Ford breaks an unfortunate General Motors recall record | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

There’s a new type of stress that potential car buyers are shouldering in 2025 as they consider their options.

President Trump’s tariffs have placed a major stress on the automotive industry as a whole. A 25% tariff on imported cars went into effect on April 3, followed by additional tariffs on car parts on May 3.

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These changes pushed major automakers such as Ford and Toyota to announce price increases — and that came before Trump announced a new 50% tariff on copper imports, which are vital in the car manufacturing process.

It all adds up to a scare for American consumers who are planning to buy a vehicle. The average cost of a new car was $48,799 in May, per Kelley Blue Book — but that’s likely the last time prices will be that low, as sellers are still selling current inventory that they had on hand before tariffs hit.

If you feel pressured to buy fast before prices rocket and are thinking about buying from all-American favorite Ford (F) , there’s one crucial thing you should consider before you move forward with your decision.

Ford’s profits are up, but it’s battling a concerning problem.

Image source&colon; Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Ford’s problems with recalls

While no one likes dealing with a vehicle recall, typically auto companies try to make the process as pain-free as possible.

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Unfortunately, however, there are simply more of them these days. In the decade between 2012 and 2022, car recalls went up 46%, per data from the National Highway Traffic Administration (NHTSA).

One company that has had a lot of recalls this year is Ford. The company has issued 89 recalls in the first six months of 2025, a number that seems extremely high considering the short span of time.

The number also breaks a record. The last big automaker to hold the record for the most recalls in a calendar year was General Motors, which had 77 recalls in 2014. Ford has exceeded that number in half the time.

The automaker’s most recent recall affected 850,000 due to a potential low-pressure fuel pump failure and was issued by the NHTSA on July 8. According to the recall, the pump failure could result in an engine stall while driving.

If you’re a Ford driver and concerned your vehicle may be included, you can check the NHTSA website for recalls using your license plate number or VIN number.

CEO says Ford’s problems are a ‘regret’

Ford’s quality issues are no secret to the automaker’s CEO Jim Farley, who told investors in 2024 at a Wolfe Research investor conference that he has “big regrets” about not moving to fix the problem sooner.

“The capability atrophied in engineering, supply chain, and manufacturing at Ford,” Farley said. “It needed a much more fundamental reset than I had realized.”

Farley also said at the time that he believed the key to fixing the problem lay in company culture changes.

“You have to set up a culture shift, a performance reward system where every engineering manager, purchasing component manager, every plant manager is fully accountable for the quality and cost of their work,” he said.

Despite its ongoing recall issues, Ford’s sales are up, thanks in part to an extremely clever marketing tactic called “From America, For America” that offered customers employee pricing on vehicles.

“Ford increased sales in the first half of the year 6.6% to 1.11 million units. Even its struggling EV lineup saw a nearly 15% increase to 156,509 units. Total vehicle sales in the second quarter were up more than 14%,” reports TheStreet’s Tony Owusu.