It’s no secret that Ford has faced its fair share of quality issues in recent years, as The Blue Oval was the most recalled automaker of 2022. Ford CEO Jim Farley has admitted on multiple occasions that quality is a major focus for the company moving forward, and recently brought in quality turnaround specialist and former J.D. Power Vice President Josh Halliburton as his new executive director of quality, who expects things to being to improve this year – though Farley has a more pessimistic take on the matter. In the meantime, Ford ranked below average in the 2022 Consumer Reports annual reliability survey, yet above average in the J.D. Power 2022 U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study. Now, J.D. Power’s 2023 Dependability Study has been released, and it shows that Ford suffered a significant drop in those rankings.
Last year, Ford averaged 188 problems per 100 vehicles (PP100), which ranked it above the industry average of 192 problems per 100 vehicles, as well as 16th among all automotive brands. However, the 2023 Dependability Study shows that FoMoCo plummeted to 29th place – near the bottom of the pack – with 249 problems per 100 vehicles. Meanwhile, the industry as a whole actually improved by 6 PP100, from 195 to 186, year-over-year.
The 2023 U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study is based on the responses of 30,062 original owners of 2020 model-year vehicles after three years of ownership. It examines how 2020 model-year vehicles are currently performing in terms of quality, component replacement, and appeal – including those vehicles with new technology – and helps automotive manufacturers design and build better vehicles to stand the test of time and promote higher resale value. This year’s study covers 184 specific problem areas across nine major vehicle categories – climate; driving assistance; driving experience; exterior; features/controls/displays; infotainment; interior; powertrain; and seats.
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Comments
Under Farley’s tenure the stock price has dropped, the quality has reached rock bottom, recorded a 2 billion loss, and forced the company into money losing EV’s. When will Bill Ford wake up.
How much FUD can one nutjob shoehorn into a single comment??
What are you even talking about?
Since Farley became CEO Ford stock is up ca 65%.
Ford’s quality is actually improving and will get better as older platforms are superseded by newer tech that is simpler and more robust.
The loss Ford had was a book loss related to sunk cost write offs in robot car tech company Argo made by Farley’s predecessors. Farley stanched the bleeding from that not ready for prime time technology.
I suppose if Bill F heard your comment he would politely smile at the ignorance displayed by it, thank you and then be on his way.
Ford stock has gone from roughly $24 to $13 within the last two years. As noted Ford has the highest recalls of any manufacturer. I am a long time Ford fan and work for a Ford dealer. You should see how many competitor brand cars are in our employee lot. I am hoping for Ford’s success but it may be without Farley. The only nut job around here is RWFA.
great points, Richard. RWFA is a pompous know-it-all, desperate of attention.
They let him out of the west wing once a day to call people names and show how little he knows.
Love the attention, and giving it back, especially from and to two of my fav K-street silly boys, Scott and Will because they complete me.
Hi Richard,
You would do well to study comparisons in stock rather than numbly look at raw numbers as our scrum of K-street trolls encourage readers here to do.
From the time Farley came in, Ford’s stock is up 65%, in the same period (appx.):
– Tesla up 34
– Apple up 25
– DJIA up 18
– Toyota up 9
– NASDAQ up 7
– GM down 8
Now, you can take your cues from the K-street troll team or the hater nutjobs and those with dystopic visions or you can step back and look at facts and progress that is actually happening.
Closing stock price 3/16/21 – $12.49
Closing stock price 3/16/23 – $11.82
I remember buying some Ford stock for $6.01 on 3/10/20. I should have bought a lot more!!
Remember Ford’s tagline a few decades ago? “Quality is Job one. Somehow, Farley missed that. He needs a replica of President Truman’s desk sign in his executive suite, “The buck stops here”.
He’s clearly enamored with E-vehicles. No question that segment has to be developed but not at the expense of building quality, reliable ICE vehicles, expanding Ford’s very limited hybrid offerings (relative to market leader Toyota), and providing attractive, reliable, quality products for the mass market.
LoL you are calling for Ford to add hybrids just as Toyota is embarking on superseding hybrid with BEV tech.
As for Ford’s BEV taking away from handling current quality issues, those topics are handled by two nearly separate parts of the organization.
Don’t know what planet RWFA is on. The 2022 results were due to bad investments, plus Bidenflation, plus over staffing, plus disappointing vehicle sales. Look at the model by model results from 4Q. Mostly terrible, and mostly due to the company’s horrible quality control. And these are not old platforms. In fact, the old platform Mustang is one of their most problem free models. Supply chain problems? GM figured it out. Tesla figured it out. What’s with Ford? Ford is paying more attention to EVs and being the wokest of the woke. BTW, that’s a ranking in which they do well. So, how’s that working out, Jim?
Ford is losing its customer base due to Jimmy. Go woke go broke (just ask Disney).
K-street Travis with more crisp analysis that we come here to chuckle over.
Adding woke just gave it so much more gravitas.
Bruce,
I’m on Earth 1, where facts don’t bend to Maga rhetoric.
Your comment is a casserole of so many apple and oranges comparisons and factoids devoid of context and timelines baked in a hearth of glowing ignorance it’s not really worth refuting point by point but it is exceptional in two ways, it’s both a misleading trailing indicator and a lousy leading indicator.
Y’all sound a bit harsh today…your comments reflect growing disappointment…. but not the facts of the matter. Ford will fix the quality glitches…. only concern is will they do it in time and continue in the same fashion as a dedicated vehicle manufacturer? Farley knows an industry consolidation is way past due…the opportunities to build product under license are huge.
