Total Complaints
3 filings
Ford Expedition · model year
3 NHTSA complaints. A VIN lookup is required to determine whether a specific vehicle has an unrepaired recall.
NHTSA overall rating
Not crash-tested
New Car Assessment Program
The verdict
The 1996 Ford Expedition posts top-10% complaint standing among its own model-year siblings.
The 1996FordExpedition carries 3 consumer safety complaints in NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation database for this specific model-year cohort. Within that volume, owners reported 0 crashes, 1 fire, 0 injuries, and 0 fatalities. No NCAP 5-star crash-test rating is available for this model year in the federal database.
The most frequently selected component label in reports for the 1996 Expedition is tires:tread/belt with 1 filings, followed by vehicle speed control:cruise control (1) and electrical system:ignition:anti-theft:control module (1). Complaint categories reflect owner reports and intake categorization; they do not establish a defect pattern or cause.
NHTSA currently has 4 investigation files overlapping the 1996 Expedition. Owners comparing this cohort against neighboring years should read the complaint-by-year trend as report volume, not a causal diagnosis. Use the related-complaint feed and the official recall lookup when researching a specific vehicle.
PlainCars' own composite of NHTSA NCAP crash-test ratings and rollover-risk assessment, each dimension normalized against the federal scale or the full national model-year corpus. Not an official NHTSA figure, and not a substitute for a specific vehicle's VIN-level recall check.
Total Complaints
3 filings
Crashes Reported
0 reports
Source
NHTSA ODI
Federal complaints database
At or below the fleet median complaint volume.
| Component | Count |
|---|---|
| TIRES:TREAD/BELT | 1 |
| VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL:CRUISE CONTROL | 1 |
| ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:IGNITION:ANTI-THEFT:CONTROL MODULE | 1 |
TL* THE CONTACT OWNS A 1996 FORD EXPEDITION. WHILE DRIVING 40 MPH, THE ANTI-THEFT WARNING LIGHT ILLUMINATED AND THE VEHICLE STALLED. THE CONTACT WAS ABLE TO RESTART THE VEHICLE; HOWEVER THE ANTI-THEFT LIGHT REMAINED BLINKING. THE CONTACT WAS UNABLE TO DRIVE THE VEHICLE. THE VEHICLE WAS NOT DIAGNOSED OR REPAIRED. THE MANUFACTURER WAS NOT NOTIFIED OF THE FAILURE. THE APPROXIMATE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 100,000.
Mileage: 100,000
TL*THE CONTACT OWNS A 1996 FORD EXPEDITION. LAST YEAR, THE CONTACT RECEIVED A RECALL NOTICE FOR THE VEHICLE SPEED CRUISE CONTROL SWITCH. SHE HAD THE RECALL REPAIR PERFORMED. ONE YEAR LATER, THE VEHICLE CAUGHT FIRE WHILE IDLING. AN INSPECTOR FROM FORD STATED THAT THE FIRE ORIGINATED FROM THE CRUISE CONTROL SWITCH; HOWEVER,THEY WOULD NOT ASSUME LIABILITY BECAUSE THEY REPAIRED THE VEHICLE ONCE ACCORDING TO THE RECALL. THE POWERTRAIN AND RECALL NUMBER WERE UNKNOWN. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 50,000 AND CURRENT MILEAGE WAS 105,000.
Mileage: 50,000
THE CONSUMER'S COMPLETED STREET ADDRESS IS: 8535 RED HILL COUNTRY CLUB DRIVE. THE CONSUMER STATED THAT SHE AND HER SISTER WERE IN THE VEHICLE TALKING, WHILE DRIVING ON THE HIGHWAY, WHEN THE CONSUMER ACCELERATED TO PASS ANOTHER VEHICLE THE STEERING WHEEL STARTED TO VIBRATE INTENSELY. THE CONSUMER STRUGGLED TO MAINTAIN CONTROL AND PULLED TO THE SIDE OF THE ROAD. THE SISTER VISUALLY INSPECTED THE VEHICLE AND SAW THAT THE TIRE SEEMED TO BE INFLATED. SO THEY PROCEEDED WITH THE STEERING WHEEL STILL VIBRATING, TRAVELING AT ABOUT 10-15 MPH TO A GAS STATION. (A SHORT DRIVING TEST WAS PERFORMED, AND THE CONSUMER WAS SHOWN THE INSIDE OF THE LEFT TIRE, THERE WAS BULDGING FROM THE SPLINTERED TREAD AND A HUGE BUBBLE)-THE CONSUMER WAS TOLD THAT THIS WAS EVIDENCE OF A DEFCTIVE TIRE. THE SECOND INCIDENT HAPPENED ON THE FOLLOWING DAY OF THE REPAIRS. SEVERAL HOURS INTO THE TRIP, DRIVING AT A HIGH SPEED OF TRAFFIC, THE VIBRATION IN THE STEERING WHEEL STARTED AGAIN. WHEN THE CONSUMER AND SISTER IN
Data vintage: August 2026. Sources: NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) complaints database, NHTSA recall campaign API, NHTSA NCAP crash-test ratings, and NHTSA FARS for fatality cross-reference.
Every figure on PlainCars is rendered directly from NHTSA complaint and safety data, no number is typed in by an editor. This year-specific record is rendered from NHTSA ODI, recall, and NCAP rows for the 1996 Ford Expedition; no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of August 2026.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.