2012 Ford Escape problems
NHTSA has received 799 complaints about the 2012 Ford Escape, and 20% of them involve fuel system. Next are steering (18%) and engine (10%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 799 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Fuel system 20% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 59 and 4
- Injuries and deaths
- 34 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 52,000 miles 561 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 | 104 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 88 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 122 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 80 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 52 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 48 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 27 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 21 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 16 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 2 |
| 200k+ miles | 1 |
What the data shows
Of the 561 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 52,000 miles. For fuel system specifically, the median reported mileage is about 54,000 miles (73 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 59 complaints mention a crash; 4 complaints mention a fire; 34 injuries reported.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2012 ranks 15th most-complained-about out of 25 model years of the Ford Escape with enough data (453 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 1 safety recall campaign.
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.
4 car pile up, my car in the middle, air bags came out driver was burned from the air bag and holes burned in air bag. Also passenger air bag was off due to child and it went off anyway.
On 3/23/13 my husband and I were stopped at a stop sign when a person hit us from behind at about 45 miles per hour, when this happened the front seats broke and fell into a laying position. This gave neither my husband nor me any support for our backs. I was taken to the hospital by ambulance and my husband drove there. We found out that I had a herniation above my already fuzed back. My husband was perfectly healthy but after the accident, he has now a cracked vertebrae and 2 herniated disks.
Tl* the contact owns a 2012 ford escape. The contact stated that while driving at 2 MPH and turning into a parking lot, another vehicle crashed into the rear quarter of the vehicle. Both vehicles were destroyed and none of the air bags in the contact's vehicle deployed. The contact also stated that the seat belt did not tighten on impact. The contact suffered neck, shoulder and facial injuries. The front seat passenger sustained severe internal head injuries and was diagnosed with a concussion.
I was never notified of the recall of my ford escape. The vehicle engine caught fire and went thru the dashboard and the car was destroyed. I had been paying a year for this auto and now have to buy another. I called ford after the fire to complain and that's when I learned of the recall. I lost my car and my personal belongings. I want to be compensated for this loss. The vehicle was parked at the time.
Was coming home from work, and parked the car in the driveway. The next day in the morning, when I turned the car on it started vibrating, which I though was from the cold temperature, but when I tried to drive it, the steering wheel wouldn't turn like normally. Had a mechanic come to look at it, and was told it was a problem with the electric power steering, and that this was a recognized problem with the electric power steering system in other escapes from different years.