After it became the automaker with the most recalls, the most recalled vehicles, and the biggest single recall in 2022, Ford vowed to address quality concerns. The fruits of that effort have yet to be felt, as the Detroit automaker has yet again topped the charts for most recalls.
In the first half of the year, Ford has issued 31 recalls in the United States, five more than second-place Stellantis, and 13 more than BMW, data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) shows. It should hardly come as a surprise, then, that it has the most vehicles affected by such a campaign in the industry.
Ford’s 31 recalls affect a total of 4.1 million vehicles, nearly twice as many as Stellantis, and nearly 4 million more than BMW. However, despite those automakers’ large volumes of recalls, Honda-Acura was the manufacturer with the second-most affected vehicles. Although it has initiated only 11 campaigns through June, they potentially impact a total of 2.8 million vehicles.
Recalls First Half Of 2023
Read: The Biggest Recalls And The Most Recalled Automakers Of 2022
Similarly, although it didn’t appear on the list of the 12 most recalled automakers in America, Tesla’s eight campaigns potentially affect a total of 366,922 vehicles. That makes it the automaker with the fifth most vehicle possibly impacted by a recall campaign.
The total number of vehicles affected by a recall is not necessarily an accurate reflection of how many vehicles are driving around dangerously. The number is a gauge of how many vehicles contain a suspect part, which means that it is an inflated number, particularly for automakers that share components between vehicles. Automakers also argue that recall campaigns are a good thing, allowing them to improve safety even after a vehicle has left the factory.
“Vehicle safety is of primary importance at Stellantis,” Eric Mayne, a company spokesperson, told Autonews. “Accordingly, we continuously monitor the performance of our vehicles in the field, which helps us identify potential issues in an expeditious manner.”
Indeed, safety advocates agree that recalls are a valuable tool companies and regulators leverage to keep consumers safe and, to some extent, are inevitable in an imperfect world. However, a high volume of recalls can indicate a lapse in quality, and Ford says it’s looking to address that.
In May, it introduced a “zero-defect launch process” at its Kentucky and Ohio assembly plants for the 2023 F-Series Super Duty pickup truck. At that plant (and elsewhere) it is introducing more quality checks on the line to help identify issues before they reach customers.
“Our goal is to have best-in-class quality performance for F-150, Super Duty, Bronco and Ranger trucks and Transit vans by 2025 — and to be among the leaders in all other segments,” Maria Buczkowski, a Ford spokesperson told Autonews. “Where we didn’t prevent quality issues in the first place, our obligation to customers is to detect and resolve them as quickly as possible.”
