Ford Expedition

Which Ford Expedition years should you avoid?

Going by 9,407 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, the Ford Expedition years to avoid are 2000, 2001, 1999, 1997 and 1998.

• 2000890 complaints, 3.3× a typical Expedition year, most often about the electrical system; and 2.6× the usual share of fires, crashes and deaths for a car of its age (199 fires, 55 crashes, 2 deaths).
• 2001578 complaints, 2.1× a typical Expedition year, most often about the engine; and 2.5× the usual share of fires, crashes and deaths for a car of its age (95 fires, 38 crashes, 5 deaths).
• 1999946 complaints, 3.5× a typical Expedition year, most often about the engine.
• 1997853 complaints, 3.2× a typical Expedition year, most often about the suspension.
• 1998836 complaints, 3.1× a typical Expedition year, most often about the suspension.

3 more years cleared the same bar; they are marked in the table below.

Better bets: among years old enough for a low count to mean something, the 2011, 2013 and 2022 drew the fewest complaints without an unusual share of serious ones.

Too new to judge: 2025, 2026 and 2027. 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 →