As many are already well aware, Ford has issued more recalls than any other manufacturer for quite some time now, and that trend has only accelerated halfway into 2025. In fact, as Ford Authority recently reported, The Blue Oval held a commanding lead in regard to how many recalls it had issued near the conclusion of June, closing out the first half of the year with 88 of them – a new all-time record not only for a six-month period, but also, an entire calendar year. However, one Ford exec recently stated that this influx of recalls is actually part of a broader plan.
“Ford has significantly improved product quality. Our 2025 initial quality is on track to become among our best ever, and Ford was the most awarded brand in the recent J.D. Power 2025 U.S. Initial Quality Study, with four Ford vehicles topping their segments,” Kumar Galhotra, Ford’s chief operating officer said in a statement.
“The increase in recalls reflects our intensive strategy to quickly find and fix hardware and software issues and go the extra mile to help protect customers. Ford has more than doubled its team of safety and technical experts in the past two years and significantly increased testing to failure on critical systems in current Ford vehicles such as powertrains, steering and braking. Insights from this testing are being incorporated into current production.
We are making progress on software quality, using an enhanced software validation process to help ensure the right software is present on vehicles and using over-the-air updates to address potential warranty issues before they become customer issues.
Modern digital safety systems require new talent, tools, and standards. Ford has deeply invested in those capabilities like connected data signaling and dramatically increased testing on all new products across broad variations in customer use.
In applying these new standards, we can and do find issues that exist on earlier model years, including ones that have not even been reported. We will not compromise our responsibility to all our customers, not just those buying new vehicles.
We believe this approach will lead to systemic and lasting positive change and help us reach world-class levels for quality, safety and customer satisfaction.”
As Ford Authority previously reported, part of Ford’s consent order and agreement with the NHTSA requires the automaker to review every recall issued over the last three years (dating back to November 2021) to ensure they’ve been properly handled and to issue a new recall if necessary, too.
As such, it’s pretty much a given that we’ll continue to see a large number of recalls issued by Ford in the coming months, and that’s certainly been the case in July thus far. In fact, The Blue Oval just recalled 850k 2021-2023 Ford Bronco, Ford Explorer, Lincoln Aviator, Ford Super Duty F-250, F-350, F-450, F-550, 2021-2022 Lincoln Navigator, Ford Mustang, Ford F-150, and 2022 Ford Expedition models over an issue with the fuel pump, as well as 700k 2021-2024 Ford Bronco Sport and 2020-2022 Ford Escape models due to faulty fuel injectors.
Comments
Say whatever makes you feel good Kumar. Your customers think your cars are junk.
I have a HUGE loyal base of Ford customers at a local Ford dealer. I have owned about 12 myself, no problems with mine. I love them. Ford has better handing, power, looks, tech than almost any manufacturer.
I wish that there was a like button. I’m not denying the recalls, the inconvenience, etc… but I’m a long term ford enthusiast and owner. I’ve never had a problem with any of my many fords.
I have owned 11 new Fords since 1997 with no problems.
AMEN!!!
AMEN!!
An feeble attempt to spin reality.
No one wants to deal with endless recalls. No one.
I refuse to live at the Ford dealership
Yeah, good one, that’s funny. Then why is it a battle to get things covered under my Premium Care extended warranties every time? Tell people about possible problems with recalls and fix that stuff but refuse to fix many others. Can’t wait for my next 3.5EB cam phaser rattle repair.
100% agree!
Nice stick handling but guess what? Nobody will believe you.
I am a retiree with 36.5 years on the job with Ford in MS&S.Basically Ford has become King Of The Recalls.
Could you imagine a Ford dealer selling a vehicle and possibly within days that same customer is back with a recall.Where is Allan Mullaway when we need him.
Poor designed, poorly engineered leads to poorly manufactured. I swore after I wrecked my Yukon I would never buy Detroit 3 again. Two Lexus vehicles, a Toyota, and a BMW. Their reliability is impeccable. My son bought a CPO 2022 Ford F-150 Raptor last September. I made an error by not doing enough homework and the Ford dealer was vague. Turns out it was made in Dearborn and shipped and sold in Canada. Someone brought it home and recertified it in a Ford dealer in NY. They screwed up the ICM so we had no parking brake light on the cluster, no oil pressure on the gauge and couldn’t fill up the fuel take. Finally fixed but it took the dealer 40 days to fix it. Ford’s technical service wasn’t very good. Finally fixed it with Forscan. Has both design and engineering issues. Great truck and I love driving it but the quality has been found wanting. 22,500 mile and it just lunched a battery. Jeff Freeman, service manager and Joe Swafford at Suburban Romeo Ford are my heroes. They have taken care of me. I’m just an old accountant with years of experience in the job shop business who they should hire as QC Director because I sadly know more about making vehicles than FMC.
Part of the plan. What are you people smoking? Was it part of the plan to say that Ford’s primary focus is on cost reduction, then deliver cars loaded with flaws? Is that your plan “catch me if you can”?
Maybe if we had car guys running this company instead of tree huggers and professional bureaucrats we’d fire the overpaid executive and hire back some of the engineers and deliver a quality product.
Improving quality via recalls sounds like a good idea. But my experience with recalls are a nightmare when Ford dealership service is so terrible.
And Fords OTA’s are a crap shoot.
Some work ok, but some OTA’s turn off settings setup when vehicle was initially purchased. So back to the owners manual to get your vehicle to where it was the day before.
And OTA’s that kills the 12V battery and leaves you stranded.
And the latest OTA that activated “walk away lock”, but didn’t turn it on. FordPass states that it can be turned on at the lock tab but when you go there, nothing about “walk away lock”.
