Ford is still haunted by this one, costly issue | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

Ford (F) has a recall problem that it claims it has under control.

Costs associated with recalls and customer satisfaction claims, what Ford calls field service actions (FSA), account for about 40% of Ford’s warranty costs.

The other 60% covers bumper-to-bumper and powertrain warranty coverage.

“We are not satisfied with the current level of recalls or the number of vehicles impacted. We are working to reduce the cost of these recalls,” said Chief Operating Officer Kuman Galhorta.

Ford says that about a third of its recalls over the past three years have been software-related, and over-the-air recalls cost 95% less than physical ones.

But Galhorta says that the majority of its recalls are “tied to vehicles engineered several years ago before we made all the robust process changes across our industrial system.”

As bad as the recent spate of recalls has been, Ford says FSA costs for 2024 and 2025 model-year vehicles are at least 50% better than those for 2020 and 2022 model-year vehicles.

Still, Ford issued yet another recall on Friday that affects another few hundred thousand vehicles over a potentially serious issue.

Certain 2025 Ford Bronco models were subject to a recent recall.

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Ford issues recall for 2025 models of several popular vehicles

Last week, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced that Ford is recalling 312,120 vehicles in the U.S due to a brake assist issue that could cause the loss of that function.

Affected vehicles include:

2025 Ford Bronco
2025 Ford Expedition
2025 Ford F-150
2025 Ford Ranger
2025 Lincoln Navigator

Ford will start mailing letters to owners starting August 25. Owners can contact Ford customer service at 1-866-436-7332.

This year, the revived Ford Bronco has been one of Ford’s best sellers. The company sold 30,000 Broncos in May alone.

The vehicle has become so popular that, according to Ford Blue and Model e President Andrew Frick, the four-door Bronco beat the iconic Jeep Wrangler in sales for the seventh consecutive month through July.

But now, the Bronco is caught up in this latest recall along with the F-150, America’s best-selling truck.

Ford has had a ton of recalls in 2025

Through the first six months of the year, Ford issued 89 recalls, easily breaking a record that had stood for a decade.

General Motors issued 77 recalls in all of 2014. Ford was able to surpass that number in just six months.

Ford CEO Jim Farley emphasized that the number of recalls and the costs they incur are not directly related.

But in July, Ford issued a recall of more than 694,000 2021-2024 Bronco Sport vehicles, 2020-2022 Escape vehicles, and 2019-2024 Kuga vehicles due to cracked fuel injectors that could leak fuel into the engine and increase the risk of fire.

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The field service action for that one recall will cost Ford about $570 million, which was reflected in Ford’s second-quarter results.

That cost is piled onto the $2 billion tariffs are costing Ford this year.

“We expect tariffs to be a net headwind of about $2,000,000,000 this year, and we’ll continue to monitor the developments closely and engage with policymakers to ensure U.S. auto workers and customers are not disadvantaged by policy change.”