2021 Ford ESCAPE - Ratings, Complaints and Recalls

The 2021 Ford Escape SUV FWD has an outstanding safety rating of 5 out of 5, making it one of the safest vehicles on the road. It excelled in front crash, side crash, and rollover tests, with impressive ratings across the board. Additionally, this model comes equipped with standard electronic stability control and lane departure warning, enhancing its safety features.

In terms of advanced safety features, the Escape offers optional forward collision warning, providing an extra layer of protection for drivers and passengers. Despite its top-notch safety ratings, it is essential to note that there have been 192 complaints and 8 recalls associated with this vehicle. This data suggests that while the Ford Escape is exceptionally safe, there have been some concerns raised by consumers that warrant attention.

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Top stats at a glance

Complaint Count

192

Recall Count

8

Investigation Count

2

Safety Rating

5/5

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Safety Features

2021 Ford Escape SUV FWD Safety Features

Here are the safety features that come as standard on the 2021 Ford Escape SUV FWD

Electronic Stability Control (ESC)

ESC is an advanced safety feature in vehicles designed to help drivers maintain control during challenging driving conditions. By continuously monitoring various factors such as steering angle, vehicle speed, and individual wheel speeds, ESC can detect and reduce the risk of skidding or loss of control. It achieves this by automatically applying brakes to specific wheels to stabilize the vehicle.

Standard
Forward Collision Warning (FCW)

Forward Collision Warning (FCW) is a safety feature in vehicles that helps prevent frontal collisions by alerting the driver of an imminent collision with a vehicle or obstacle ahead. Using sensors such as radar or cameras, FCW monitors the distance and speed of vehicles in front, and if it detects a potential collision, it provides visual and/or auditory warnings to prompt the driver to take evasive action.

Optional
Lane Departure Warning (LDW)

Lane Departure Warning (LDW) is a safety feature in vehicles that alerts drivers when their vehicle unintentionally drifts out of its lane without signaling. Utilizing cameras or sensors to monitor lane markings on the road, LDW detects when the vehicle crosses these lines and triggers visual, auditory, or haptic alerts to notify the driver of potential lane departure.

Standard

2021 Ford Escape SUV FWD Safety Ratings

Here we have the crash and rollover ratings for the 2021 Ford Escape SUV FWD Where possible we've included the ratings for the oldest and latest models of this car so you can compare how the safety ratings have changed over time.

Frontal Crash Ratings

Combines Driver and Passenger star ratings into a single frontal rating. The frontal barrier test simulates a head-on collision between two similar vehicles, each moving at 35 mph.

Test 2005 Score 2021 Score 2022 Score
Overall Front Crash Rating Not Rated 5 5
Front Crash Driver Side Rating 4 5 5
Front Crash Passenger Side Rating 4 5 5

Side Crash Ratings

Combines Side Barrier and Side Pole Star Ratings into a single side rating.

Test 2005 Score 2021 Score 2022 Score
Overall Side Crash Rating Not Rated 5 5
Side Crash Drivers Side Rating 5 5 5
Side Crash Passenger Side Rating 5 5 5
Combined Side Barrier Pole Rating - Front Not Rated 5 5
Combined Side Barrier Pole Rating - Rear Not Rated 5 5
Overall Side Barrier Rating Not Rated 5 5

Rollover Ratings

The Rollover Resistance test measures the risk of rollover in a single-vehicle, loss-of-control scenario.

Test 2005 Score 2021 Score 2022 Score
Rollover Rating 3 4 4
Rollover Possibility % 0% 0% 0%
Dynamic Tip Result Tip No Tip No Tip
Side Pole Crash Rating Not Rated 5 5

Complaints for the 2021 Ford ESCAPE

This chart show the number of complaints for each car component. A Higher number of complaints could indicate that this car might have a common fault. Something to look out for when purchasing one.

Component Complaints

Choose a component to see what complaints people have made about them.

