Used Ford Fusion (and Fusion Hybrid): the years to avoid and the years to buy

The Ford Fusion has ten model years on record, and they sort themselves cleanly. Avoid the 2011 and 2012, which score 47 and 49 on 2,783 and 2,612 owner complaints, and avoid the 2016, which drops back to 47 on 1,686. Buy a 2018, 2019 or 2020: they score 83, 82 and 83 on 436, 371 and 178 complaints, with two or three recall campaigns each, and the 2018 has fewer than a third of the 2016's complaints despite being only two years newer. The 2013 to 2015 cars sit between the two groups, and the 2017 is the first year the site marks BUY.

2011 and 2012: the steering years

The first two years on record are the worst, and one component explains it. Steering accounts for 1,426 of the 2011 car's 2,783 complaints and 1,509 of the 2012 car's 2,612, more than half of each year's total. Ford's recall campaign 15V340000, filed on 2 June 2015, covers the electric power assist steering on 2011 and 2012 Fusions without the 3.5-litre engine, along with the same years' Taurus and Flex. Air Bags is second in both, at 330 and 436, and the campaigns behind that are the frontal inflator recalls: 16V384000 (31 May 2016), 17V024000 (10 January 2017), 19V001000 (7 January 2019), 21V081000 and 21E013000 (both 16 February 2021) and 21V158000 (10 March 2021). The 2011 car has nine recall campaigns, seven of them safety-critical; the 2012 has six, all six safety-critical. Engine and Power Train sit third and fourth on the 2011 at 276 and 268. Normalised for age, the two years run at 185.5 and 186.6 complaints for every year on the road, the highest rates of any Fusion.

2013 to 2016: a new car with an old problem

The second-generation Fusion arrived for 2013 and the record improves at first: 55 and 1,953 complaints in 2013, 60 and 1,427 in 2014, 64 and 1,059 in 2015. Steering is still the leading component in 2013 (418) and 2014 (343), and the recalls confirm it did not go away with the redesign: 15V250000 (28 April 2015) covers electric power assist steering on 2013 to 2015 cars, and 19V632000 (29 August 2019) extends the same repair to 2013 to 2016 cars sold or registered in a list of states. Then the 2016 car breaks the trend, scoring 47 on 1,686 complaints and 168.6 complaints per year on the road, worse than the 2013 on the normalised measure. What changed is the component mix. Engine leads the 2016 car at 460 and Power Train follows at 315, with Steering down to fourth at 184; Engine had already moved to the top of the list in 2015, at 278.

The recall campaigns for these years follow the components. 17V209000 (27 March 2017) covers 2013 and 2014 cars with the 1.6-litre turbocharged engine, for engine damage when driven with insufficient coolant. Three separate campaigns address the bushing that attaches the transmission shifter cable, which can detach and leave the car in a gear other than the one indicated: 18V471000 (16 July 2018) for six-speed automatics from 2013 to 2016, 19V362000 (13 May 2019) for the 2.5-litre cars of the same years, and 22V413000 (10 June 2022) covering 2015 and 2016 again. 18V167000 (12 March 2018) is for a steering wheel retaining bolt that can loosen on 2014 to 2018 cars. 16V875000 (5 December 2016) covers front seat belt anchor cables on 2013 to 2016 cars, and 23V162000 (10 March 2023) covers front brake hoses that can rupture on 2013 to 2018 cars. Each of the four years from 2013 to 2016 carries twelve recall campaigns, and the 2016 has six that are safety-critical.

The good years: 2017 to 2020

The 2017 car is the first BUY, at 73 on 1,104 complaints and four recalls, two of them safety-critical. Engine (392) and Power Train (308) still lead, and one of the four campaigns is 17V427000 (6 July 2017), for torque converter weld studs on cars with the 2.0-litre engine and six-speed automatic. The step from 2017 to 2018 is the largest in the whole table: the 2018 car has 436 complaints, two recalls and a score of 83, and its rate of 54.5 complaints per year on the road is less than half the 2017's 122.7. The 2019 car repeats that at 82 on 371 complaints, and the 2020, the last year of production, scores 83 on 178 complaints and 29.7 per year, with Power Train (66) the only component above 50. Engine still heads the 2018 and 2019 lists at 201 and 158, so the pattern that made the 2016 an AVOID never disappeared entirely; it thinned out. The recalls on the last two years are few and specific: 23V440000 (23 June 2023) for the battery energy control module on 2019 and 2020 plug-in hybrids, 25V442000 (27 June 2025) for rearview camera software, and 25V685000 (10 October 2025) for an engine block heater that can crack.

The Fusion Hybrid

The site scores the Ford Fusion Hybrid separately, and its scores are all BUY: 80 in 2011, 81 in 2012, 84 in 2013. Read the complaint counts before you act on that. The 2011 Hybrid has 2,869 complaints, the 2012 has 2,557 and the 2013 has 1,861, nearly the same as the petrol car in each year, and Steering leads every one of them at 1,436, 1,464 and 398. Whatever the score says, the 2011 and 2012 Hybrid record looks like the 2011 and 2012 petrol record, and I would treat those years with the same caution. From 2014 the Hybrid's record goes thin: the 2014 and 2015 cars score 90 and 89 on zero complaints with evidence marked low, and the 2016 to 2020 cars are DATA PENDING with no complaints and no recalls on file. There is nothing to conclude from those years except that the site cannot yet score them. The two recall campaigns on the Hybrid page are 14V736000 (18 November 2014), a transmission control module campaign that also covers 2014 and 2015 petrol cars, and 18V592000 (10 September 2018), for the charge cord supplied with the plug-in Energi. EPA combined economy is 38 miles per gallon for 2011 and 2012 and 42 from 2017, against 23 for the 2017 to 2020 petrol car.

What to check before you buy

• On any 2011 or 2012 car, petrol or Hybrid, confirm by VIN that 15V340000 (steering) and every frontal air bag inflator campaign have been completed. Drive it at parking speed and on a straight road and note any loss of assist or a steering warning on the cluster.
• On 2013 to 2016 cars, confirm the shifter cable bushing campaigns (18V471000, 19V362000 or 22V413000, depending on engine and year), then check that the car takes Park with the lever and holds on a slope without the parking brake.
• On 2014 to 2018 cars, ask for the 18V167000 steering wheel bolt repair record.
• On 2013 to 2018 cars, ask for 23V162000 (front brake hoses) and inspect the hoses for weeping at the fittings.
• On a 2013 or 2014 with the 1.6-litre engine, ask for 17V209000 and look at the coolant level and the overflow bottle; the recall exists because these engines were being driven with too little coolant.
• On a 2017 with the 2.0-litre engine and automatic, ask for 17V427000 (torque converter).
• On a 2019 or 2020 plug-in, ask for 23V440000 (battery energy control module).
• Door latch campaigns 15V246000, 17V210000, 20V177000 and 23V775000 cover various 2013 to 2016 cars; check that each door latches on the first try.

Summary

Avoid the 2011 and 2012 Fusion, whose steering complaints alone outnumber the whole record of any year after 2017, and avoid the 2016, which scores 47 on 1,686 complaints with Engine and Power Train leading. Buy a 2018, 2019 or 2020, which score 82 to 83 with two or three recalls apiece; the 2017 is acceptable at 73 if the torque converter recall is done. The 2013 to 2015 cars are CAUTION at 55 to 64 and are worth considering only with the steering and shifter cable campaigns documented. The Hybrid's 2011 to 2013 record mirrors the petrol car's, and its 2014 to 2020 record is too thin to score.