Complaint volume
1435 consumer-submitted complaints are matched to this model year. Treat the count as a research signal, then read the actual summaries for repeated symptoms.
Complaint records
2020 Ford Escape Complaints
1435 consumer-submitted complaints on record for the 2020 Ford Escape, grouped by component category.
1435 Total complaints
19 Crash reports
3 Fire reports
22 Injury reports
Complaint data reflects consumer-submitted reports. A complaint is not proof
of a defect, recall, or manufacturer fault. Enriched severity fields come
from official bulk records when the complaint can be matched by ODI number.
Buyer interpretation
How to use these complaints before buying
Complaint records are most useful when they turn into inspection points, seller questions, and comparison checks against nearby model years.
Pattern to inspect
The most common categories are structure, unknown or other, power train. Use those categories as a test-drive checklist instead of judging the vehicle from the total count alone.
Severity flags
Enriched records include 19 crash reports, 3 fire reports, 22 injury reports, and 0 fatality reports. These fields come from complaint records and should be read in context.
Mileage clue
Mileage is available on 305 complaints, with an average reported failure mileage of 45,215 miles. Compare that with the mileage on the listing.
Questions to ask the seller
- Have you had any problems related to structure, unknown or other, power train?
- Can I see recent maintenance and repair records?
- Has the vehicle ever been towed, involved in a crash, or repaired for the same issue twice?
- Can we also check the recall record for this 2020 Ford Escape?
Used-car checklist
Use these complaints before the test drive.
Build a buyer checklist to turn these issues into questions and inspection points.
2020 Ford Escape
Build buyer checklist Compare with other years Sends year, make, and model to pre-fill your checklist.
How severe are the 2020 Ford Escape complaints?
19 Crash
3 Fire
22 Injury
0 Fatality
30 Towed
9 Medical attention
What are the most common 2020 Ford Escape complaint categories?
STRUCTURE 503
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 187
POWER TRAIN 110
FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE 80
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 38
STRUCTURE,UNKNOWN OR OTHER 34
ENGINE 30
LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES 26
FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM 18
VISIBILITY/WIPER 18
1,435 total complaints on record
Latest complaints
| Date | Component | Summary | Severity | Mileage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | I have a moon roof with a canopy covering it, when you open the moon roof the canopy retracts also, my canopy retracts but came apart from the tracks on each side which causes the canopy to drop down and block the rear view mirror, which is definitely a safety hazard. I contacted Ford and no recall or TSB is available . I'm not the only one with this problem, this could cause a serious accident not being able to see behind you blocking your view.Ford has a case # that I reported to them the problem # [XXX] REFERENCE THIS PROBLEM INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6) | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2025 | FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE | The contact owns a 2020 Ford Escape. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 25V467000 (Fuel System, Gasoline); however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The dealer was contacted; however, the contact was informed that parts were not yet available. The contact was informed that the repair would not be performed unless there was a fuel odor present. The manufacturer was not made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failure. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2025 | POWER TRAIN,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,SERVICE BRAKES | Summary: Failure of AWD/transfer case control module causing loss of multiple safety and driveline functions. Vehicle is currently being repaired at Ford dealership so will have already been corrected. While driving, multiple dash warnings appeared: “Service AdvanceTrac,” “AWD Not Available,” “Hill Start Assist Not Available,” and “Drive Mode Not Available.” The vehicle lost all all-wheel-drive functionality as well as traction/stability features. Dealer diagnosed an internal failure of the AWD/transfer case control module. Safety Impact: This failure disables critical safety systems (AdvanceTrac stability control, Hill Start Assist, AWD traction). In poor weather or emergency maneuvers, loss of these systems could increase the risk of crash. Repair Estimate: Dealer quoted ~$1,070 for replacement of AWD control module (parts, labor, and programming). Concern: This is a major driveline and safety system failure at only 40,000 miles. Ford previously acknowledged AWD module defects in 2020 Escapes under Customer Satisfaction Program 21B19, which suggests this may be a broader issue that warrants investigation or recall. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2025 | FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE | The contact owns a 2020 Ford Escape. The contact had received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 25V467000 (Fuel System, Gasoline). The contact called a local dealer and was informed that parts were not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was not made aware of the lack of parts. The contact had not experienced a failure. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2025 | FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE,TIRES | The contact owns a 2020 Ford Escape. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 25V467000(Fuel System, Gasoline); however, the part to do the recall repair was unavailable. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The contact stated that the message "Tire Pressure Monitor Fault," was displayed. The dealer was not contacted. No further information was available. The manufacturer was not made aware of the issue. The failure mileage was 61,067. | Crash: No Fire: No | 61,067 |
| Sep 2025 | FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE | The contact owns a 2020 Ford Escape. The contact's wife stated that while starting the vehicle, the check engine warning light illuminated. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 25V467000 (Fuel System, Gasoline); however, the part to do the recall repair was unavailable. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, where it was diagnosed with fuel injector failure. The contact was informed that the fuel injector needed to be replaced. The dealer confirmed that parts were not yet available. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 48,000. | Crash: No Fire: No | 48,000 |
