Unfortunately, your worries are well-founded—Ford SUVs are generally not reliable compared to other options on the market. Ford ranked 18th out of 28 brands in reliability in a study from Consumer Reports. Moreover, none of the seven SUVs from Ford ranked in the top 10 of the same reliability studies.
The Ford Explorer, in particular, fared far worse than any other model. It’s officially the second-least reliable vehicle on the market today, beating only the Mercedes-Benz GLE.
Despite the lack of reliability, several Ford SUVs get great marks from critics. The Edge, Escape, Bronco, and Bronco Sport all get stellar reviews from Car and Driver and MotorTrend, so those might be some options to consider.