Ford Bronco

Which Ford Bronco years should you avoid?

Going by 1,431 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, the Ford Bronco years to avoid are 2022, 1996, 2023 and 2021.

• 2022386 complaints, 4.7× a typical Bronco year, most often about the wipers.
• 19963.2× the usual share of fires, crashes and deaths for a car of its age (23 fires, 6 crashes, 2 deaths).
• 2023230 complaints, 2.8× a typical Bronco year, most often about the wipers.
• 2021230 complaints, 2.8× a typical Bronco year, most often about the engine.

Too new to judge: 2025 and 2026. Complaints take a few years to arrive, so a new model year looks better than it is.

How this is worked out: each year is compared with a typical year of the same model, which takes most of the difference in sales out of it, and its share of serious failures is compared with every other car of the same model year, because older cars were complained about differently. A year needs 25 complaints to be judged at all. Complaints are unverified owner reports. Full method →