Recall totals are usually reported one automaker at a time, which can obscure just how lopsided a given year turns out to be. A new analysis of recall data puts that imbalance in stark terms for the past year: Ford Motor Company issued more vehicle recalls, measured by total vehicles affected, than every other automaker selling cars in the United States combined.
The scale of that gap has drawn attention well beyond the usual audience of automotive analysts, in part because it follows a multi-year pattern of Ford recall activity that has been building rather than easing.
The numbers behind the headline
According to a study from iSeeCars, Ford recalled nearly 20 million vehicles over the year spanning April 2025 through March 2026, far outpacing the second-highest brand on the list, Toyota, which recalled just over 4 million vehicles across the same period. That gap, roughly 16 million vehicles between the first- and second-ranked automakers, is what allows Ford’s total to exceed the combined recall volume of the rest of the industry.
Ford also set an outright company record in 2025, issuing 152 individual recall campaigns during the calendar year, according to data reported to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the federal agency responsible for compiling and publishing recall filings across the industry. That figure represents the highest number of recall actions Ford has issued in a single year in the company’s history.
Which models are driving the trend
The recall volume is not evenly distributed across Ford’s lineup. iSeeCars’ analysis identified the Lincoln Aviator as the model with the highest projected recall rate of any vehicle in the study, followed closely by the Lincoln Corsair, the Porsche Taycan, the Ford Maverick and the Ford Bronco. Those five models are projected to accumulate between 9.4 and 23.4 times the industry median of 3.9 lifetime recalls per model, an unusually wide gap between the worst performers and the broader market.
The presence of both Lincoln models near the top of the list is notable given Lincoln’s positioning as Ford’s premium brand, since recall-prone reputations typically carry a steeper cost for luxury nameplates, where buyers pay a premium partly on an assumption of tighter quality control.
Why the past year’s recalls trace back further
A significant share of the recall volume behind the current numbers stems from vehicles engineered years before they rolled off the assembly line. Roughly 90% of the recalls issued over the past year involved vehicles from model years 2015 through 2022, meaning the underlying engineering work behind many of the affected components dates to somewhere between 2013 and 2020. That lag between engineering decisions and recall action is typical across the industry, since defects often take years of real-world use to surface, but it also means Ford’s current recall wave reflects design and manufacturing choices made the better part of a decade ago rather than problems with its newest vehicles specifically.
That distinction matters for shoppers evaluating current Ford and Lincoln models, since a recall-heavy older model year does not necessarily predict the same outcome for a vehicle built under revised engineering or manufacturing processes. It does, however, complicate resale value and ownership costs for the millions of Ford and Lincoln owners whose vehicles fall within the affected model-year range.
A costly pattern for the company as well
Recalls carry direct financial costs for automakers in the form of parts, labor and administrative overhead required to notify and repair affected vehicles, and Ford’s recent recall volume has shown up in its own financial reporting. Even so, the company reported that warranty costs declined by roughly $500 million in 2025 compared with 2024, suggesting that despite the historic number of individual recall campaigns, the average cost associated with resolving them may have been more contained than the sheer volume of actions would suggest.
That combination, record recall counts alongside falling warranty costs, points to a pattern of the company issuing more frequent but comparatively narrower or less expensive fixes, rather than a small number of catastrophically costly recall events.
What it means for owners and shoppers
For current Ford and Lincoln owners, the practical takeaway is straightforward: given the scale of recall activity, checking a vehicle’s identification number against NHTSA’s recall database periodically is a reasonable precaution, particularly for the model years and nameplates flagged as having the highest projected recall rates. Open recalls are addressed free of charge by dealerships regardless of a vehicle’s age, so the main risk to owners is failing to act on a notice rather than any direct cost.
For shoppers considering a used Ford or Lincoln from the affected model years, confirming that all outstanding recalls have been completed before purchase is a similarly low-cost step that can prevent inheriting an unresolved safety issue. Given how concentrated the recall volume is among a specific handful of models, cross-checking a prospective purchase against that list before finalizing a deal is likely to be worth the extra few minutes it takes.
Why recall counts do not always equal danger
A high recall count is not automatically synonymous with a dangerous vehicle, and industry analysts caution against reading the raw numbers that way. Many recalls address relatively minor issues, such as a mislabeled tire-pressure placard or a software update needed for a backup camera display, rather than safety-critical failures. Federal reporting requirements obligate automakers to issue a recall for a wide range of defects regardless of severity, which means a company that is more aggressive about proactively identifying and disclosing problems can end up with a higher recall count than a competitor that is simply slower to catch and report similar issues.
That nuance does not erase the practical burden recalls place on owners, who still have to schedule a dealership visit regardless of how serious the underlying defect turns out to be. But it does complicate any simple reading of recall totals as a direct stand-in for overall vehicle quality, since the same headline number can reflect very different levels of actual risk depending on what is driving it.
What comes next for Ford
Ford has publicly acknowledged the recall trend and pointed to the declining warranty-cost figures as evidence that its underlying manufacturing quality is improving even as recall counts remain elevated. Whether that improvement shows up in next year’s recall data will depend heavily on how quickly the company can work through the backlog of older-model-year defects that account for the bulk of the current numbers, since newer vehicles built under revised manufacturing and quality-control processes are the ones most likely to demonstrate whether the underlying trend is actually reversing.
Morning Overview produced this article with AI assistance and reviewed it against the cited sources.
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