2016 Fleetwood Bounder: what breaks, and at what mileage
What breaks on the 2016 Fleetwood Bounder
On the 2016 Fleetwood Bounder, the failure owners report most often is loss of braking, with 3 reports on file. Across every failure mode on this year, half the dated reports were filed before 5,000 miles.
The failures owners actually file about
Owners have reported 5 named failure modes on the 2016 Fleetwood Bounder, and the three most-reported carry 75% of everything filed, so the trouble here is concentrated rather than scattered.
Loss of braking leads with 3 reports and about 12 per 1,000 vehicles.
Seat belt or retractor failure follows with 2 reports, median 5,000 miles.
Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure follows with 1 report.
By system, the reports fall mostly into brakes (3), airbag (2) and suspension (1).
The mileage the reports cluster at
Too few of the reports on this year carry an odometer reading to describe the timing: 6 of them do. The mileages quoted elsewhere on this page come from the modes that have enough of them.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
How reports accumulate
Every report with an odometer reading, cumulative, from 0 to 200,000 miles. A curve that climbs early is a car with early problems, whatever its total.
- Line share of reports filed by that mileage
Severity, and what it costs
Nothing in the reports on the 2016 Fleetwood Bounder mentions a crash, a fire or an injury. That is the ordinary case and it is worth stating: most defect complaints are about a car that stopped working, not one that hurt somebody.
The average severity weight across every report on this year is 4.63, where a stalled engine or a failed airbag weighs many times more than a rattling trim panel, and a figure this high means the reports are dominated by failures with safety consequences rather than annoyances. The weighting is set out in full on the methodology page.
What the top failures cost to put right, as editorial estimates for an independent US shop rather than figures from NHTSA: loss of braking at $400–$3,000, seat belt or retractor failure at $200–$900, control arm, ball joint or bushing failure at $400–$2,200 and tail light, brake light or signal failure at $100–$900. Dealer labour, a seized bolt or a part that is no longer made can push any of these past the top of its range.
Every reported failure mode
| Failure mode | System | Reports | With reading | 25th | Median | 75th | Per 1,000 | Typical repair | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loss of braking | brakes | 3 | 3 | — | 4k | — | 12.0 | $400–$3,000 | Critical |
| Seat belt or retractor failure | airbag | 2 | 2 | — | 3k | — | 8.0 | $200–$900 | High |
| Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure | suspension | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | 4.0 | $400–$2,200 | High |
| Tail light, brake light or signal failure | lighting | 1 | 1 | — | 2k | — | 4.0 | $100–$900 | Moderate |
| Other visibility problem | glass | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | 4.0 | $150–$1,400 | Moderate |
Rate per 1,000 uses a fleet-size estimate derived from recall paperwork for this exact model year. It is a lower bound. Repair costs are typical independent-shop ranges for the failure, not figures from these reports.
How often, against how many were built
Scaled by an estimate of how many of these cars exist, the 2016 Fleetwood Bounder draws about 32 per 1,000 vehicles, which puts it in the 96th percentile of complaint rates among 2016 vehicles we can rate.
That denominator is the weakest number on the page and it is fair to say so plainly. Rate per 1,000 uses a fleet-size estimate derived from recall paperwork for this exact model year. It is a lower bound.
The working figure is 249 vehicles. If the true number is twice that, every rate on this page is half what it says; the ranking against other 2016 vehicles, which is what the risk score uses, is far more robust than the rate itself.
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The odometer reading is the one the owner gave.
Loss of braking
On 2 occasions while driving the engine stopped all electrical devices stopped, no brakes, no powers steering, no lights, not even a horn. Last incident was merging into 70 MPH traffic on interstate. I was able to get vehicle stopped on shoulder and it was recovered by wrecker. Chassis is ford v10 .
On 2 occasions while driving the engine stopped all electrical devices stopped, no brakes, no powers steering, no lights, not even a horn. Last incident was merging into 70 MPH traffic on interstate. I was able to get vehicle stopped on shoulder and it was recovered by wrecker. Chassis is ford v10 .
