P0420 on Ford vehicles
34 owner complaints filed with NHTSA about Ford vehicles mention P0420 (Catalyst System Efficiency Below Threshold Bank 1) - across 11 models. Below is where it shows up, by model and year.
Can you drive with it? Yes - the car remains driveable. Fix it before emissions testing: this code is an automatic inspection failure in most states.
Symptoms, likely causes in order and realistic repair costs are on the main P0420 page - they do not differ much by brand. This page shows what is specific to Ford: which models and years actually report it.
Ford models reporting P0420
The number next to each year is how many NHTSA complaints for that car mention P0420. Owners rarely quote trouble codes when complaining, so real occurrence is many times higher - use these numbers to compare years, not as totals.
What Ford owners report
“I had my purge valve replaced under 24N07 ford costumer satisfactory program and the faulty purge valve damaged my catalytic converter and caused my engine light to illuminate with P0420.”2013 Ford Focus · May 2026
P0420 on other makes
Makes with enough NHTSA reports of P0420 for their own page.
Counts are NHTSA owner complaints whose text mentions P0420 - owner-reported and unverified. Always confirm with a diagnosis of your specific vehicle.