Ford’s Recall Problem Is Getting Too Big to Ignore

[YaBoiNewton]

I saw this coming when I retired in 2002. The push to go faster meant short cut proveout. I am amazed Farley is still CEO. The buck stops at Farley's desk. Sad time for Ford with the Black Eyes they are getting with all these recalls. OEM suppliers are slipping. Where is Ford SQA, Supplier Quality Assurance.

There is certainly a pacing problem in the industry. Even if the engineering is good, there is still immense pressure on purchasing & SQA to hit timing and pricing goals that allows even tier 2 and 3 supplier issues slip through. It relies on everyone in the global supply chain to understand the downstream consequences of their job. That process becomes significantly more difficult when engineering is on one continent and the entire supply chain from material to OEM assembly plant is on another.

Personally I believe that in this business the design authority for any given product must heavily audit PPAP & any supplier quality approval to be successful. I think you'd be pleased with Ford's current level of scrutiny - definitely a result of their recall problem.

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[Colo_Ranger]

Farley at the same meeting

More like:

 

[Sojourner]

You'd think with this new restructuring coming at Ford HQ over the next few years that Ford would have created a Chief, Recall Elimination Oversight (CROE). Could pay for the position out of Farley's ludicrously large compensation package.

 

[AzScorpion]

You'd think with this new restructuring coming at Ford HQ over the next few years that Ford would have created a Chief, Recall Elimination Oversight (CROE). Could pay for the position out of Farley's ludicrously large compensation package.

No need for another bloated salary. It'd be easier (and more profitable) to just get rid of Farley!

 

[veedubtuner]

No need for another bloated salary. It'd be easier (and more profitable) to just get rid of Farley!

Get rid of Farley so he can go work for Xiaomi since he likes their EV's so much lol.

 

[AzScorpion]

And it continues....

These are pickups from 2015-2017 and have the 6R80 transmission. After all these years it looks like they just can't get their transmissions right.

Ford Recalls 1.4 Million Top-Selling F-150s Over Downshifting Issue

https://autos.yahoo.com/safety-and-recalls/articles/ford-recalls-1-4-million-153312738.html

Ford on Friday issued a recall involving nearly 1.4 million of its top-selling F-150 pickup trucks over an issue that may cause the vehicles to downshift unexpectedly, increasing the risk of a crash, in another large-scale recall for the legacy automaker after a record-breaking number of notices last year.

Ford’s 153 recalls in 2025 were the most ever by a single manufacturer in a single year in the U.S. and involved about 12.9 million vehicles, according to federal data. That was more than the next four automakers—Chrysler (53), Forest River (36), General Motors (28) and International Motors (26)—-combined. Ford’s recalls tend to involve more vehicles on average, and its recall of more than 4 million vehicles in February is one of the largest in U.S. history.

 

[AzScorpion]

Get rid of Farley so he can go work for Xiaomi since he likes their EV's so much lol.

Just read the comments and you can see they're not good and also think Farley should go.

No, this wasn't me. lol

Keep up the great work Farley, keep running Ford into the ground. Both my pre Farley built Fords with well below 100k miles can last another 20 years with just routine maintenance. I never saw this many recalls from any automaker until Farley came along and threw quality out the window.

I'm not trying to buy a house either with a bunch of gadgets that I don't want or need. Taking Ford electric has lost them billions. Instead of the shareholders taking the hit for Farley's poor decisions, Farley more than doubled their prices so the customers do.

Well... you lost me as a longtime customer!

 

[GhostStrykre]

maaan.. if it isn't these recalls it's the dealer/ford games. it's as if someone at ford gets some sick pleasure out of watching people play these games.

got an advertisement from a dealer for an f-150. $11k off, and a $3k customer loyalty rebate on top of the $3k.. or so i thought. when i asked about the pricing it turned out that if i used the $3k optional customer loyalty rebate then it invalidated $3k worth of rebates in the $11k off. so a net of $0............................... i get it if taking cash doesn't work with promotional APRs, that's standard stuff in auto sales. but this nebulous mess of rebate combinations is absurd.

these recalls and their messes with the transmission + dealer/ford incentive crap makes it so much harder for me to see a world where i stay in the ford family. sad.

 

[Cmar]

Jim Farley recently visited Australia, no doubt to see why Ranger has recently been losing sales to the likes of BYD and GWM. Most buyers of these trucks report very few quality issues, their main complaint being not about the trucks, but parts availability which both companies are in the process of fixing.
BYD fixed the transmission problems by simply getting rid of the transmission, and GWM use German designed ZF boxes.

 

[Cmar]

And it continues....

These are pickups from 2015-2017 and have the 6R80 transmission. After all these years it looks like they just can't get their transmissions right.

