Ford had a strong sales record in 2025, but nagging quality control issues had the company spending much of the year explaining why it had shattered General Motors’ decade-old recall record by June. This week, a transmission issue with its most popular vehicle is facing an expanded probe from the National Highway Traffic Administration.
In 2023, Ford spent $4.8 billion fixing customer vehicles, a 15% increase from the previous year. It set aside $1,203 per car sold that year for warranty repairs, according to Warranty Week.
A recent study by iSeeCars.com analyzing 31 years of recall history found that Ford is the least proactive car brand when it comes to issuing a recall. Fewer than 30% of the cars recalled over the last three decades were due to a problem Ford found on its own.
To remedy this problem, in 2024, Ford initiated a new quality assurance program that incorporates “testing vehicles to failure,” running them “at extremely high mileage” in order to find potential problems before customers do.
At the time, CEO Jim Farley said the new approach would “reduce warranty (costs) over time,” but over a year later, time may be running out for the company to get the issue under control.
Between January 2024 and mid-2025, Ford initiated 94 recalls affecting nearly 6 million vehicles. By July, Ford had issued its 89th recall of 2025, easily surpassing GM’s 2014 record of 78 recalls for the entire year.
Ford issued nearly 140 recalls in 2025. Ford accounted for 35% of U.S. auto recalls last year, according to the National Highway Traffic Administration. Stellantis, in second place for the number of recalls, only accounted for 12%.
Ford CEO Jim Farley has paid billions to fix his company’s vehicles in recent years.
Photo by MANDEL NGAN on Getty Images
NHTSA opens initial probe into Ford F-150 over transmission issues
Last March, investigators at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administrationopened a preliminary evaluation into 2015-2017 model year Ford F-150 pickup trucks after 138 customers complained about an issue with the truck’s gearbox.
Ford drivers reported that their F-150s unexpectedly downshifted to lower gears while traveling at highway speeds, followed by rapid deceleration, without the driver touching anything or the vehicle displaying any warning, according to the complaints.
One complaint came from a 2016 F-150 owner from Ohio, who said, “The truck automatically shifted from 6th Gear to first gear, nearly throwing me through the windshield” while traveling 70 miles per hour on the highway.
So the agency opened a probe into 1,270,970 F-150 pickup trucks to investigate the issue. On Monday, the NHTSA announced that it was expanding its investigation.
NHTSA expands investigation into 2015 – 2017 Ford F-150s over dangerous transmission issue
A little under 10 months ago, the NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation opened a Preliminary Evaluation to investigate consumer complaints about their Ford F-150 pickups suddenly downshifting on their own.
Complainants had similar stories about their vehicles. Their cars would rapidly decelerate without warning, and the rear wheel would either lockup, seize or skid temporarily, causing loss of control and increasing the risk of crash.
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2015-2016 F-150s equipped with the 6R80 transmission were subject to a frightening defect, and 2017 models with either the 6R80 or 10R80 transmission were affected.
Now, the ODI says it has identified an additional potential safety defect after preliminary testing found that the signal loss to the Transmission Range Sensor that causes the issue with the transmission could also cause a vehicle to change direction suddenly.
“Specifically, if a vehicle is operating in reverse up an incline when the TRS signal loss occurs, then the vehicle may shift into neutral, causing the vehicle to change directions and roll forward,” the NHTSA said.
ODI says it has identified 329 customer complaints related to the issue, and 60% of the customers interviewed confirmed the allegations.
Ford promises recall troubles are in the past
Ford has addressed its quality issues multiple times in recent quarters during their earnings calls.
“Improving quality is the single biggest driver to close our cost gap. Better qualitylowers warranty expense and reduces recalls,” CFO Kumar Galhotra said during his opening remarks during the third quarter earnings call.
He identified four areas of focus for the company:
- Seamless launch execution
- Minimal defects
- Greater reliability
- Time
Ford says it is already making progress and is “on track” for best-in-class performance across six of its nameplates, with three other nameplates in the top quartile, according to J.D. Power warranty analytics data.
“You need time to clear the car park of old issues. It all starts with a clean launch. A bad launch creates years of warranty and recall problems. Over the past two years, we have radically improved our launch quality,” Galhorta said.
The company also reported lower year-over-year third-quarter warranty costs, down $450 million.
But last week, Ford announced it is recalling 116,672 Ford and Lincoln models due to a dangerous issue that could cause vehicles to short-circuit and catch fire.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued Recall No. 26V011.
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