We have done quite a few of these articles on here where we examine the best and worst years of a certain vehicle, particularly aimed at people looking for something on the used car market. Typically, picking out the great model years and the terrible model years ends up being fairly cut and dry, especially with vehicles that have several decade-long lifespans that have clear peaks and valleys. However, sometimes they are particularly difficult. This usually means that it is difficult to find the bad years because a car has been made with such consistent quality. In this case, it is unfortunately the opposite.

The Ford Escape was first introduced for the 2001 model year and remains in active production to this day. You might think that with this long run that it has a long track record of quality, but no model year of the Escape has surpassed a 40 out of 100 reliability score from Consumer Reports. That being said, there are still plenty of drivers who stand behind the SUV wholeheartedly, and there are a number of model years that get good ratings from customers. If you are dead set on getting a used Ford Escape despite our plea to avoid this SUV, here are the four model years you should have at the top of your list and four that should never be considered ever by anyone.

To start off this list, we are going to the very last year of the first generation of the Ford Escape. Despite being nearly 20 years old by this point, the 2007 Escape has been a relatively unproblematic model year for the SUV, all things considered. Yes, the Consumer Reports scores for it are abysmal, as they are with every Escape model, but if you look beyond that, there is a lot of admiration out there for this model year, as well as a lack of reported issues out there. Right off the bat, we look at the average ratings from owners out there. 

Those rating the vehicle on Cars.com have the lowest opinion of it, giving it an average of 4.1 out of five stars. Those who rated it on Kelley Blue Book came out to an average of 4.4 stars, and Edmunds drivers are slightly higher at 4.5 stars. Drivers surveyed by J.D. Power were also quite positive, giving it an overall score of 79 out of 100 with a quality and reliability score of 82.

In terms of actual problems the drivers have documented with their 2007 Ford Escapes, the actual raw number of them is surprisingly low. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has fielded a total of 391 complaints for this model year. On CarComplaints, it has received 171 from drivers. That may seem like quite a lot for other vehicles, but for the Escape, that is extremely low. Plus, it has only been subject to four recalls. The 2007 Ford Escape is a decent starting place for your used car needs.

[Featured image by order_242 via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY-SA 2.0]

Just as the 2007 model ended the first generation on a high note, the 2012 Ford Escape is the very same thing for the second generation of the SUV, which was mostly unremarkable during its production time. This is the year, though, that gets the good marks from most of the places you look. No opinion is higher than that from the drivers on Cars.com, who have given it an average of 4.4 out of five stars. With a minuscule step down, Kelley Blue Book customers give it an overall rating of 4.3 stars. Owners rating it on Edmunds are the lowest with four stars, but that is still a perfectly serviceable customer average to get. These are some pretty good scores for a Ford Escape, all things considered.

The track record for submitted complaints to the NHTSA is not quite as stellar as the 2007 model, but the complaint numbers can still be much higher than they are with the 2012 Ford Escape. On the whole, there are 572 complaints against this model with a fuel/propulsion system malfunction being the biggest culprit, making up over 100 of the complaints. This year also has the second-fewest number of submitted issues of this generation on CarComplaints with 258 complaints, and rusting was the most common issue there. To its credit, the 2012 Ford Escape has only accrued two recalls in over a decade, and any car model out there would be happy with that. A solid entry in the Escape timeline.

[Featured image by MercurySable99 via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY-SA 4.0]

For the next two spots on this list, we are going to two different model years from the Ford Escape’s third generation. First up, we are looking to the 2017 Escape. This is the first model on this list that is not the last one made for a particular generation, though it is in the generation’s latter half. There is one average rating out there for the 2017 model, and that comes from drivers who have posted their reviews on Edmunds, giving it an average of 3.5 out of five stars. However, this is something of an outlier compared to the other ratings. Customers on Kelley Blue Book have given it an average of 4.4 stars, and those over on Cars.com are the highest on the model, with a rating of 4.6 stars.

The amount of complaints made to the NHTSA is not nearly as favorable as the previous two recommended models, as it has a total of 1,659 complaints. That is an extreme jump in numbers, but in the grand scheme of things for the Ford Escape, this is actually a fairly average number. To combat this, there are the quality and reliability rating provided by drivers surveyed by J.D. Power, which is a terrific 86 out of 100. That contributes to the overall rating of 84. There have also only been two recalls issued for the 2017 Ford Escape. Even though there isn’t the strongest consensus, there is plenty of respect from drivers for this model year.

[Featured image by TuRbO_J via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY 2.0]

For the last positive Ford Escape recommendation, we return to our pattern of choosing the last model year of a generation. In this case, that would be the 2019 Ford Escape that closed out the third generation and a three-year run of utilizing the 1.5-liter EcoBoost I4 engine. It also may be the best model year of them all. Just like the 2017 model, we have the customers on Edmunds on the low end of the spectrum, giving the 2019 Escape an average rating of 3.7 out of five stars. On the flip side, you have Cars.com customers boosting their average all the way to 4.7 stars, which is the highest out of any model year on the site except for the 2024 model that only has three reviews logged currently. Meanwhile, Kelley Blue Book drivers give it a 4.4 stars.

When it comes to reliability, there is a decent amount of data to signal that the 2019 Ford Escape is pretty solid. Overall, drivers surveyed by J.D. Power gave the model an overall score of 82 out of 100, but for quality and reliability, that rating was an 86. We also see the lowest number of complaints submitted to the NHTSA out of all of the years on this list, with a total of just 279 complaints, alongside only two recalls being issued for it. This is also the lowest number of complaints on CarComplaints of any year from the first three generations with just 25 complaints. This is maybe the best the Ford Escape has to offer.

