2013 Lincoln MKZ
This year drew an ordinary 223 complaints for a Lincoln MKZ — the model's median is 169. What they were about is the unusual part: 30.5% of them mention park, against 11.7% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 223 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 169 |
| Involving a crash | 8 |
| Involving a fire | 5 |
| Recalls | 13 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 25 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- park — 30.5% of this year's complaints, against 11.7% across the model's other years (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: park, driving car, hand, approx.
- seat — 14.3% of this year's complaints, against 5.3% across the model's other years (2.7×).
- belt — 10.8% of this year's complaints, against 2.5% across the model's other years (4.3×). Owners wrote it as: belt, seat belt, seat down, rear seat.
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 middle rear seat belt locks up when you fold the seat down and the only way to lift the seat is to remove the seat belt from the car and allow it to fully retract. But as soon as the seat get laid down again you have to repeat the process. There are multip…
I'VE OWNED THE CAR 4 YEARS, DECIDED TO HAUL SOMETHING, PUT THE BACK SEAT DOWN AND IT WON'T GO BACK UP. SEEMS THE MIDDLE SEAT BELT IS STUCK.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19V632000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
- 16V875000 SEAT BELTS Fixed free of charge.
- 17V210000 LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES Fixed free of charge.
- 14V597000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 15V250000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
- 15V246000 LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES Fixed free of charge.
- 14V164000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
- 13V594000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 13. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Lincoln MKZ 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 2013 Lincoln MKZ? What happened to yours?
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