Car Issues Tracker
Vehicle complaints, recalls & safety data — sourced from NHTSA

Ford Explorer: Problems & Recalls by Model Year

Owners have filed 13,759 NHTSA complaints across the 9 Explorer model years we track. The 2016 model year has the most on file.

Data: NHTSA · Retrieved September 7, 2026

Complaints on file by model year
Click a year for the full breakdown
2011
1,195
2012
826
2013
2,231
2014
1,674
2015
1,774
2016
2,443
2017
1,691
2018
724
2020
1,201
Older model years have had more time to accumulate complaints — compare adjacent years, not endpoints.

Model year pages

2011 Explorer1,195 complaints · 8 recalls · 4 investigations 2012 Explorer826 complaints · 7 recalls · 4 investigations 2013 Explorer2,231 complaints · 12 recalls · 6 investigations 2014 Explorer1,674 complaints · 7 recalls · 4 investigations 2015 Explorer1,774 complaints · 9 recalls · 5 investigations 2016 Explorer2,443 complaints · 15 recalls · 2 investigations 2017 Explorer1,691 complaints · 14 recalls · 2 investigations 2018 Explorer724 complaints · 7 recalls · 2 investigations 2020 Explorer1,201 complaints · 33 recalls · 3 investigations