| Sep 2025 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | Sunshade on sun roof is sagging and now blocking visibility through rear window. This is a safety hazard and concerning. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2025 | FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE | The contact owns a 2020 Ford Escape. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 25V467000 (FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE). The contact stated that the dealer was contacted; however, the contact was informed that parts were not yet available. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was contacted about parts availability. The contact had not experienced a failure. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2025 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | Have reported this incident before but we now know what caused the issue. Sunroof on the vehicle malfunctioned causing horrendous loud noise along with inability to retract or open the cover. A large heavy peice was then found sliding around between the cover and the sunroof itself. The peice was in fact the sunrood shade molding design between the front and back sunroof at the top of the car. The peice is quiet weighty so had the cover not been closed could have easily fallen on passengers. From service department that had to basically rebuild my whole sunroof, that peice is only held up by two adhesives, no screws or bolts. Here in the south it gets hot so anything with adhesives will melt and its surprising that there havent been more incidences. Quick Google search will show this is alot more common that I even realized. Sunroof has been fixed but at the cost $3600 and now have a complete bear spot where that molding should be. I will not replace it as I cannot risk it falling again and this time falling on someone in my back seats. I have included the diagrams from the manufacturer and can see how its only held by 2 square adhesives. Image of the car isnt my ford escape (mines having more seevice done) but can see how it sits right over back seat passengers and again this one is also missing the shade molding due to failed adhesives. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2025 | STRUCTURE | The contact owns a 2020 Ford Escape. The contact stated that after long-distance driving, there was water dripping from the bottom of the steering wheel onto the accelerator pedal. The contact stated that due to the failure, the foot on the accelerator pedal would slip off while driving. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, where it was purchased and an unknown repair was performed; however, the failure reoccurred. The vehicle was not repaired. Neither the dealer nor the manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 70,089 | Crash: No Fire: No | 70,089 |
| Sep 2025 | POWER TRAIN,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | There are many thousands of Ford Escape owners with this same issue. The shifter knob will not shift out of park in hot weather, sometimes taking 20 to 30 minutes for the vehicle's interior to cool sufficiently to shift into drive. Ford is ignoring this problem. I don't understand why they are looking the other way and not fixing this well-known issue. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2025 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | Sunshade sagging, will not retract. This is a safety risk, because with the shade sagging blocks view of the rear. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2025 | POWER TRAIN,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | Vehicle has active alerts for powertrain control module, and low boost pressure with the turbocharge along with emissions codes P0299, P0496 and P0456. The vehicle is constantly going into deep sleep mode. While driving the vehicle started to enter safe mode. And displayed an alert that said please turn ignition on. The dash and screen went black like vehicle was off but it was still running. This happened multiple times. My vehicle also will not start after pumping gas so I have to leave vehicle running every time I pump gas. My vehicle will not pass NY state inspection because of the recalls. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2025 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER | My Ford currently has 80K miles on it with no accidents and all recalls fixed by the dealer. This morning when I was driving my kids to school, a light I've never seen appeared on the bottom right hand side of the drivers screen. The light was a red triangle with an exclamation point inside of it. Not long after I noticed the light, we started to smell something burning and our car began loosing power. I pulled over immediately and turned the car off. I googled the meaning of the light. Apparently, it was a "Stop Safely Now" light. The various reasons online could not pinpoint any reason I could come up with. I popped the hood, checked the oil, coolant, and I checked that the hybrid battery located in the trunk had a good connection. Everything was fine, as far as I could tell. When I restarted the car, after about 15 mins of investigations and online research, the light was gone and so was the smell. However, now I am super nervous to drive this car on the highway. What if that light comes on again and I loose power when all the cars around me are driving 70 mph? The chances of getting rear ended and seriously hurt are a very real possibility. What if my kids are in the car? I'm scared. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2025 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE,BACK OVER PREVENTION | My Adaptive Cruise Control, Blind Spot Warning, Rear Cross Traffic Warning, Pre Collision warning all quit working and just flash across the screen, my light indicators for blind spot on my side mirrors quit working, my back up camera just has a bluescreen, there is no audio so no alerts can be heard and my sync doesnt work it has the screen but wont let you hear anything so yes I drive a bit away to work not having these features has been a major safety concern I have almost backed into someone because they were in my blind spot and no warning lights or warning sounds I have perviously went to a dealership for four active recalls they only look at the powertrain one there was one about spot welds nothing was done about either they broke like within the first few months of me having the car I have never received anything on extending my warrenty partly because I moved I guess but they basically told me when I was there for the recalls I would have to come back and pay for them to look at the rest which I said I wasn't aware that I had to pay for something that was a safety concern so then I contacted the place where I purchased the car that was 2 weeks ago they still have not contacted me back after several attempt and no response I then got on chat with Ford gave them a list of what was going on and they have yet to respond either but it was read just being ignored at this point and I'm at the end of my patience these are major safety issues I haven't even had this car a maybe a year if that and no one care to help I was told there was nothing wrong with anything basically I would have to wait for something to happen when I went for the recalls | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2025 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | Orange wrench light came on. Hooked it to a computer and it stated p093a:00 . I know some escapes had recalls in regards to this but the built date ended 7.2020. According my my car it was built 09/20. I think the recall should be extended to more than just built date they listed. