2020 FORD ESCAPE — Complaint #2177181
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ELECTRICAL SYSTEM filed February 16, 2026
NHTSA complaint #2177181 (ODI reference 11718222) concerns a 2020 FORD ESCAPE and was filed on February 16, 2026. The owner reports the failure occurred on January 16, 2026. The report was geocoded to Ohio based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as electrical system, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same FORD ESCAPE cohort independently describe similar electrical system failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2020 FORD ESCAPE shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The transmission shifting got increasingly rough over time, and then suddenly refused to shift into gear/reverse. The Ford shop told us it was the reverse solenoid, but it ended up requiring a full transmission rebuild. Safety of the car refusing to shift gears led to loss of power several times, unable to accelerate in traffic, until total failure occurred. Problem was inspected by Ford dealership, then repaired by independent service center due to cost. Not inspected by insurance, as it did not result in a collision. Warning lamps did not turn on until total failure occurred. Then lights on gear shift dial blinked, refused to allow us to put the car in gear. Dash lights also indicated "check engine" at that time, but no earlier.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2177181 |
| ODI Number | 11718222 |
| Date Filed | February 16, 2026 |
| Failure Date | January 16, 2026 |
| VIN | 1FMCU0G6XLU |
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Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.