Cruise control failure on the 2006 Ford Escape
2 crashes 1 fire 2 injuries 2 deaths 7 of the 11 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When cruise control failure gets reported
Owners of the 2006 Ford Escape report cruise control failure at a median of 25,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 20,000 miles and a quarter after 30,000 miles, from 11 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 72,000 miles. It is the 17th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 15,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 60,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 45,803 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
Reports bunched into a band this tight usually mean the component has a life of its own: it goes at roughly the same mileage regardless of who owns it.
82% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16,197 miles | 21,500 miles | 25,000 miles | 29,400 miles | 62,000 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 2 a crash, 1 a fire, 2 an injury and 2 a fatality are mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $200–$1,400 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 20 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 500 miles, and latest on the 2003 at 115,000 miles.
By volume the 2020 carries the most reports, with 59; the 2006 has 11. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
Tl*the contact owns a 2006 ford escape. While driving 45 MPH, the contact felt the vehicle accelerate on its own. She removed her foot from the accelerator pedal, but the vehicle continued to accelerate. She made sure that the cruise control was deactivated by pressing the off button. The contact had to stand on the brake pedal in order to bring the vehicle to a complete stop. The contact inspected the vehicle. The vehicle was towed to the dealer who suggested that the format could be stuck. They found that this was not the cause of failure. The vehicle was restarted and the engine began to rev. The dealer shut off the engine and replaced the throttle, however, they were unable to diagnose the cause of failure. The contact is aware of the recall for the ford escape in 2005 for the same failure. The current mileage is 16,300 and failure mileage was 16,197. The consumer stated strongly urges a recall for this specific vehicle. The consumer further stated had 3 passengers in the vehicle and this was an extremely dangerous incident. Updated 08/29/07 *tr
Tl*the contact owns a 2006 ford escape. While driving 45 MPH, the contact felt the vehicle accelerate on its own. She removed her foot from the accelerator pedal, but the vehicle continued to accelerate. She made sure that the cruise control was deactivated by pressing the off button. The contact had to stand on the brake pedal in order to bring the vehicle to a complete stop. The contact inspected the vehicle. The vehicle was towed to the dealer who suggested that the format could be stuck. They found that this was not the cause of failure. The vehicle was restarted and the engine began to rev. The dealer shut off the engine and replaced the throttle, however, they were unable to diagnose the cause of failure. The contact is aware of the recall for the ford escape in 2005 for the same failure. The current mileage is 16,300 and failure mileage was 16,197. The consumer stated strongly urges a recall for this specific vehicle. The consumer further stated had 3 passengers in the vehicle and this was an extremely dangerous incident. Updated 08/29/07 *tr
I was driving with my cruise control on. I tapped my brakes to disengage my cruise control and they locked long enough to send me into a fishtail. I over-corrected to come out of the fishtail and the escape started rolling. The airbags never deployed even though the escape rolled six times and was totaled while still under factory warranty. My daughter received some minor scratches on her hands. I dislocated my left thumb, broke my left shoulder in four places, snapped my left femur in half, shattered the bottom third of my left tibia, and had a hairline fracture to my right tibia just below the knee. I was also thirty-five weeks pregnant and the baby died do to trauma from the crash. The accident occurred october 7, 2008 and I am still in the hospital as I am writing this complaint on january 4, 2009. Ford refuses to come look at the escape to figure out why the airbags never deployed. *tr
Also reported on the 2006 Ford Escape
Other speed control problem
Other powertrain problem
Other engine problem
Other body or interior problem
Strut, shock or spring failure
Other suspension problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 11 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does cruise control failure happen on the 2006 Ford Escape?
Across 11 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 25,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 20,000 miles and a quarter after 30,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is cruise control failure on the 2006 Ford Escape?
11 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.8 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
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