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2025 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | DOOR ON DRIVERS SIDE MAKES ALL KINDS OF NOISE WHEN OPENING OR CLOSING. CANNOT ROLL WINDOW DOWN, CANNOT USE KEY TO OPEN DOOR AUTOMATICALLY, AT TIMES HARD TO CLOSE SOUNDS LIKE SOMETHING IS CATCHING. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2025 | WHEELS | Tire pressure default sensor keeps going on and them off after a while. Tires are not low. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2025 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | Molding between 2 parts of sunroof came off knocking the sunroof cover off its track. This is caused it to fall on driver's head. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2025 | STRUCTURE | The contact owns a 2020 Ford Escape. The contact stated that while opening the driver's side door, there was an abnormal popping sound coming from the door. The contact became aware that the top spot weld had fractured, and the middle and lower spot welds were loose. The contact stated that the driver’s door window was only able to roll down 1/3 of the way. The contact had taken the vehicle to a local dealer, where it was diagnosed, and determined that the driver’s side door hinges needed to be replaced. The passenger’s side door was also inspected, and it was determined that the hinges had started to loosen and needed to be reinforced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 73,000. | Crash: No Fire: No | 73,000 |
| Aug 2025 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE | 1) confirmed after many service trips that a wire in the engine harness is being pinched causing my check engine light to come on or off depending on if the wire is currently pinched or not. i took my car in a couple times and was told that they could not do anything if the engine light is not currently on, even when i could read the error to them from my app. 'service engine soon due to an electrical fault' this made evething even harder because when the engine light would come on was unpredictable. after recall work my care was always returned with no engine light shining, i was hopefull those recalls was what i needed, after a short time the engine light would come on and off again. i kept bugging about the light and FINALLY they dug deeper into the issue and found the wiring harness issue. SHORTLY after my warrenty expired, and would not fix it with out cost.. even though i could show... by the alerts in my app that this had been an issue long before the warrenty expired. the car was a demo sold as new and i had my first notification within the first few months of having it. 2) Door Recall- i was told would take months to fix due to not having parts. my window currently does not work due to issues that caused the recall. 3) car stalls after fueling most of the time. 4) RPMS jump high randomly 5) plastic sunroof piece fell off. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2025 | POWER TRAIN | 2020 ford escape titanium with 28111 miles on it throwing A VERY COMMOM error “AWD fault” the amount of these at this point should be recalled. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2025 | POWER TRAIN | The contact owns a 2020 Ford Explorer. The contact stated that while driving 15 MPH, the vehicle experienced a complete loss of automotive power with the “Service Vehicle Soon” light illuminated. The vehicle came to a complete stop in the middle of the roadway. The vehicle was towed to a local dealer, where it was diagnosed, and the contact was informed that the powertrain was faulty and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 62,000. | Crash: No Fire: No Towed | 62,000 |
| Aug 2025 | POWER TRAIN,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | Around the 38,000 mile mark on our 2020 Ford Escape we received many different errors (AWD Fault, ABS, AdvanceTrac Service, Hill assist, etc). I found out via NHTSA and other forums that this is a common issue in the vehicle from the AWD module, and although it is AWD related, it is not eligible for the Powertrain warranty per Ford because it is an electrical component. I declined the $1200 repair at the dealership so I could first call Ford Customer Service, at the recommendation of the dealership, though the Service Tech did mention it is a safety concern because the ABS is apparently also controlled by the AWD. After a couple different calls to Ford, they have refused to acknowledge that it is a manufacturer defect, or pay for the repair. With no help from Ford, I have no other option than to file a complaint here. Based on other resources online, the issue seems to stem from improper grounding of the wiring on the AWD module. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2025 | POWER TRAIN,ENGINE,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | 2020 Ford Escape SEL was taken into Ford Service Center for oil change and to address acceleration issue that started two days prior, (check engine light had come on the day before drop off). One week after dropping my vehicle off to be assessed, I was told I needed a small part and it would be complete in 3 days. Another week went by, so I reached out and was told that I need a new engine because of a known Ford issue. Unknown to me, coolant was leaking into the engine and destroyed it. I was assured by the Ford technician that this was a known issue and the problem did not arise from something I did/did not do. I was quoted over $9k and weeks worth of work. I easily drove the vehicle to the Service Center, but was told it is now no longer drivable. I drive a LOT for work and had only had the vehicle for 15 months, still owing over $16k on my auto loan. I had no choice but to purchase a new (NOT FORD) vehicle and am now stuck with two vehicle payments. Vehicle is still sitting at the Ford Service Center while I pay on it monthly. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |