10.0
really awful- Crashes / Fires:
- 0 / 1
- Injuries / Deaths:
- 1 / 0
- Average Mileage:
- 71,096 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
The NHTSA is the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints can be spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem. See the Back button — blue bar at the very top of the page — to explore more.
Door latch freezes i cold weather causing the door not to latch closed.
- Norwalk, CT, USA
Instrument panel shuts off intermittently. Days lights flicker.
- Lovelock, NV, USA
Car will be driveing 55 and completely shut off. Lossing everything including powerstearing. Have to put in neutral N coast to side of the road, sometimes will restart, others it wont. Also will start bucking and shut off. I can be doing 10mph N go to turn a corner N it shuts off. Can seem to run fine, be in the middle of an intersection and the car shut off and wouldnt restar good thing I can drive and knew what to do or I would have crashed numerous times. Have changed the throttle body and accelerator, N both sensors. Did not fix problem. Now saying it's the PCM shutting the car off.
- Westerly, RI, USA
Pulled in drop off a donation at a second hand store. I put it in park and turned off the vehicle; opened the trunk; and looked up startled when a guy sitting nearby said that my car was smoking and on fire (about 10 seconds since I switched the car off and got out). He was on the right, so I moved around the car to the right looking towards the engine. An employee of the store that was on the back, left side of the car pointed towards and said, 'look! your side mirror is on fire!' I then saw the smoke billowing to the left (a strong afternoon breeze was blowing North). I came around and peered in behind the actual 'mirror' part; the fire had just gone out. Looking at it, I could see it was the security light on the bottom side of the mirror; it was completely melted and fused to the mirror housing- a bubbly mess of plastic. It smelled of acrid, melted plastic and burned electronics. The underside of the mirror had caught fire and started burning for a bit before the fuse finally blew. I am so glad my baby and kindergartener weren't in the car at this time! they usually are. The length of time of time it took for the fuse to finally blow is quite alarming! it could have resulted in the rapid spread of a fire that would quickly overtake the vehicle. What if I was at a gas station when this happened when their happened to be some petrol-vapor present. My next stop was to get two propane tanks filled. They have to bleed off a certain amount of propane each time when finished filling a tank. It isn't far fetched that this electrical issue with failed safeguards could have resulted in far more injury than my slightly burned fingers. This needs to be investigated immediately before something terrible happens to someone. This is a fantastic car! we love it. This is probably an easy fix, but if it isn't fixed, much worse could happen!
- Roseburg, OR, USA
Throttle body defected went out shut down car while driving at high speed busy street Michigan ave dearborn, mi. No recalls or assistance available, after research is known defect and bad part.
- Det, MI, USA
I am very concerned about my safety and that of others. My Ford 500, especially when it is warm and I am using the A/C, will without warning surge ahead, and I must apply the brakes as hard as I can. I almost crashed while attempting to park in a handicapped spot in emergency parking area at the hospital, where I was taking my critically ill husband 2 weeks ago. I was braking, but the car was surging ahead. The same happened when I was leaving. Very frightening!! can this be fixed without charge at my local Ford dealer? (galpin)
- Lake Balboa, CA, USA
I was going along and all of the sudden my car came to a dead stop and I could have been hit from behindi ended uphaving to have a fuel pump cost $676 and then it kept dying on me and the engine light came on took it in and ended up having to have a throttle body cost $938. Some one told me the same thing happen to them and they sent Ford the receipt and they reimbursed them the amount they had paid.
- Broken Arrow, OK, USA
Dear sir/madam, I have a 2006 Ford Five hundred and has about 93K miles on it.VIN # [xxx]. I take good care of the car and have never missed any service. I always had a knocking sound on turning on and turning off the ac. (I had checked a dealer once in New York and I was told "we all make some noise" anyways, a week ago suddenly the ac has stopped working on idling and only works when the car is moving. I was shocked when I googled the problem to see how many people have been having this problem. Isn't there a recall for 2006 Ford Five hundred ac ? following are the links to the web pages showing the problems people are having: community.cartalk.com/discussion/2120935/Ford-five-hundred-A-C-problems/P4 www.carcomplaints.com/Ford/five_hundred/2006/ac_heater/bad_ac_compressor.shtml I have very sparingly used the ac in my car and am certainly disappointed with the poor quality of installed parts. I am requesting a free repair of the issue. If not then I will try and contact some other people and convince them for a collective action. [xxx] are you the owner of the vehicle :yes VIN : [xxx] information redacted pursuant to the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).
- Santa Clara, CA, USA
I had the car in the shop three times prior to the extended warranty expiring. All three times they said that they could not find the problem (which eventually was the throttle body assembly). Three days ago, on the freeway, the car was "lunging forward" going between a complete stop to 15 mph in stop and go traffic. The car died on me and I needed to push it off the freeway. Eventually the car restarted and I drove it to the nearest repair yard.
- Chino, CA, USA
Vehicle surges forward or backward when put into gear. The occurrence is intermittent, but dangerous.
- Cushing, OK, USA
Dear sirs: My 2006 Ford 500 has a very dangerous defect that has been happening for over a year. I have complained about it several times to the Ford dealer, but the car won't mess up when the dealer checks it out. Today my wife started the car, placed her foot on the brake & shifted the car into reverse. Before she had time to remove her foot from the brake pedal, the engine sped up & the car tried to move backward. It's a good thing she had her foot on the brake. The exact same thing has happened before in forward gear. I was in the car beside her & I witnessed her foot on the brake when the car tried, on it's own to take off. It's a scary situation & I need some help to resolve the problem.
- North, SC, USA
2006 Ford Five hundred limiited lunges forward when brake is applied.
- Gatesville, TX, USA
The Ford Five hundred I own has surges of acceleration when I am inching my way into a parking spot or forward loser to a wall or another car. I have to quickly slam on my brakes to avoid hitting something. I fear at some point it may be a person. The problem has been going on for a while but I was never able to reproduce it for a mechanic. I have made a connection to hot weather and the car's air conditioning being on. I fear this is not safe.
- Massillon, OH, USA
My Ford 500, 2006 is year is having surging problems and somehow it happens too when A/C is on.... light on dashboard is on too. Very dangerous.
- Bronx, NY, USA
While putting the Ford Five hundred in reverse the car briefly accelerated and lunged backwards barley missing another car. Thinking I might had hit the accelerator I went on to where I was headed. As I was leaving my destination once again the car just took off while in reverse. The car then gave a wrench fault on the console. I looked up the issue in the manual and it said it was a throttle control issue. I spoke with the dealer today and they said it was a throttle body problem. Upon investigation I find that this is a recurring issue. If someone had been within 3 to 5 feet of my auto I would have hit them.
- Pleasanton, KS, USA
Problem with the emergency fuel shut off switch location in the 2006 Ford Five hundred. My passenger in the car ( front passenger seat side) unknowingly tapped or bumped the switch which caused the cars engine to loose power and then completely stall. Dealer ( sunrise Ford in North hollywood told me today it was this switch that was activated which caused the stalling of my engine. My passenger ( adult male- 6'2" large shoe size) was working with me in the san fernando valley of los angeles county on 6/28/06. Apparently his foot bumped this switch which has got to be in an improper location ( not concealed).
- Ontario, CA, USA
- New Salem, PA, USA