2005 Ford Ranger
This year drew an ordinary 289 complaints for a Ford Ranger — the model's median is 125. What they were about is the unusual part: 24.9% of them mention switch, against 5.6% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 289 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 125 |
| Involving a crash | 23 |
| Involving a fire | 5 |
| Recalls | 11 |
| EPA combined | 17.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- switch — 24.9% of this year's complaints, against 5.6% across the model's other years (4.4×). Owners wrote it as: switch, fuel, inertia, inertia switch.
- frame — 25.3% of this year's complaints, against 9.5% across the model's other years (2.7×). Owners wrote it as: frame, tire, rusted, spare.
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
THE REAR PORTION OF THE FRAME IS RUSTING AWAY AND THE LEAF SPRING SHACKLE FELL OFF WHILE DRIVING ON A CITY STREET CAUSING THE BED OF THE TRUCK TO FALL ONTO THE BUSTED SHACKLE. THE SPARE TIRE MOUNT IS RUSTED SO BAD THAT WE REMOVED THE SPARE TIRE TO AVOID LOOSIN…
FRAME ROTTED AWAY IN THE BACK SIDE, REAR LEAF SPRINGS FELL OFF, SPARE TIRE READY TO FALL OFF.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 21V076000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 21V081000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 17V787000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 17V788000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 16V036000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 15V322000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 11V352000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING Fixed free of charge.
- 09E025000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING
Showing 8 of 11. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Ford Ranger 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 Ranger? What happened to yours?
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