Ford Ranger vs Jeep Wrangler

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	Ford Ranger	Jeep Wrangler
Complaints on file	10,532	23,013
Model years covered	1978–2026	1986–2026
Worst model year	2000	2021
Best model year	2022	2025
Crashes reported	977	779
Fires reported	386	741
Injuries reported	598	477
Deaths reported	35	26
Most complained-about part	Airbags	Steering
Share of complaints involving harm	19%	8.8%

Ford Ranger by year

1 1 13 12 33 50 58 117 88 141 145 231 272 531 451 533 536 744 966 849 687 449 310 462 353 316 286 344 179 171 260 1 1 1 352 158 160 52 21 122 66 9

78 79 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 14 16 17 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

Airbags 1,899 18.0%

Brakes 989 9.4%

Transmission & Drivetrain 908 8.6%

Tires 900 8.5%

Body & Structure 754 7.2%

Electrical System 679 6.4%

Engine & Cooling 654 6.2%

Suspension 653 6.2%

Jeep Wrangler by year

1 51 55 86 105 100 100 134 184 259 2 548 401 262 311 235 139 130 281 757 852 793 1,254 501 907 682 1,289 1,046 857 693 654 423 2,646 1,092 800 1,529 657 594 1,465 121 17

86 87 88 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 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

Steering 3,542 15.4%

Electrical System 2,994 13.0%

Engine & Cooling 2,753 12.0%

Fuel & Propulsion 2,567 11.2%

Transmission & Drivetrain 2,253 9.8%

Suspension 1,599 6.9%

Airbags 1,484 6.4%

Other & Unspecified 1,307 5.7%