I look at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s recall portal every day to see what’s gone wrong with the cars sold in America, and things are not looking good for Ford. At the time of writing, the NHTSA site shows that Ford has already issued 34 recalls in 2026, almost triple the next worst offender. For the record, General Motors, Chrysler, and Toyota take up the next three spots on the list with 12 recalls each, followed by Hyundai with 10 recalls and Volkswagen with nine. After Ford claimed an unwanted record by issuing 153 recalls in 2025, almost doubling the previous record held (77 recalls) by GM since 2014, one might have expected 2026 to be better, but it may actually get worse.
Ford Has Already Recalled Almost 10 Million Cars in 2026
Ford
Over all of last year, Ford recalls impacted almost 13 million vehicles, but according to new analysis by Motor1, the Blue Oval is already well on its way to beating that number, with its 34 recalls so far impacting a whopping 9,812,890 vehicles, and we’re barely more than a third of the way into 2026. The biggest recall so far affects 4.3 million pickup trucks and SUVs that have a software error, which could cause the trailer brakes and exterior lights to stop working. While this is an admittedly simple issue that is being resolved via an over-the-air software update, it’s still concerning that so many vehicles can be rendered noncompliant with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. Other recalls have not been so simple.
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Roughly 180,000 Broncos and Rangers were recalled last week for loose front seat height-adjustment pivot link bolts, and in March, Ford recalled thousands of Super Duty pickups for failing high-pressure fuel pumps. More recently, Ford recalled some 422,613 pickups and SUVs over faulty windshield wiper arms, and the Bronco Sport and Maverick were recalled last month due to airbag-related issues.
Ford Says Recalls Are a Good Thing
Ford’s troubles have attracted plenty of media attention, but the automaker says that these recalls should be viewed as harbingers of future quality improvements. Ford says it’s more than doubled its team of safety and technical experts over the last two years and put its critical systems through much tougher tests to find problems before vehicles are shipped to customers. Of the vehicles that do reach the road, Ford says it has chosen to recall vehicles early instead of waiting for real-world issues to become impossible to ignore. The Blue Oval is also working to make same-day repairs easier to achieve. Back in 2022, Ford CEO Jim Farley told engineers that fixing quality was his number 1 priority, but that seeing the fruits of these efforts would “take several years.” It’s been a few years since he made that statement, and Farley said in late 2025 that powertrain durability is now “competitive with Toyota.” Based on the way 2026 is going, however, Ford still has a long way to go.
