Ford F-150

Which Ford F-150 years should you avoid?

Going by 38,358 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, the Ford F-150 years to avoid are 2000, 2013, 1997, 2001 and 2018.

• 20004.2× the usual share of fires, crashes and deaths for a car of its age (343 fires, 81 crashes, 1 death).
• 20132,994 complaints, 3.6× a typical F-150 year, most often about the transmission.
• 19972,758 complaints, 3.3× a typical F-150 year, most often about the engine.
• 20013.2× the usual share of fires, crashes and deaths for a car of its age (248 fires, 91 crashes, 7 deaths).
• 20182,327 complaints, 2.8× a typical F-150 year, most often about the transmission.

5 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 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 →