passenger side wheel snapped and broke off while driving in highway.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 20V306000 FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE Fixed free of charge.
- 20V573000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.
- 20V263000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 20V575000 BACK OVER PREVENTION Fixed free of charge.
- 22V382000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 23V727000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 25V442000 BACK OVER PREVENTION Fixed free of charge.
- 25V695000 BACK OVER PREVENTION Fixed free of charge.
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 2020 Ford Mustang? What happened to yours?
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