Cadillac Escalade vs Ford F-250

Both cars' complete complaint records, side by side.

Read the totals carefully. NHTSA publishes no sales figures, so the car that sold more collects more complaints regardless of quality. The rows worth weighing are the proportions — the share of complaints that involved harm, and which part dominates.

Measure	Cadillac Escalade	Ford F-250
Complaints on file	2,305	5,731
Model years covered	1999–2026	1979–2014
Worst model year	2007	1999
Best model year	2026	1998
Crashes reported	134	277
Fires reported	78	246
Injuries reported	109	149
Deaths reported	3	14
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Steering
Share of complaints involving harm	14.1%	12%

Cadillac Escalade by year

46 96 3 164 111 99 64 26 320 180 89 47 53 32 23 30 144 123 77 29 29 15 91 106 190 63 25 30

99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

Complaints filed with NHTSA, by model year. Bar colour is the FaultScore grade: A B C D F ungraded

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 513 22.3%

Airbags 328 14.2%

Electrical System 273 11.8%

Brakes 183 7.9%

Transmission & Drivetrain 175 7.6%

Other & Unspecified 111 4.8%

Fuel & Propulsion 100 4.3%

Suspension 73 3.2%

Ford F-250 by year

1 14 5 145 149 183 156 238 212 348 76 702 417 269 189 151 201 207 332 84 255 92 109 384 423 153 236

79 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14

Complaints filed with NHTSA, by model year. Bar colour is the FaultScore grade: A B C D F ungraded

What breaks

Steering 846 14.8%

Suspension 808 14.1%

Engine & Cooling 741 12.9%

Brakes 549 9.6%

Tires 516 9.0%

Transmission & Drivetrain 427 7.5%

Fuel & Propulsion 425 7.4%

Electrical System 315 5.5%