[Featured image by TaurusEmerald via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY-SA 4.0]

Unfortunately, there were quite a few candidates that were able to make the second half of this list, as there are a pretty good number of model years for the Ford Escape that drivers have found quite a lot of issues with. To start off, we are going back to the first generation of the SUV with the 2005 Ford Escape. While there are some decent ratings for the model from drivers out there, the main reason why the 2005 model is appearing on this list is reliability. Across the board, this is one of the most problematic years for the Escape, with tons of driver complaints from several different sources.

First off, there are the complaints submitted to the NHTSA. The current total for these complaints is 1,580. That may be less than the 2017 model year, which was recommended as a good year, but there are other places where drivers submit their complaints too. Over on CarComplaints, drivers have registered 532 complaints with their 2012 Escapes, and that is over two and a half times the amount levied at that 2017 model. That number is the second most of any Ford Escape model ever made, and no car ever wants to be that high on a list focused on problems. You pair this with a Consumer Reports owner satisfaction score of one out of five, and the 2005 model is an easy pass.

[Featured image by Xetaicau via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY-SA 3.0]

If the Ford Escape has shown us that many of its best years are at the end of a generation for the SUV, the opposite is also true when it comes to a generation’s earliest years. For the next spot on the list, we are going to look at the 2008 Ford Escape, which kicked off the vehicle’s second generation. This was the very first year that Consumer Reports drivers gave the Escape a score for reliability, and things did not start off well as it earned an 19 out of 100 score, which is the second lowest of any Escape model. Drivers found problems ranging from oil leaks to needing brake replacement to rust to corroded door hinges. The only true positive these drivers found was the engine cooling system. Beyond that, it was mostly a disaster.

The number of complaints submitted to the NHTSA mirrors this as well, as it has accumulated a total of 2,371 complaints in its time. For these drivers, it was the total failure of the SUV’s power steering that caused the biggest issue, making up over 1,200 of the complaints. The 2008 Ford Escape is also the model year that has the most submitted complaints and problems on CarComplaints from drivers out of any model year with 622. Here, it is transmission failure that is the most common problem cited. When multiple places have found a ton of issues with a vehicle, but they can agree on what the biggest issue even is, that’s a sign to avoid getting that car.

[Featured image by IFCAR via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | Public Domain]

For this entry, we are actually going to bundle two consecutive years for the Ford Escape that were particularly bad, and once again, we come to the beginning of a new generation of the SUV, as the 2013 and 2014 models were the first two of its third generation. Beginning with the 2013, we see quite the decline in ratings from drivers. Those surveyed by J.D. Power gave this model its lowest score for an Escape with an overall 74 out of 100 with a reliability score of 68. By the typically favorable standards that J.D. Power drivers rate their vehicles, these are pretty terrible numbers. We also see a huge number of complaints regarding the model, accumulating over 2,600 submitted to the NHTSA and the third most of any model year on CarComplaints with 477 complaints. It’s also been subject to a whopping 17 recalls.

2014 wasn’t much better, and in the case of CarComplaints, the consensus there is that it is actually the worst year for the SUV, despite only having the fourth most complaints levied at it with 347. You see slightly better marks elsewhere, though still not good per se. The overall customer average from J.D. Power drivers was raised to a 79, which is still among the lowest for the Escape, and over 1,830 complaints have been received by the NHTSA. The 2014 Ford Escape doesn’t fare much better in the recall department, either, as it has undergone 15. It may be a good looking Ford, but it should be avoided.

[Featured image by IFCAR via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | Public Domain]

It has been made perfectly clear that drivers surveyed by Consumer Reports are not fans of the Ford Escape in any way. That being said, the poor ratings from that publication still have some variation among them, ranging from not very good to utterly awful. The 2021 Ford Escape is the one that ends up at the very bottom of that list. As expected, Consumer Reports gives this a one out of five owner satisfaction score, but the truly eye-popping score is what it gets for reliability: five out of 100. That is one of those scores that is so bad that it almost looks like a misprint. It doesn’t help matters that other SUVs in its class like the Hyundai Tucson and Toyota RAV4 (one of the best for the SUV) all have a reliability score of at least 80 out of 100 for this model year. This rating alone should scare away any potential buyers.

There are other poor driver ratings to be found as well. In just these few short years, already 270 different complaints have been submitted to the NHTSA from drivers. Making matters worse is that it is the actual structure of the vehicle that makes up around one-third of the complaints, signaling poor building from the outset. It doesn’t help either that the engine comes with the second most complaints. Overall, the 2021 Ford Escape has already been subject to nine recalls, which would be a lot for a model year that is a decade older than this one. Just because it’s newer doesn’t mean the 2021 Escape is worth your money.

In order to make this list, there needed to be some kind of consensus around these various model years for the Ford Escape from drivers, as they are the ones who have the day-to-day lived experience driving these vehicles. At the most basic level, the ratings, and reviews of drivers submitted to websites such as Edmunds, Kelley Blue Book, and Cars.com were used as an entry point to get the consensus of opinions for each individual model year. 

From there, the more detailed responses from drivers surveyed by the likes of J.D. Power and Consumer Reports were taken into account. This was especially important in determining the reliability of a particular model year, as reliability is arguably the most important factor when choosing something on the used vehicle market. To get an even clearer picture of each year’s reliability, the number of actual complaints from drivers was important, and sources such as the NHTSA and CarComplaints were vital in getting those numbers, as well as how many recalls a model year had been subject to. With all of these factors in play, these eight model years — four positive and four negative — were able to be selected.