Seat belt or retractor failure
The passenger side seatbelt becomes twisted and tangled each time the seat is rotated toward the living area. The seat only turns one direction because engine doghouse gets in way. Seatbelt is unusable. Driver side wiper clip falls off stopping wiper
The passenger side seatbelt becomes twisted and tangled each time the seat is rotated toward the living area. The seat only turns one direction because engine doghouse gets in way. Seatbelt is unusable. Driver side wiper clip falls off stopping wiper
Recalls on the 2016 model year
NHTSA has issued 2 recall campaigns covering the 2016 Fleetwood Bounder, affecting an estimated 482 vehicles. A recall is a different kind of evidence from a complaint: it is the regulator and the manufacturer agreeing that something has to be fixed, and the fix is free for as long as the car exists.
The campaigns cover equipment:recreational vehicle/trailer and electrical system:12v/24v/48v battery. Whether the work was actually done on the car in front of you is a question only the VIN can answer, and the manufacturer or NHTSA will answer it free.
Recalls also distort complaint counts. Publicity about a campaign reminds owners that complaining is possible, so reports for a recalled component often spike after the recall rather than before it.
EQUIPMENT:RECREATIONAL VEHICLE/TRAILER
3,241 vehicles 2019-12-04- Defect
- REV Recreation Group (REV) is recalling certain 2016-2020 Fleetwood Bounder, Holiday Rambler Vacationer, and 2018-2020 Fleetwood Southwind motorhomes. The generator exhaust pipe placement exits the motorhome within the vehicle's departure angle.
- Consequence
- If the generator exhaust pipe is damaged, it may cause carbon monoxide to enter the vehicle, increasing the risk of an injury or death.
- Remedy
- REV will notify owners, and dealers will inspect, replace and reroute the generator exhaust pipe, free of charge. The recall began January 30, 2020. Owners may contact REV customer service at 1-800-509-3417. REV's number for this recall is 191125REV.
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:12V/24V/48V BATTERY
934 vehicles 2017-09-20- Defect
- REV Recreation Group (REV) is recalling certain 2013-2015 Fleetwood Bounder and 2013-2016 Fleetwood Southwind recreational vehicles. The welds attaching the battery tray may be insufficient. As a result, the tray may separate from underneath the chassis.
- Consequence
- An unsecured battery tray can cause a battery acid leak or an electrical short, increasing the risk of a fire or injury.
- Remedy
- REV will notify owners, and dealers will inspect the battery tray, and install fasteners, if necessary, to secure the battery tray, free of charge. The recall began on November 17, 2017. Owners may contact REV customer service at 1-800-509-3417. REV's number for this recall is 170914REV.
Recall work is free at a franchised dealer regardless of the car's age. Check the VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls before assuming it was done.
Where 2016 sits in the model line
Across the 10 model years of this car that carry enough reports to score, 1996 comes out best at 65 and 2003 worst at 81.
Scores compare each year against other cars of the same model year, so a low number on an older car is a real result and not an artefact of age.
Shorter is better. Years with too few reports to score are shown without a bar rather than as a zero, because no data is not good news.
Where these figures stop being useful
8 owner reports; fleet size estimated from this year's own recall paperwork. Every count on this page is therefore a floor: it is the number of owners who went to the trouble of filing with a federal agency, which is a small and self-selected fraction of the owners who had the fault.
Of those 8 reports, 6 carried an odometer reading, so the mileages here describe 75% of the sample rather than all of it. Owners also round: readings pile up on multiples of ten thousand, which is why this site publishes "about 90,000 miles" and not "91,438".
Named failure modes come from matching phrases in the complaint text, so a badly worded complaint can land in the wrong bucket. The effect washes out across hundreds of reports and does not wash out across five.
And nothing here predicts what one car will do. These are other people's complaints, filed years apart, on cars maintained by strangers. Read the page as a map of where this model year has previously gone wrong, then have the specific car in front of you inspected.
Questions this page answers
What are the most common problems with the 2016 Fleetwood Bounder?
The most-reported failures are loss of braking (3 reports, median 5,000 miles), seat belt or retractor failure (2 reports, median 5,000 miles) and control arm, ball joint or bushing failure (1 report). Counts come from owner complaints filed with NHTSA, which are voluntary, so they show what owners bothered to report rather than every fault that occurred.
Where this comes from. Every figure above is computed from NHTSA owner complaints and recall records for this exact make, model and year. Complaints are voluntary and self-selected, so treat counts as a floor. The methodology page writes out each formula, and the same numbers are available as JSON.
What breaks at my mileage Compare with another car
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed