AutoUtility currently tracks 7 official NHTSA owner defect complaints for the 2016 Ford C-Max. Driver Assistance & Safety Tech issues are the most frequently reported category, appearing in 3 complaints (42.9% of submitted records). Zero crashes, fires, injury reports, or fatality reports are cited across these complaint records.

Key Problem Findings
  • Total NHTSA Complaints: 7 reports
  • #1 Reported Problem Area: Driver Assistance & Safety Tech (3 reports • 42.9% of submitted complaints)
  • Secondary Problem Areas: Fuel & Propulsion System (1), Brakes & Traction Control (1)
  • Crash-Citing Complaints: 0 filings
  • Fire-Citing Complaints: 0 filings
  • Complaints Reporting Injuries / Fatalities: 0 injury filings • 0 fatality filings
Reporting Methodology: Statistics describe unverified consumer submissions voluntarily filed with NHTSA. Complaint volume is not normalized for vehicle sales volume or miles driven. Multiple components can be cited within a single owner complaint submission.
Total Complaints
7
Submitted to NHTSA ODI
Crash-Citing Complaints
0
Filings citing a collision
Fire-Citing Complaints
0
Filings citing smoke or fire
Complaints Reporting Injuries
0
Filings citing one or more injuries
Complaints Reporting Fatalities
0
Consumer filings citing fatalities

Most Reported Problems for 2016 Ford C-Max

Top automotive subsystem defect categories ranked by unique owner complaint volume in federal records

#1 Problem Area 42.9% of complaints

Driver Assistance & Safety Tech

3 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
⚠️ NHTSA Recall Context

NHTSA records list 1 official safety recall campaign for this model year involving the same broad component area:

*Component overlap means an official recall exists for the same broad vehicle system. It does not establish that an individual owner complaint was caused by, covered by, or resolved through that recall.
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
#2 Problem Area 14.3% of complaints

Fuel & Propulsion System

1 owner complaint submitted to NHTSA ODI
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
#3 Problem Area 14.3% of complaints

Brakes & Traction Control

1 owner complaint submitted to NHTSA ODI
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
#4 Problem Area 14.3% of complaints

Powertrain & Transmission

1 owner complaint submitted to NHTSA ODI
⚠️ NHTSA Recall Context

NHTSA records list 1 official safety recall campaign for this model year involving the same broad component area:

*Component overlap means an official recall exists for the same broad vehicle system. It does not establish that an individual owner complaint was caused by, covered by, or resolved through that recall.
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
Domain Share Note: Share percentage represents the proportion of unique complaint filings referencing each vehicle system. Because single complaints may cite multiple systems (such as engine and electrical simultaneously), domain percentages represent individual category incidence and may sum to over 100%.

Recent NHTSA Owner Reports for 2016 Ford C-Max

Representative defect filings submitted by owners to the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation

Driver Assistance & Safety Tech NHTSA ODI ID: #11721963
Filed: 03/04/2026

"The contact owns a 2016 Ford C-Max Hybrid. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 25V695000 (BACK OVER PREVENTION); however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The contact stated that the rear-view camera displayed a black screen while the vehicle was in..."

Incident Date: 03/05/2024 • Raw NHTSA Component: BACK OVER PREVENTION
Driver Assistance & Safety Tech NHTSA ODI ID: #11718757
Filed: 02/18/2026

"See attached document for complaint. RE: NHTSA SAFETY RECALL 25V695 To whom it may concern, In August 2025 we took our 2016 CMAX into the Ford Dealer we purchased it from to have the check out the back-up camera that was not working and have a service done. They charges us $225.00 to check it out..."

Incident Date: 12/22/2025 • Raw NHTSA Component: BACK OVER PREVENTION
Other / Miscellaneous NHTSA ODI ID: #11190619
Filed: 03/21/2019

"TOUCHSCREEPROBLEMS BEGAN WITH GPS GLITCHES IN DEC 2018, AND HAVE GOTTEN STEADILY WORSE...AS OF TODAY - TOUCHSCREEN DASHBOARD IS NOT WORKING - INCLUDING REAR VIEW CAMERA, HANDLESS FEATURES, GPS, CD PLAYER, ENTERTAINMENT/AUDIO SYSTEM. N SOMETIMES REMAINS ON EVEN AFTER THE CAR HAS BEEN TURNED OFF...."

