A recent study has revealed what many in the car community already knew: Ford has the most recalls of every carmaker over the past decade.
My Lemon Firm recently published a deep dive into manufacturer recalls over the past 10 years, analyzing National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recall data from 2016 to 2025. During that time frame, Ford had 582 recalls, putting it far ahead of other automakers. This included a record-breaking 152 recalls in 2025. That’s an average of one Ford recall every 2.5 days.
The deep dive’s runner-up, Chrysler, “only” had 445, followed by Mercedes-Benz with 335, and General Motors with 294. On top of that, Ford had the most vehicles impacted by the recalls, reaching 12.93 million. This was far beyond Chrysler’s 2.78 million and Honda’s 1.56 million.
However, My Lemon Firm noted that “more recalls don’t necessarily mean more dangerous,” a sentiment echoed by Ford supporters on social media.
Are Ford vehicles actually unreliable?
What’s that saying? Found On Road Dead? Fix Or Repair Daily? Either way, Ford can’t seem to escape the stereotype that its vehicles are unreliable — and this study has not really helped much. It clearly doesn’t look good to have the most recalls and most impacted vehicles over the past decade. Luckily, Ford has plenty of loyal supporters who won’t let the slander continue.
“Numbers don’t tell the whole story,” said one driver on Reddit. “Total recalls are bad, but the number of vehicles is less important as a measure when you consider Ford sells more F-150s with the 5.0 than some manufacturers sell across their entire lineup.”
Added another: “That’s great. Now weigh it based on volume and then do a fair comparison.”
This has some truth behind it. The Ford F-Series is America’s best-selling truck, with over 828,800 sales in 2025. There are plenty of Ford F-150s on American roads, and plenty of them have been recalled. There was the loose seat adjuster bolts in 2016, the windshield wiper motor failure and powertrain issues in 2022, the electronic parking brake failure in 2023, and the rear axle hub bolts of 2025, which impacted over 100,000 trucks. And if you noticed, most of these (aside from the rear axle hub bolts which can cause the truck to roll away while in park without a parking brake) are not that serious at all.
My Lemon Firm noted this as well. While 12.93 million Ford vehicles have been impacted by recalls over the past 10 years, only 2,350 of these were the more serious “DO NOT DRIVE” warnings. The study explained: “This shows that big recalls and dangerous recalls aren’t always the same thing. A recall can affect millions of vehicles without creating immediate danger, while a smaller recall can involve serious safety risks.”
It should be noted, of course, that other brands had zero “DO NOT DRIVE” instances. Although BMW had the most: despite only having 510,000 potentially affected vehicles over the past 10 years, 5,361 of those were “DO NOT DRIVE” issues. This is more than double Ford’s despite a lower number of recalls and impacted vehicles, which could be some great information for Ford fans that want to crap on BMW.
However, the evidence can’t be completely denied. Ford is not as dramatically unreliable as the sayings imply, but the carmaker is also not going to ever be in the same conversation as Toyota and Subaru. According to Consumer Reports’ extensive reliability study, Ford is pretty middle-of-the-road. Consumer Reports states that the Maverick and F-150 are “stand-outs” in terms of reliability, but noted that its models are usually not “leaders” in any category when it comes to safety and reliability. At this rating, you’re obviously going to experience some issues. Even Ford fans can’t deny that their beloved vehicles could be somewhat improved.
Said one owner: “And then you have my Bronco. Zero recalls! But a number of things I wish they’d recall and a couple of parts failures!”
And another: “My Ranger also hasn’t had any recalls, that I can recall at least, and it’s a 2020. I have plenty of complaints (the 10-speed transmission is garbage, awful suspension tuning, brakes that wear too quickly, really needs an LSD, etc) that they should address, but no recalls.”
And one more: “I feel similarly about my Mustang. None of the recalls for it have actually been an issue I’ve had, but there are at least two big design flaws that enough people have complained about online that you’d think it’d be recall-worthy. But alas, one I’ve finally fixed on my own, following along a tutorial on YouTube, and the other I’m just stuck with.”
Ford has two major recalls after recent study
There are currently a handful of active recalls impacting Ford vehicles. The automaker recently recalled 4.3 million trucks and SUVs due to a software error that can cause trailer brakes to malfunction and exterior lights to fail while towing. This includes vehicles like the Expedition, Maverick, 2021-2026 Ford F-150, Lincoln Navigator, 2024-2026 Ranger, and more.
Ford also just recalled 412,774 Ford Explorer SUVs, spanning 2017 through 2019, due to suspension issues that could lead to serious accidents. Ford received 26 reports of Explorers swerving off the road or hitting guardrails.
Guess you can add those to the growing list of recalls… But it’s just because Ford is popular, alright!?
Despite the unfortunate study, Ford is feeling pretty optimistic. While sales declined and tariff fees ravaged the carmaker in 2025, it has some pretty exciting plans going forward. Ford’s CEO, Jim Farley, has continued to tout “American innovation” as the company works on a new, cost-effective EV lineup and a new production approach.
