2015 Lincoln MKZ
This year drew an ordinary 154 complaints for a Lincoln MKZ — the model's median is 210. What they were about is the unusual part: 36.4% of them mention situation, against 14.4% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 154 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 210 |
| Involving a crash | 10 |
| Recalls | 11 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 25 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- situation — 36.4% of this year's complaints, against 14.4% across the model's other years (2.5×). Owners wrote it as: situation, lights illuminated, hitting, try.
- middle — 21.4% of this year's complaints, against 6.1% across the model's other years (3.5×). Owners wrote it as: middle, horn, june, flaw.
- drove — 18.8% of this year's complaints, against 7.3% across the model's other years (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: drove, turned off, front bumper, more than.
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
IN SUDDEN EMERGENCY SITUATIONS, WHEN ONES REACTION TO HITTING THE HORN TO GET THE OTHER DRIVERS ATTENTION, THE HORN DOES NOT WORK. AFTERWARDS I WOULD TRY THE HORN IN A NON-EMERGENCY SITUATION WHEN ONE HAS TIME TO LOOK, THINK AND PRESS THE HORN BOTTON, LOWER MI…
THIS CAR BECOMES UNCONTROLLABLE ON A SNOW ROAD. IT CAN'T MAKE A TURN WHEN YOU NEED IT. IT GOES VERY UNSTABLE ON A STRAIGHT ROAD. I WASN'T ABLE TO STOP ON A RED LIGHT , AND I WASN'T ABLE TO MAKE A LEFT TURN, TWICE ON ONE 12 MILES TRIP. FIRST I DROVE WITH LITTLE…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19V632000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
- 19V590000 SEAT BELTS Fixed free of charge.
- 16V875000 SEAT BELTS Fixed free of charge.
- 18V167000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
- 15V250000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
- 15V248000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING Fixed free of charge.
- 20V177000 LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES Fixed free of charge.
- 20E025000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 11. 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 2015 Lincoln MKZ? What happened to yours?
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