Incident Date: 12/15/2018 • Raw NHTSA Component: UNKNOWN OR OTHER
Fuel & Propulsion System NHTSA ODI ID: #11111214
Filed: 07/13/2018

"INTERMITTENT INABILITY TO CONTROL SPEED. FINALLY GOT AN ERROR CODE OF P2112 (THROTTLE ACTUATOR CONTROL SYSTEM) WHILE IN MOTION AND VIBRATION BECAUSE THE BATTERY DOES NOT ENGAGE PROPERLY"

Incident Date: 07/13/2018 • Raw NHTSA Component: FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM
Brakes & Traction Control NHTSA ODI ID: #11103849
Filed: 06/25/2018

"MY 2016 FORD C-MAX WITH 10000 MILES HAS BRAKE ISSUES... ACCORDING TO THE DEALER THE BRAKES ARE RUSTED AND NEED REPLACED FOR $1000.00. SERIOUSLY, A VEHICLE WITH 10000 MILES HAS BAD BRAKES AND NOT COVERED BY THE FORD WARRANTY..... I HOPE NOTHING HAPPENS WHILE MY WIFE IS DRIVING THE CAR AS SHE DOES..."

Incident Date: 06/25/2018 • Raw NHTSA Component: SERVICE BRAKES
Consumer Narrative Notice: Excerpts are sanitized text descriptions submitted by vehicle owners to the federal ODI database. They reflect the reporting consumer's observations at the time of filing and have not been independently confirmed by vehicle manufacturers or government investigators.

Complaint History for Ford C-Max

Reported defect complaint volume across sibling model years (2015–2018)

Model Year NHTSA Complaints Crash Reports Safety Recalls Detailed Report
2015 Ford C-Max 4 0 6 View 2015 Problems →
2016 Ford C-Max Current Page 7 0 3 Current
2017 Ford C-Max 1 0 1 View 2017 Problems →
2018 Ford C-Max 0 0 1 View 2018 Problems →
Comparative Disclaimer: Complaint totals are unadjusted historical counts and are not normalized for vehicles sold, active fleet size, or total road mileage. Newer model years naturally have had less calendar exposure time to accumulate owner filings.

Detailed NHTSA Component Breakdown for 2016 Ford C-Max

Complete distribution of consumer defect reports across all 6 granular NHTSA system and subsystem classifications

Vehicle Component / System Total Complaints Crash Reports Fire Reports Reported Injury Entries Reported Fatality Entries
Back Over Prevention / Camera NHTSA category: BACK OVER PREVENTION 2 0 0 0 0
Fuel & Propulsion System NHTSA category: FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM 1 0 0 0 0
Powertrain NHTSA category: POWER TRAIN 1 0 0 0 0
Service Brakes NHTSA category: SERVICE BRAKES 1 0 0 0 0
Other / Uncategorized NHTSA category: UNKNOWN OR OTHER 1 0 0 0 0
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,UNKNOWN OR OTHER 1 0 0 0 0
Data Attribution & Reporting Methodology: Complaints are unverified voluntary submissions to the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI). Because multiple vehicle components can be cited within a single owner complaint submission, component-level rollups may sum to more than the unique complaint count (7). Injury and fatality entries in the detailed table reflect raw values entered by reporting consumers across individual submissions; they are not deduplicated casualty statistics and may include duplicate or unverified entries. Complaint volume is not normalized for sales volume or vehicle mileage and does not represent an audited component failure rate.

Official NHTSA Defect Investigations (1)

1 CLOSED

Formal safety defect inquiries and engineering analyses opened by the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI)

Official Federal Inquiries: NHTSA opens a defect investigation when safety screening or consumer defect trends indicate a potential unreasonable safety risk. An open investigation is a formal inquiry and does not by itself confirm a defect or result in a mandatory recall.
CLOSED Defect Petition (DP) ODI Action #DP22005
Opened: 2023-01-27 • Closed: 2023-08-07

Pedestrian alert sounds

Affected Component: ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:PROPULSION SYSTEM

NHTSA received a petition on or about July 18, 2022, requesting that Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 141 be applied to all electric and hybrid vehicles operating in the United States. The petition can be reviewed at NHTSA.gov under ODI Number 11486072. FMVSS 141 establishes performance requirements for pedestrian alert sounds for motor vehicles. The standard applies to hybrid and electric vehicles that have a gross vehicle weight ra...

✓ Resulted in Safety Recall Campaign: 22V063000 Official NHTSA File →
Official US Government Data Provenance

The complaint records on this page are retrieved directly from the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) public database.

Local Production Store Compiled: August 2026 • Deterministic Audited Dataset • Zero Dynamic External API Runtime Latency.