Cadillac Escalade vs Ford Freestyle

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 Freestyle
Complaints on file	2,367	5,155
Model years covered	1999–2026	2002–2007
Worst model year	2007	2005
Best model year	2026	2004
Crashes reported	135	153
Fires reported	78	21
Injuries reported	110	39
Deaths reported	3	0
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Acceleration & Cruise Control
Share of complaints involving harm	13.8%	4.1%

Cadillac Escalade by year

46 96 3 164 111 99 64 26 320 180 89 47 53 32 24 30 145 123 78 29 29 16 101 119 199 70 32 42

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 549 23.2%

Airbags 328 13.9%

Electrical System 278 11.7%

Brakes 184 7.8%

Transmission & Drivetrain 180 7.6%

Other & Unspecified 116 4.9%

Fuel & Propulsion 105 4.4%

Suspension 74 3.1%

Ford Freestyle by year

1 14 2,018 1,872 1,250

02 04 05 06 07

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

What breaks

Acceleration & Cruise Control 1,617 31.4%

Transmission & Drivetrain 1,308 25.4%

Engine & Cooling 681 13.2%

Fuel & Propulsion 397 7.7%

Electrical System 269 5.2%

Brakes 227 4.4%

Other & Unspecified 190 3.7%

Body & Structure 102 2.0%