2008 Ford Escape problems
NHTSA has received 2,407 complaints about the 2008 Ford Escape, and 47% of them involve steering. Next are drivetrain & axles (9%) and cruise control (7%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 2,407 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Steering 47% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 80 and 9
- Injuries and deaths
- 74 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 98,000 miles 2,063 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 115 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 137 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 224 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 254 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 323 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 306 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 274 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 213 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 87 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 62 |
| 200k+ miles | 68 |
What the data shows
Of the 2,063 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 98,000 miles. For steering specifically, the median reported mileage is about 116,000 miles (961 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 80 complaints mention a crash; 9 complaints mention a fire; 74 injuries reported. Its complaints are less severe on average than those of 80% of model years in our database.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2008 ranks 9th most-complained-about out of 25 model years of the Ford Escape with enough data (808 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 3 safety recall campaigns.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
On 1/9/20 the car had its last dangerous malfunction of so many sense I purchased the vehicle from a dealership 10/18. The car was parked in a beach parking lot. As my son was getting ready to leave the parking lot he turned car on put car in drive slightly stepped on gas to begin pulling out and the car surged and accelerated full speed by itself. He lost all steering and had no breaks. He had absolutely no control of the vehicle. It went full speed into a parked car about 15 ft away! Both cars were totaled.
My wife was driving my 9 year old daughter to her karate class when there was suddenly a lot of vibration in the wheel.the steering wheel suddenly locked up causing my wife to lose power steering on a small turn. My wife was able to get our car off the road as there was a dirt pulloff to the side. We took it to a garage and they said this is a common problem. After doing research I found other car manufacturers will honor a recall for this same problem.
In 2014 received recall for steering and it was "reprogrammed" 0n 9/25/2016 complete failure of steering which was supposed to be "fixed" under the recall. Now since recall is closed, actual problem is not covered under the recall. Quoted 1500 to replace steering column. The failure occured when leaving a gas station, which made steering next to impossible.