Executives at Ford have repeatedly stressed that improving quality is important for the company going forward, and have said that the results of this renewed push would soon make itself known. As Ford Authority previously reported, the person in charge of quality said that issues should begin to subside in 2023. Additionally, Ford CEO Jim Farley stated that the first progress metric will be from initial quality. Unfortunately, that particular metric is still showing that the automaker has issues with vehicles that have already reached customers, as Ford Motor Company fared much worse in the J.D. Power 2023 U.S. Initial Quality Study when compared to last year’s results.
The J.D. Power 2023 U.S. Initial Quality Study surveyed 93,380 purchasers and lessees of 2023 model year vehicles early in their ownership period. The study, conducted from February through May 2023, revealed that owners are experiencing more problems with their vehicles than last year, with the publication reporting that the results are the worst in the study’s 37 year history. Overall, problems per 100 vehicles increased from 180 in 2022 to 192 for the most recent study. Owners reported more problems with vehicle controls and with infotainment.
Unfortunately, Ford branded vehicles contributed to its below average ranking, coming in at 201 problems per 100 vehicles, or a whopping 34 additional problems on average than 2022. By contrast, key rivals like Dodge (140), Chevy (166), and Kia (170), beat out Ford, while other rivals like Mazda (203), Volkswagen (249), and Chrysler (250) fared worse than The Blue Oval.
This latest study seems to match up with what other publications have been saying. Consumer Reports says the Ford Explorer and Ford F-150 should be avoided, which lines up with what the organization reported for its annual reliability survey, where the brand dropped four spots from 2022. Currently, Ford has two overall quality improvement targets for 2025. It expects its body-on-frame pickup and utility vehicles to have best-in-class quality by 2025 and all other vehicles to land in the top quartile by the same date.
We’ll have more on Ford’s efforts to improve quality soon, so subscribe to Ford Authority for the latest Ford news updates.
Comments
Obviously the JD Power results are flawed. They’re telling us a RAM truck & Dodge is better quality than a Toyota? I call bull
The Ram truck and the Silverado/Sierra are better than the F-Series in every way… except sales.
You believe there better? There powertrains certs are not!
Take it with a grain of salt, IQS is based on owner surveys. I bet a good dealer experience would take a company up a notch or two even if the vehicle quality didn’t warrant it. IQS is just out of the door anyways. What really matters is long term quality once the lipstick wears off the pig.
This debacle falls squarely on the laps of The Jims… Farley and Furniture Boy. They did not make quality a priority until this problem was so bad that JF needed to react to save his job. They diluted the organization’s attention, then JF blamed engineering. Truly great leaders help their team to succeed, but this “leader” blamed his team.
Crappy quality, cheap interiors, blatant content reductions, and premium prices all add up to No Sale. Bad transmissions, bad transfer cases and bad wheel bearings should not occur within 200k miles… but are occurring in less than 100k miles. Squeaks and rattles are common, as are touch screen hiccups and other gremlins. If Ford wants people to believe the quality is better, then Ford MUST stand behind the products… offering a best-in-industry warranty… 10 year, 120k bumper-to-bumper warranty. Jim, it’s past time to put your money where your mouth is!
Everyone has a role in delivering quality products and services. My guess is the UAW is also pissed about Ford’s quality, as they don’t want to take the blame. So, I expect this will be part of the negotiations in September. I predict the negotiations will be very, very difficult for Ford.
You are spot on !!
Your way over actual concerns here. A bit of a stretch.
Keep focusing on electric crap that very few people want and ignore your bread and butter customers. Wwwwwoooookkkkkeeee.
The industry is in a huge shift right now, practically every affordable passenger car or CUV will be an EV going forward. Full size trucks and SUVs will be the dominant ICE vehicles thanks to silly emissions and mileage rules that give those vehicles a huge break even though they are predominantly used as passenger vehicles and not their intended purpose.
Also, hard to take anybody seriously when they slather a comment with “woke” since it seems “woke” is just code for “what really grinds my gears”.
Not true at all.
Would love to find out for myself but, I can’t. Ordered my 2023 Ford F-450 Platinum 10-28-22 and still don’t have a Vin # or Schedule date of when the truck will be built. 8 months and still waiting !!!!
That’s nothing LOL! 16 months to get my 2022, ultimately 2023 Mav Hybrid…but 4K mikes into it have to say (knock on wood) loving it… Good luck getting your beast! Sounds amazing!
U will get it soon. Pls check w/ your local dealer. Have them do further in depth search.
I think a more telling statistic would not be a comparison among different brands, but showing a comparison between models within a given brand. As we all know by now, each company has it winners and losers, and I think it would be more telling as to why there is that differential.
Ford hired a ‘downstream’-focused quality czar from JD Power. JD Power has long been a highly respected source for analysis of after-the-sale (aka, ‘downstream’) data. The source of Ford’s quality problems is upstream of operations and engineering but Mr. Farley and his czar do not appear to recognize that based on their media statements. If you review the Ford media statements related to their worsening quality woes they are all ‘downstream’-focused. You can’t reduce long-term costs without improving customer-perceived quality. That’s what we did around 1980 when I worked at Ford as new product launch team leader and also responsible for supplier development and certification. We went from worst to first by undoing what Mr. Farley and his czar say they are doing to address their quality problems.
Ford engineering is cause most of it problems….and never seem to get a 4 cylinder engine good….then all the Ecoboost as boosted problems i own one….they should start offering simpler engines…non turbo…and direct injection..seems they more interested in horsepower than reliabilty….the only good thing for quaility i seen them do lately….is going back to simple pushrod engine…non turbo or direct injection for the F 250…7.3…..if a person wants to find out problems…go to all data…and look for tsbs….not JD POWER….or other bought and paid for publications
The gen2 GTDI Ecoboost 2.0L / 2.3L are best in the business..says so many independent sources. What are you talking about??
There seems to be no uproar about Toyota being one slot above Ford. The Detroit Free press has a long article about Ford, but nothing about Toyota.
Toyota is always left out of things. There vehicles are low tech, low power & terrible designs.