Ford Motor Company is in an embarrassing situation. Its 88th recall of 2025 broke the record for most recalls in a single year. And we still have half of 2025 to go. The company line is that higher quality control is leading to the increased recalls, and the silver lining is that its learning to build future Fords better. Sounds good, but there’s only one problem. It’s not true.

Take Ford’s recall numbers with a grain of salt

First and foremost, it’s not necessarily a bad thing when an automaker has issued a bunch of recalls. It’s common to discover issues with already-sold cars, and there are multiple ways to take care of your buyers. When GM recently discovered a potential misfiring issue with its crossovers, it didn’t recall them. It instead issued an “information bulletin” warning dealerships to look the vehicles over next time they were in for recall work. Does that make GM worse or better than other automakers? No, it’s just the company’s unique solution.

That said, Ford has issued more 2025 recalls than the next five automakers combined. Some of these are minor issues or only affect a few dozen vehicles. But others are major build quality issues that affect a tone of vehicles. Ford has recalled over 3 million vehicles so far this year.

Chief Operating Officer Kumar Galhotra recently offered a positive spin on Ford’s record recall numbers. “The increase in recalls reflects our intensive strategy to quickly find and fix hardware and software issues and go the extra mile to help protect customers.”

He added that one systemic change is: “Significantly increased testing to failure on critical systems in current Ford vehicles such as powertrains, steering and braking.” In addition to physical systems, he claims software is under the microscope. “We are making progress on software quality, using an enhanced software validation process.”

What Galhotra conveniently left out is that at the end of 2024, the NHTSA was so concerned with how Ford handled a recall that it hit the automaker with the second biggest fine its ever issued. It also ordered Ford to audit all its past recalls, and Ford discovered that much of the software it had promised to update had never been installed.

But at the end of the day, this is a good learning opportunity for the entire industry. Whatever spurred this focus on quality control, the result will be the same. The COO concluded, “Ford has significantly improved product quality. Our 2025 initial quality is on track to become among our best ever.”