Ford Mustang

Which Ford Mustang years should you avoid?

Going by 8,912 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, the Ford Mustang years to avoid are 2005, 2007, 1995, 2020 and 2012.

• 2005705 complaints, 3.1× a typical Mustang year, most often about the airbags.
• 2007615 complaints, 2.7× a typical Mustang year, most often about the airbags.
• 1995602 complaints, 2.7× a typical Mustang year, most often about the engine.
• 20202.5× the usual share of fires, crashes and deaths for a car of its age (5 fires, 13 crashes).
• 2012469 complaints, 2.1× a typical Mustang year, most often about the airbags.

1 more year cleared the same bar; it is marked in the table below.

Better bets: among years old enough for a low count to mean something, the 2021 and 2019 drew the fewest complaints without an unusual share of serious ones.

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 →