Ford Explorer

Published · Researched 2026-09-21

The Explorer is the rare SUV where the owner's manual should come with a VIN decoder and a recall lookup bookmarked. Not because it's a bad truck — owners rate it 4.35 out of 5 across all years and the 2025s get a perfect 5 — but because Ford spent the early 2020s turning the sixth generation into a case study in how not to launch a vehicle, and the paperwork is still catching up.

Here's the shape of it. The 2020 launch year (just outside our window, but it matters) racked up 1,066 NHTSA complaints and 29 recalls. The 2021 inherited the hangover: 423 complaints, 26 recalls, and — this is the one to actually worry about — a spot in the rear-axle mounting-bolt recall, where a fractured bolt can mean loss of drive power or a rollaway. That's the single genuinely dangerous defect in this car's recent history, and it covers 2020–2022 models. Then came the rearview-camera software recalls, including a 2025 re-recall of the earlier fix because the first fix was done wrong. Ford recalling its own recall is the kind of detail that tells you everything about this era of the company.

But the curve bends hard in the right direction. By 2023 the complaints were down to 108. The 2024 — the last year before the facelift — logged just 20 complaints and 6 to 10 recalls, earning the best reliability score of the generation. The 2025 facelift brought the good stuff (a 13.2-inch screen with Google built in, BlueCruise, fresh styling) and the predictable cost: 98 complaints and 20 recalls in year one, mostly electrical, mostly the new infotainment. New tech, new teething. Same as it ever was.

What owners actually talk about, when they're not filing NHTSA complaints, is refreshingly normal family-SUV stuff: roomy three rows, comfortable seats, the 3.0-liter V6's 400 horsepower in ST trim, cargo space that swallows a Costco run. The 2.3 EcoBoost's 300 horsepower is plenty for most buyers and the one to get if you value your fuel budget. Nobody is writing love letters, but nobody is writing breakup letters either — the 2022s hold a 4.9-owner rating and the vibe is "does the job, mostly."

The honest complaint list beyond the recalls: the 10-speed automatic shifts like it's guessing on the 2020–2022 cars (harsh, hesitant, roughly $2,500 if it needs real work around 27,000 miles); repair costs run about $732 a year against a $573 segment average — not ruinous, not great; and Ford's dealer service bays are currently the most congested in the industry thanks to the company's record recall volume across every model line. Your Explorer shares the waiting room with everything else Ford built lately.

The social pulse is split along a clean line: owners like the truck, databases distrust the early years. CarGurus' editorial side calls it "a strong choice... roomy, versatile," while the NHTSA-derived trackers flash their reddest colors at anything from 2020–2022. Both readings are correct. The question is only which model year you're standing in front of.

Value call: used prices tell the story plainly — $23,961 for a 2021, $28,021 for a 2022, $31,931 for a 2023, $34,757 for a 2024, $40,513 for a 2025. The 2024 is the buy: last pre-facelift year, quietest complaint record in the generation, prices flat year-over-year (it holds value best), and every early-6th-gen fix already baked in. The 2025 facelift costs about six grand more for a nicer screen and a fresh round of electrical teething — buy it only if the Google-built-in cabin tech matters to you. Against the usual suspects, the Highlander and Pilot cost more used and break less; the Explorer's whole pitch is that it's cheaper and the V6 is more fun.

Skip the 2021. Twenty-six recalls, four hundred-plus complaints, and a seat in the axle-bolt population is not a gamble worth taking to save eleven grand over a 2024. Buy the 2024, get the VIN's recall history printed before you sign, and you'll own the good version of a truck Ford spent five years debugging in public.