Categories: Cars

Ford’s CEO Still Isn’t Satisfied With Brand Quality

Ford CEO Jim Farley said in an interview that the automaker is not “satisfied” with quality improvements.
He said the Dearborn-based automaker has “so much left to do.”
Ford has issued 56 recalls so far this year for 12.1 million vehicles.

Ford just topped JD Power’s latest Initial Quality Study for mainstream brands. But it also leads the industry in recalls this year, issuing 56 so far this year for 12.1 million vehicles. That means there is still work to do.

In an interview with CNBC, Ford Motor Company CEO Jim Farley said that while he is “very proud” about its initial quality results, he added that “obviously none of us are satisfied. We have so much left to do to be the number one quality brand in all attributes.”

Since 2023, Farley has worked to improve quality by implementing more rigorous development testing, hiring more technical specialists, and encouraging more collaboration. In 2024, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration fined Ford for failing to issue proper recalls.

The federal agency said the automaker would have to pay $65 million upfront, with $55 million of the penalty deferred. NHTSA will allow Ford to use the remaining $45 million to meet its performance obligations. The consent also required Ford to review three years of previous recalls “to ensure they have been properly scoped, and, if necessary, file new recalls.”

Farley told CNBC that the automaker will continue to work on reducing the number of recalls and warranty costs.

The Current State Of Ford Recalls

So far in 2026, Ford has issued 56 recalls for 12.1 million vehicles, leading the industry. The automaker is on track to issue fewer recalls than last year, a record, but those recalls affected a much larger number of cars.

In recent years, Ford has steadily led its competitors in recalls. In 2025, it issued 153 recalls for nearly 13 million cars. It issued the second-highest number of recalls in 2024, 67, behind Stellantis’ 72, but issued more than any other automaker in 2021, 2022, and 2023.

The numerous recalls have cost Ford billions of dollars in warranty costs, with the automaker taking a $4.8 billion hit in 2023—its highest on record. Those costs have been coming down ever since.

Motor1’s Take: Ford understands that its quality issues will take time to fix and that it will take years of intentional improvements and changes. Topping JD’s Initial Quality Study is a good first start, but the automaker will have to do more than that to change consumer sentiment.