Ford Recalls 1.4 Million Top-Selling F-150s Over Downshifting Issue

https://autos.yahoo.com/safety-and-recalls/articles/ford-recalls-1-4-million-153312738.html

This isn't the good old lead frame speed sensor issue again? We had recalls for that over here 10 years ago on the 6R80 boxes, due to lead frame and speed sensor faults causing the truck to suddenly downshift without warning to 1st or 2nd, even at highway speeds. Ford replaced the faulty parts FOC but I would have wanted an entire new transmission / drive train after an episode like that.

 

[AzScorpion]

This isn't the good old lead frame speed sensor issue again? We had recalls for that over here 10 years ago on the 6R80 boxes, due to lead frame and speed sensor faults causing the truck to suddenly downshift without warning to 1st or 2nd, even at highway speeds. Ford replaced the faulty parts FOC but I would have wanted an entire new transmission / drive train after an episode like that.

This is from another article calling it the range sensor.

https://autos.yahoo.com/safety-and-recalls/articles/massive-ford-f-150-recall-163000061.html

According to Ford, the issue stems from heat and vibration degrading electrical connections in the transmission’s range sensor. Faulty signals from that sensor can trigger unintended downshifts, increasing the risk of a crash.

 

[Cmar]

Just read the comments and you can see they're not good and also think Farley should go.

No, this wasn't me. lol

There is certainly a pacing problem in the industry. Even if the engineering is good, there is still immense pressure on purchasing & SQA to hit timing and pricing goals that allows even tier 2 and 3 supplier issues slip through. It relies on everyone in the global supply chain to understand the downstream consequences of their job. That process becomes significantly more difficult when engineering is on one continent and the entire supply chain from material to OEM assembly plant is on another.

Personally I believe that in this business the design authority for any given product must heavily audit PPAP & any supplier quality approval to be successful. I think you'd be pleased with Ford's current level of scrutiny - definitely a result of their recall problem.

Yes back in the Henry Ford days the company was highly vertically integrated. At the River Rouge plant literally coal and iron ore went in one end, and model T's came out the other. The company had quality control over every step of every part, they even made their own tyres and windscreens because of supplier issues. And some of those cars are still running!

Then came the management accountants which convinced GM's it was cheaper to farm out bits and pieces to outside companies. And we see the problems this can bring, failure of just 1 supplier can bring the whole process to it's knees.
Car companies like Hyundai / Kia, and BYD still make cars vertically integrated, like Ford, GM and Chrysler used to, and guess what, they are still profitable, and make reliable, highly regarded cars. (yes I know that you guys had a bad run with Hyundai engines and auto boxes, but I'm sorry to say that we never had those issuers over here, our Hyundai / Kia cars are all built in South Korea and we never experienced the degree of quality issues you seemed to have with the US built ones)

 

[XRANGER2019]

No excuse for Ford, but many of the recall issues are because of pressure on suppliers to reduce prices. When suppliers are under significant pressure to cut pricing a point is reached the relationship becomes adversarial. No one win in that case.

In '96 I purchased a new 'Mustang V-8. My only complaint was the fuel tank was too small at 15 gallons so I installed a 21 gallon fuel cell. While the tank wqs being installed at the manufacturer in Long Beach I visited with the owner. He mentioned GM came to him when the new Corvette was under development and wanted use a fuel cell...but they only wanted to pay $29 each for them. He told me he had more money in materials than that. Obviously an agreement was not reached.

Vehicles are getting too expensive for the average worker (thank you government for your EV mandate) as manufacturers now have to recover their massive EV and battery investments, resulting in major pressure on suppliers. It's also the reason used vehicles are remaining expensive. Toyota didn't go all in on EVs and are currently in a better position.

Their is no EV mandate that's a lie

 

[Dr_Strangelove]

I think the point @JimJa was making is still valid, however, as auto industry investments were heavy-handed knee-jerk reactions to mandates in the EU, Asia, and likely incoming mandates in the USA as well with the state of CA proposing their own ICE ban which has been blocked by the president.

Regardless of the accuracy of there being an active mandate to ban ICE vehicles in the USA (yet) it's certain at this point due to now public corporate investor statements that Stellantis, Ford, and GM all lost big on betting on early EV regulation globally. The losses get passed to the consumer in the form of more expensive products. That is the point Jim was making, I believe.

 

[RedlandRanger]

I think the point @JimJa was making is still valid, however, as auto industry investments were heavy-handed knee-jerk reactions to mandates in the EU, Asia, and likely incoming mandates in the USA as well with the state of CA proposing their own ICE ban which has been blocked by the president.

Regardless of the accuracy of there being an active mandate to ban ICE vehicles in the USA (yet) it's certain at this point due to now public corporate investor statements that Stellantis, Ford, and GM all lost big on betting on early EV regulation globally. The losses get passed to the consumer in the form of more expensive products. That is the point Jim was making, I believe.

It just goes to show you how incredibly poorly these companies have been managed... "betting" on regulation is not a good business strategy, IMO.

I can't believe Farley is still CEO honestly. Whqt is even scarier is that these CEOs who run companies into the ground end up being CEOs of OTHER companies - why on earth does anyone hire a CEO who was a complete failure?

Getting off my soap box now.

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