2020 Ford Ranger vs 2021 Ford Ranger
Two adjacent model years of the Ford Ranger, side by side. Every figure is a raw NHTSA/EPA count — not normalized by how many were sold.
Side by side: 2021 Ranger has fewer recorded recall campaigns (6 vs 7), and 2021 Ranger has fewer recorded owner complaints (0 vs 121). 2020 Ranger carries more NHTSA investigations (1 vs 0). Only 2020 Ranger has NHTSA crash ratings, and neither has EPA fuel-economy data in our dataset.
| Metric | 2020 Ford Ranger | 2021 Ford Ranger |
|---|---|---|
| Recall campaigns | 7 | 6 |
| Owner complaints | 121 | 0 |
| NHTSA investigations | 1 | 0 |
| NHTSA crash rating | Rated by NHTSA | Not rated |
| EPA fuel economy | — | — |
Where these two actually differ
2021 Ford Ranger carries 1 fewer recall campaign (6 against 7). Every campaign listed is repaired free by a dealer regardless of which side it falls on, so this gap matters most if the specific car you are looking at still has work outstanding.
2020 Ford Ranger has drawn 121 more owner complaints (121 against 0). Complaints are self-reported to NHTSA and scale with how many were sold, so treat the pattern of what owners report as more informative than the total.
Only 2020 Ford Ranger has been crash-tested by NHTSA. The other has no published NCAP result, which is an absence of data rather than a poor one, and means the two cannot be compared on crash performance at all.
Counts are raw NHTSA and EPA totals for each model year. They are not adjusted for how many of each vehicle were sold, so a high-volume model will tend to show more of everything — a larger complaint count is not by itself evidence of a worse car. Use the per-vehicle reports for the underlying records.
How to read this
- A green check marks the lower raw count — fewer recorded issues, not a declared winner.
- Complaint totals are not normalized by vehicle population; a big-seller shows more of everything.
- Where a rating or EPA record is absent, that is missing data — not evidence of safety.