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818 owners have filed defect reports on this one. That's not a small number. 1 active recall campaign on file.
Average for the segment. Some recurring trouble spots worth knowing about.
Worth owning if you verify the specific issues below before you buy.
Our read of the federal NHTSA complaint and recall record for this exact year and model — not a substitute for a pre-purchase inspection. How we score.
The contact owns a 2012 Ford Explorer. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 24V031000 (Structure); however, the part to do the recall repair was unavailable. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall…
After a recall free fixed, the car its showing the samething problem, but the dealershi say now I should to pay because 4 years ago was fix it....
This is a safety issue - air bags could malfunction at anytime due to miscommunication within the system. Air bags can deploy at anytime or can fail to deploy when necessary. Air bag light turns on and stays on. According to Ford dealer this is a known issue but has not yet…
The contact owns a 2012 Ford Explorer. The contact stated upon starting the vehicle, the steering wheel was locked. The message "Power Steering Assist Fault" was displayed. The contact turned off and restarted the vehicle per the owner's manual; however, the failure persisted.…
Drag to your current mileage. Numbers are derived from this vehicle's complaint history.
The inability to steer the vehicle increases the risk of a crash.
It's got known weak points. With a reliability score of 6.6 out of 10 based on 818 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, the 2012 Ford Explorer has a higher-than-average rate of reported issues. The areas to watch are listed above. Whether it's worth owning depends on price, condition, and how much repair exposure you can absorb.
The 2012 Ford Explorer is acceptable, with specific caveats. Worth owning if you verify the specific issues below before you buy. The record behind that call: Electrical system: 34 complaints, classified severe, failures cluster 23,400–111,000 mi; Reliability score 6.6/10 — around the segment average; 1 recall campaign on file. This is our read of the federal complaint and recall data — not a substitute for a pre-purchase inspection.
Based on NHTSA records, the most-reported issue is steering, with 355 complaints filed. Typical failure occurs around 91,036 miles. Average repair cost runs about $700 at an independent shop.
The steering is one of the costlier repair items. Average repair cost runs about $700 at an independent shop. Typical failure occurs around 91,036 miles. Catching early warning signs can sometimes extend life by 20–30,000 miles.
Paste your VIN into the decoder at the top of this page. We pull live from NHTSA, so you'll see exactly which campaigns apply to your vehicle and whether the dealer has logged the fix. Recall repairs are always free regardless of mileage or warranty status.
Math is straightforward: a quality service contract runs $1,800–3,500 over 3 years. With 818 complaints on file and the costliest repair averaging $700, one major failure more than pays for it. The catch is reading the contract — many providers exclude wear items and require pre-authorization, so cheaper plans are not always better value.