Complaint:
"driver door hinge is not welded properly and when driving door opens"
Components Involved: STRUCTURE
Date of incident: 2023-01-12
Complaint:
"the contact owns a 2021 ford escape. the contact stated that the front driver’s side door was very difficult to open and close. additionally, the window would not properly roll up or down. the contact stated that the failure progressed, and the door could not be opened from inside the vehicle. the vehicle was taken to the local dealer and the contact was informed that the door needed to be replaced. the door was replaced; however, the failure reoccurred a year after the repair. the manufacturer was not notified of the failure. the failure mileage was 30,000."
Components Involved: STRUCTURE
Date of incident: 2023-01-06
Complaint:
"on the drivers side door, all of the rivets / welding have broken off creating a cracking / breaking sound every time the door opens. the door also will not stay open on its own, and often times will not open completely."
Components Involved: STRUCTURE
Date of incident: 2023-11-12
Complaint:
"this is 1 of 3 2020 - 2021 ford escapes that my company owns and is affected by this known issue with nhtsa and ford motor company as it relates to ford technical service bulletin (tsb) ssm 50150. the spot welds at the check arm attachment points on the driver door have failed. this has lead to a horrible noise and feeling when opening and closing our door. sometimes the door does not shut all the way making this a safety issue. the door is now hard to open and close. the window is also inoperable as it either won't roll down at all or, if it does roll down, it will now roll back up. this issue has been inspected by 2 dealerships and they are not allowing our premiumcare extended warranty to cover this. we have had 10's of escapes with 100,000+ miles and this has never been an issue. this has occurred in this 2021 escape and 2 of our other 2020 ford escapes (i will file complaints separately for them so nhtsa understands this is a massive issue ford needs to fix asap and reimburse any customers who have paid out of pocket to get this fixed). nhtsa needs to issue a recall immediately."
Components Involved: STRUCTURE
Date of incident: 2025-04-11
Complaint:
"drivers side door hinge broke, making it difficult to enter/exit the vehicle. note: was not due to any high wind or carelessness on my part. took to dealer this morning and they need to have body shop make repair!"
Components Involved: STRUCTURE
Date of incident: 2023-09-01
Complaint:
"passenger door hitch weld came off. i can’t open the door all the way and the window can’t be open.."
Components Involved: STRUCTURE
Date of incident: 2024-11-12
Complaint:
"the contact owns a 2021 ford escape. the contact stated that the front driver's and passenger's side doors failed to close properly. the contact had to forcefully close the doors. the vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic, who diagnosed that the front driver's and passenger's door welds had fractured. the independent mechanic replaced the front driver's and passenger's side door check arms. the contact stated that the front driver's side door check arm was previously replaced; however, the failure recurred. the manufacturer was made aware of the failure and a case was opened. the manufacturer advised the contact to file a complaint with the nhtsa hotline. the failure mileage was approximately 97,700."
Components Involved: STRUCTURE
Date of incident: 2024-06-12
Complaint:
"day after purchase of car, door was making noise. took it to location ford dealer only to be told it's the door check welds and it's $3k+ to replace the entire door. it's gotten so bad, i have to force door to shut."
Components Involved: STRUCTURE
Date of incident: 2024-06-12
Complaint:
"door is cracking only at 38k miles and the thing pops when i open and shut it on drivers side sounds like it’s going to fall right off"
Components Involved: STRUCTURE
Date of incident: 2025-03-12
Complaint:
"the driver's side door suddenly made a large popping noise when i opened it one day. since then, it continues to make this noise and sometimes won't close all the way. the driver's side window has also stopped working properly. it will go down just a couple of inches and stop - fortunately, it's been able to go back up but it seems to struggle so much to close that i just don't use it anymore on the chance that it won't go up at all. i looked online for suggestions and discovered that i am not the only one with this problem. i cannot afford to repair it, so i am just living with it and hope that it will close every time i use it. i am careful to make sure the door seems to be connected on the times it struggles to close properly so that it won't open while i'm driving. i can't use drive thrus anymore as the window doesn't work and the door is risky to close right. i see that an investigation has been opened and i would like to make you aware that i'm having the very same issue."
Components Involved: STRUCTURE
Date of incident: 2023-01-09

Recalls for the 2021 Ford ESCAPE

Component Recalls

Choose a component to see what recalls people have made about them.

Recall:
"ford motor company (ford) is recalling one 2021 escape vehicle equipped with a 2.5l hybrid powertrain. the high voltage battery may fail, resulting in a sudden loss of drive power."
Consequence:
A sudden loss of drive power increases the risk of a crash.
Remedy:

A dealer will replace the high voltage battery, free of charge. The owner notification letters were mailed December 1, 2021. Owners may contact Ford customer service at 1-866-436-7332. Ford's number for this recall is 21S48.

Component(s) Involved: ELECTRICAL SYSTEM > PROPULSION SYSTEM > TRACTION BATTERY
Date of incident: 2021-11-10
Recall:
"ford motor company (ford) is recalling certain 2022 corsair and 2021-2022 escape vehicles equipped with a 2.5l hybrid powertrain. the high voltage battery may fail, resulting in a sudden loss of drive power."
Consequence:
A sudden loss of drive power increases the risk of a crash.
Remedy:

Dealers will replace the high voltage battery, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed March 28, 2022. Owners may contact Ford customer service at 1-866-436-7332. Ford's number for this recall is 21S48.

Component(s) Involved: ELECTRICAL SYSTEM > PROPULSION SYSTEM > TRACTION BATTERY
Date of incident: 2022-03-11

FORD Overall Complaint Ranking

This table shows the ranking of car manufacturers when it comes to most complaints and recalls. The manufacturer with the most complaints is at the top. However this doesn't necassarily mean they should be avoided. Some manufacturers might just have more popular or affordable cars which a lot of people have bought. Which means there's more scope for a complaint to be made. Use the ranking table below as a part your wider research into buying a car.

FORD ranks 1 out of 44 in the complaints ranking table.

Manufacturer Complaint Count Recall Count Ranking
FORD 208,358 3,259 1
CHEVROLET 111,306 2,082 2
TOYOTA 81,019 1,852 3
HONDA 61,937 1,268 4
NISSAN 56,226 930 5
DODGE 45,756 827 6
HYUNDAI 44,150 649 7
GMC 34,441 1,410 8
KIA 29,832 501 9
CHRYSLER 27,698 254 10
TESLA 26,230 730 11
BMW 24,890 1,877 12
VOLKSWAGEN 23,125 829 13
MERCEDES-BENZ 19,066 2,925 14
SUBARU 18,513 703 15
MAZDA 10,599 364 16
PONTIAC 10,430 138 17
CADILLAC 9,434 444 18
AUDI 7,865 1,093 19
BUICK 7,851 279 20
SATURN 7,672 84 21
MERCURY 7,374 135 22
LEXUS 6,373 408 23
LINCOLN 5,897 423 24
ACURA 5,722 382 25
MINI 5,585 366 26
INFINITI 4,000 187 27
MITSUBISHI 3,912 397 28
VOLVO 3,875 727 29
PORSCHE 2,646 1,231 30
SUZUKI 2,272 123 31
FIAT 2,205 80 32
SAAB 1,536 76 33
JAGUAR 1,195 198 34
SMART 528 17 35
GENESIS 436 42 36
ISUZU 249 37 37
ALFA ROMEO 161 37 38
MASERATI 76 46 39
BENTLEY 46 159 40
POLESTAR 42 2 41
LUCID 14 6 42
CODA 4 2 43
MAYBACH 0 0 44

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