2012 Ford Taurus
This year drew an ordinary 78 complaints for a Ford Taurus — the model's median is 187. What they were about is the unusual part: 19.2% of them mention structure, against 5.4% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 78 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 187 |
| Involving a crash | 1 |
| Involving a fire | 3 |
| Recalls | 5 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 20.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- structure — 19.2% of this year's complaints, against 5.4% across the model's other years (3.6×). Owners wrote it as: structure, amount time, structure however, time recall.
- area — 14.1% of this year's complaints, against 4.7% across the model's other years (3×). Owners wrote it as: area, test, blind, alert.
- allow — 6.4% of this year's complaints, against 1% across the model's other years (6.5×). Owners wrote it as: allow, government, years ago.
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 RECALL NOTICE FOR NHTSA CAMPAIGN NUMBER: 15V040000 (STRUCTURE) WAS RECEIVED IN MARCH OF 2015. AFTER CONTACTING THE DEALER AND THE [VIN] ON MULTIPLE OCCASIONS, THE CONTACT WAS INFORMED THAT THE PARTS NEEDED TO REPAIR THE VEHICLE WERE STILL NOT AVAILABLE AND…
NOTIFICATION OF A [VIN] RECALL ON THE STRUCTURE OF THE VEHICLE AND THE PART WAS NOT AVAILABLE FOR SEVERAL MONTHS. THE DEALER DID NOT GIVE A SPECIFIC DATE FOR WHEN THE PART WOULD BECOME AVAILABLE. THE [VIN] WAS CONTACTED AND COULD NOT PROVIDE AN ESTIMATED DATE…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 15V040000 STRUCTURE Fixed free of charge.
- 14V285000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING Fixed free of charge.
- 15V340000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
- 16V247000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 13V109000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Ford Taurus 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 2012 Ford Taurus? What happened to yours?
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