The Ford Fusion first made its debut for the 2006 model year and it’s been a popular family car for years. But as with all things in the automotive world, not all Fusions are created equal. And if you’re in the market for a used Ford Fusion, some model years should be avoided at all costs. But which used model years are better than others? Here are the used Ford Fusion model years with the biggest complaints, to help you avoid buying a clunker.

How a Ford Fusion redesign created some of the worst model years

The experts at CarComplaints.com use complaint data to create graphs and show defect patterns of certain vehicle models and model years. When looking at the gathered information in the model year comparison of the Ford Fusion, it’s easy to see that some model years have more complaints than others. According to CarComplaints.com’s data, the model year with the most complaints is the 2010 Ford Fusion, garnering nearly 380 total complaints. 

More interestingly, 2010 is also the year that “Ford significantly updated the Fusion.” But while most redesigns are a good thing, the evidence by CarComplaints.com shows that the 2010-2012 redesign of the Fusion only made things worse.

According to Consumer Reports, all Ford Fusions between model years 2010 and 2012 carry a very-low owner satisfaction score of two (out of five). These model years do not receive a reliability rating much higher. The ratings seem to get better with Ford’s next redesign in 2013.

The used Ford Fusion model years to stay away from

The redesigned 2010 Ford Fusion earns CarComplaints.com’s “Clunker” label, for a significant amount of complaints and potential problems in a variety of areas. More than 140 owners have complained about steering problems, while 94 had engine trouble.

The NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) has nearly 1,250 complaints about the 2010 Fusion’s steering and more than 1,500 regarding the engine.

Though it’s clear that the 2010 Fusion carries with it the most complaints, it’s not the model year that CarComplaints.com ranks as the worst. The 2011 Ford Fusion earned the experts’ label as the worst model year “because of other possible factors such as higher repair cost or more problems at lower mileage.”

Between the 2011 Fusion’s many complaints on power steering and it’s high probability of sudden loss of engine power, it’s definitely been named a “Clunker” by CarComplaints.com, with a total of 244 complaints. There are more than 100 owner-reported steering problems, with more than 80 owners citing complete power steering failure and a few others complaining of grinding noises and difficulty steering.

But the high complaints don’t stop there, proving that Ford’s redesign was a true failure. The 2012 Ford Fusion received even more complaints than the 2011 model year, with 255 total.

What Fusion model year may prove to be the most reliable

The complaints keep coming for the model years which were part of the Fusion’s redesign. According to the number of complaints for each model year, things didn’t really improve with the Fusion until the 2015 model year. Both the 2013 and 2014 model years struggle for improvement, receiving 263 and 171 total complaints, respectively.

The 2015 Ford Fusion has far fewer complaints than previous years, with only 57 total. The biggest complaint isn’t steering with the 2015 Fusion, but problems with the engine- earning only 11 total complaints. It seems that it took a few years after the Fusion’s redesign for Ford to correct its biggest problems.