Many of those comments reflect rank stupidity and pro trolling.
What better way to get ahead of the consolidation trend than by investing in the new tech that is fast becoming mainstream, so those investments are paying for themselves while your competition is still futzing around protecting their sunk investments in ICE and hybrid?
Jim Farley destroying a once great company. He even stated at the earnings call ‘Toyota isn’t having these’ issues…well duh, they didn’t put an unwanted focus on electrics like you did Jim. His days are numbered as pressure is mounting on him, Ford stocks are in the gutter while Toyota’s thrive.
MachE was recently dropped by Consumer Reports due to poor quality. EVs are a loss for both corporation and customers.
LoL backward looking surveys giveth and take the away again…
CR recommended the car as most reliable EV, then after issues now long ago remediated removed that recommendation.
Big deal. It’s still bottom of the first inning.
Those 600 recent hire engineers for the self drive program should have been 600 quality engineers
Please explain how that works in your mind?
Well, we’ve covered it all today gentlemen. Two major agreements struck…1) Ford and Farley have some work to do. 2) RFWA needs to take up golf or something as his Post Ford retirement gig as an Armchair Marketing Representative just isn’t working out.
Keep up all the comments, the freedom of expression and opinion is one of many reasons I served a long Military career!
LoL not retired and never worked for Ford.
Thanks for your service, seriously, in addition to incisive or knowledgeable commentary, it allows even the bad faith trolls and the ignorant haters a chance to vent their spleens to the amusement of the rest of us.
At Ford, quality is NO LONGER job one, or two, or……..
Admit Q has taken a hit these past several years but it’s part of a long term circular problem with the company.
But Farley has been pretty transparent about the problem, the need, the actions, and the expected timeline.
He’s making the moves that a good CEO makes (using Deming’s PDCA cycle as an overall guide and within that doing the following):
– recognizing and admitting the problem exists, describing it in unambiguous terms and communicating it often;
– lining up solutions and presenting a plan (he’s doing this on both the strategic corporate and product execution levels);
– providing funding and resources;
– setting the tone, expectations and cadence and pounding on this messaging;
– getting the wrong people off the bus;
– getting the right people on the bus;
– getting those right people in the right seats;
– giving the team their strategic assignments and letting them implement tactical responses;
– monitoring progress and taking action in making adjustments;
– being grateful and laudatory where they succeed;
– holding them accountable where they fail;
– holding himself accountable when the team fails (-40% cut in bonus);
– all while Farley points the big Blue bus in the right direction and keeps the pedal to the floor.
This is a big organization with a lot of obvious and some not so obvious latent and entrenched problems that are being worked through; as new policy, process and product comes on line quality will improve (improvement may not be steady, linear or uniform across the renaissance though because things are never like that.)
Farley is trying to get Ford out of always falling behind and then betting the franchise by being dependent on revival home runs by playing hustle small ball.*
* from Wiki: “In the sport of baseball, small ball is an informal term for an offensive strategy in which the batting team emphasizes placing runners on base and then advancing them into scoring position for a run in a deliberate, methodical way.”
Now, I’d also like to point you to an article I cut out of the WSJ-Europe and have had framed these last 30 years: The Five Deadly Business Sins by Peter Drucker. It’s brilliant retrospective, prospective, prescient and prescriptive; it has informed much of my business outlook and actions these many years. (A link follows my commentary and analysis).
The sins:
– worship of high profit margins, and “premium pricing”;
(This is where Ford has to be right now as they fix the business and move from ICE to BEV, but eventually they will need to return to making a profit in volume segments.)
– mispricing a new product by “charging with the market will bear”;
(Ford demonstrated recognition of this in its recent move to cut price on Mach-E. It didn’t want to open space for Tesla, or others, by sticking to a high price.)
– cost-driven pricing vs price-driven costing;
(The volume part of the industry hasn’t done this for 30 years, exclusive builders do this to some degree to their own peril);
– “slaughtering tomorrow’s opportunity on the altar of yesterday”;
(This is what kills many companies, like Blackberry. Ford realized this and killed cars because it needed resources for Maverick and what’s to come; doing this takes courage as it is an alpha baller move).
– “Feeding problems while starving opportunities“ (here Drucker presages the dissipative Death of Sears – God how I miss their Tool Department.)
(This reinforces the last point, and deftly speaks to Ford’s Q issues. It’s a tight robe balancing act. Ford obviously has to incrementally improve current product quality, but it shouldn’t let marginal improvement to late in cycle platforms distract from the needed step change that will come from better designed clean sheet platforms.
Ford can’t risk its resources and future profit and quality by dissipative devotion to also ran car segments or Q improvement tunnel vision chasing best in class IQS rankings for vehicles in their terminal phase of their lifecycle.)
wsj.
com/articles/SB10001424052748704204304574544283192325934
I took delivery on my F150 Lariat on 9/3/20. It’s been great except for the 10 sp trans which occasionally has a hard shift into 5th. (I’m not alone with that issue). I don’t consider recalls as quality problems if I personally haven’t experienced the actual problem. I had the windshield wiper arm recall fixed in 9/22 – never actually had any problems with the windshield wipers. I feel that the car mfrs need to be proactive and issue recalls when they find a problem starting to occur. That’s just good customer relations. In fact, in the 7 new Fords I’ve ordered and taken delivery of, I’ve NEVER experienced any of the problems the recalls addressed. Some of the other car mfrs drag their feet and what until they’re finally forced to do something. (Remember the Toyota throttle linkage software issue from 2018?)