If they truly wanted to go the extra mile then Ford would make sure that all their vehicle were made correctly to begin with
How did a company that has been making vehicles for over a hundred years forget how to do so? The message I hear is don’t buy a used Ford, don’t buy a new Ford for at least a couple years until this is sorted out, and enjoy your non-Ford vehicle that you bought instead.
I read a lot about all the manufacturers and Ford has some real issues with using the cheapest parts possible. It seems price is the only concern and reliability of the parts used is secondary.
But watching how GM takes care of there customers made me switch to Ford. GM hides there issues and holes that the problem happens after warranty is over. GM 10 speed transmission could be fixed by spending a couple of dollars on a better parts possible. But they tried to hide it for as long as possible. Along with there complete failures of there cylinder deactivation fiasco for years.
So yes I went with Ford as I would rather have a recall then be stuck with the bill later on down the road.
But FORD stop building your vehicles with cheap unreliable parts that are causing these recalls. And bring engineering back to the USA. Your European German engineering is a failure……..
GM hid defective ignition switches from the public and government for 10 years. They could shut off causing the power steering to stop while turning a corner making it near impossible to steer. 30 million cars recalled worldwide, 124 deaths, and 900 million in fines. Mary Barra had to testify before Congress and apologize publicly.
Hate to bust your bubble, but the 10 speed transmission in your Ford is the same one in a gm. It was designed by both gm and Ford.
The GM 10 speed is not the same as the Ford. They were jointly developed, but have different software, valve bodies, and some unique internal components,
What kind of idiotic statement is that, I see the wrong side of a door in his future!
I wish Ford Authority would just delete the comment section on all articles. The Automotive News had to do this because of all the keyboard warriors making negative and sometimes extreme comments on subjects they had little knowledge.
Then don’t read them. Problem solved.
I like reading all the comments, whether I agree with them or not.
Navigation on my 2023 expedition has never been updated since new and after 4 calls to customer service….. takes me home on gravel roads and dead end streets making it impossible to trust…. First call to customer service, their response was customer needs to train the software…..LOL
Sorry Kumar, take it out of the bag, I’m not buying it. First, it isn’t something to brag about that the USG had to issue you a consent decree to get it right. You just got caught and no amount of spinning can turn a consent decree into a magical unicorn. You say “The increase in recalls reflects our intensive strategy to quickly find and fix hardware and software issues and go the extra mile to help protect customers.” The only extra mile I see is all the revolutions caused by Ford’s constant spinning of the facts. You put lipstick on an ugly pig, it’s still a pig. Is your new slogan “Recalls ‘R Us”?
Second, it almost doesn’t matter if you issue a recall as there often are NO engineering design solutions or parts available. How long are we going to have to wait for those rear cameras?
My dealership in Kent, Washington (not naming them but there’s only one in Kent, you can look it up) held my Bronco hostage for approximately 70 days, including two weeks of it where the damn thing was fixed (by replacing an entire rearend) and it wasn’t covered under warranty despite the fact that the monkeys in the service dept still couldn’t tell me what caused the failure. Paid $8700 out of pocket so you idiots could do a science project and charge me for it. The reality is we got the allegedly failed rear end and had our own expert run tests. Ford thought it was a bent axle but didn’t do any run down tests. Nope, we had tests done and it was .0004 within tolerance. That’s less than the thickness of a piece of copy paper. We think the idiots truly couldn’t figure it out, claimed they had to cut the axle (because apparently they hadn’t heard of this cool thing called an axle puller) and then mentioned new rear brakes would be in order. They wasted their time on the rear-end when really it was likely the brakes. For that, they stiffed me for $8700.
We will never own another Ford again. Zero quality, mechanics who can only plug the vehicle into a computer and see what codes they get (no critical analysis or thinking), no commitment to the customer, no honoring of warranties. Maybe that’s how Ford is paying for the fine under the consent decree – not honoring warranties and forcing customers to pay the ransom to get their vehicles out of the hostage situation.
Yep, still ugly pigs. And still a lot of spin, spin, spin.
The culture at Ford is to reward cost reductions, it’s part of every engineers ‘objectives’ which affects performance reviews and merits. There is a rush to get these reductions into production to realize the savings, and many times ‘engineering judgement’ is used ilo full DV and durability testing. Shortly after Ford launches a new vehicle, the cost reduction workshops begin, dragging in suppliers and engineers. Change this culture or the recalls go on.
What a bunch of horse apples. Ford, you really think your customers are going to soak up that oil? Start with firing all your overpaid idiots. That’s how you can reduce costs and dramatically lower prices. Forget about the fancy new high dollar bright ideas and get back to the basics. Quality number one. You should never get in such a hurry to put any vehicle out that you know is going to have recalls. That’s not customers first. That’s stupidity and greed. Seems to me you intentionally produce vehicles that you know aren’t going to last so your dumb customers will have to buy a new one every time they turn around. Really good way of taking care of your loyal customers. We’re not STUPID ford! YOU are! High time you get your heads out of your ___’__ and start making quality vehicles that will last for generations like you used to that don’t need recalls and are affordable. Toyota doesn’t have a recall problem. Because they are smart. However all vehicle manufacturers are way too greedy. 20,000 dollars is too much money for any vehicle. Build them to last and where you can make a sufficient profit that means fire all your unnecessary overpaid corporate idiots and forget about all the unnecessary bs that your vehicles don’t need that just jack up the cost of your vehicles and cause recall after recall. Your executives are rich enough!
I’m old enough to recall the “quality is job one” slogan.
I believe that this goes back to the Ford family for hiring and promoting for the wrong reasons and not being consistant.
I once worked for a company that had similar problems back in the early 90’s and the CEO had everybody come in every Saturday for a morning meeting to report on what they are doing to correct the issue.
Vacations were canceled and no days off were granted.
It took the CEO of Ford way too long to address this.