Ford Motor Co. set a record for recall notices to consumers in 2025 with 152, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. General Motors previously held the record with 77 in 2014. Now, Ford is claiming that all of those recalls were a good thing.

Nearly 13 million vehicles were recalled by Ford in 2025 for failures such as loose front seats, fuel fire risks, engine fire risks, rollaway risks, dangerous airbags, and just plain falling apart while driving them.

According to Kumar Galhotra, Ford’s chief operating officer, no one at the company sees that as a big problem.

“I would like the consumers to know that we stand behind our products,” Galhotra recently told The Detroit News. “Our initial quality has improved substantially this year, and if something does go wrong with their vehicle, I want them to know that we will act promptly to take care of it.”

Ford tries to explain why it set a new record for recall notices in 2025, and why that isn’t a bad thing

Ford executives claim that the company set a new single-year record for recall notices because of its prioritization of quality, safety, and warranty cost reductions.

“Our warranty costs are going down, and that’s obviously directly related to improving initial quality of the vehicles that we’re selling, improving the cost of repairs, and lowering the repairs for vehicles already in customers’ hands,” said Galhotra.

It’s all just a byproduct of Ford doubling its safety team over the past two years and testing critical systems to the point of failure. Also, 40 of the 152 recalls issued by Ford in 2025 were reissues related to software. They just wanted to make sure they had installed the software correctly.

In fact, at least according to Josh Halliburton, Ford’s executive director of quality, despite a record number of recall notices, Ford’s initial quality for products rolling off the line in 2025 is among its best ever.