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Ford Has Recalled Every Vehicle It Made Since 2020 With One Exception

Sintia Weber image via Shutterstock
Sintia Weber image via Shutterstock

Ford built 16 different models over the last six years.

It recalled nearly every single one of them.

Only one now discontinued Ford model escaped.  

It’s almost certain that if you bought a Ford between 2020 and today – an F-150, a Bronco, an Explorer, a Mustang, a Maverick, an Expedition, an Edge, a Transit van – your vehicle has been recalled.

June 28, 2007 – A Terrible Day for American Drivers

The latest Ford recall was set in motion years ago.

At 8:20 am on June 28, 2007, Cory Bauswell, a worker at the Ford Norfolk Assembly Plant in Virginia drove a red F-150 Lariat off property and drove it home.

It was the day Ford closed the Norfolk plant and it was the last F-150 to roll off the line.

The Norfolk plant’s managers had purchased the truck and held a lottery ensuring it would go to one of the workers at the facility that had produced most of Ford’s F-150s for over thirty years

During those thirty years “Built Ford Tough” wasn’t just marketing slop.

Back then, it was a promise.

A bulletproof reputation earned by American men who took pride in good things – men who decades later can still speak with their head held high when someone mentions the machines that they built.

Not only can they still speak of them, they can still see them working – the ones not handed over to the gubment for a few thousand bucks anyway.

Plenty more of those trucks would still be around if it weren’t for “Cash for Clunkers.”

In fact, it’s almost guaranteed a bunch of trucks that had the legendary 300 cubic inch (4.9L) inline-six engine will still be driving the streets today.

Like most things named in Washington, the“Cash for Clunkers” program was a lie on its face – the vast majority of the vehicles destroyed were far from ‘clunkers.’

Of course the real point was to usher in the exact thing American drivers have been dealing with the repercussions of with Fords over the last six years.

The only Ford to escape the recall wave was the GT – a discontinued $500,000 mid-engine sports car that Ford stopped building in 2022 and that almost nobody could afford in the first place.

Aside from that, every truck, every SUV, every crossover, every van, every passenger car in the regular lineup – recalled at least once between 2020 and 2026.

Sixteen models. Zero exceptions for anything a normal American can actually drive off a lot.

Ford F-150 Recall 2026 Is Just the Latest in a Years-Long Quality Crisis

In February 2026, Ford recalled 4.3 million trucks – F-150s, Super Duty pickups, Rangers, Expeditions, and Mavericks – because a software glitch can kill trailer brake function and turn signals while towing.

That recall covers model years 2021 through 2026.

If you bought your F-150 new this year, you're in it.

Separate recalls hit F-150s, Broncos, and Expeditions for electronic brake boosters that can fail at highway speeds – over 312,000 vehicles.

Another 355,000 F-Series trucks had dashboards that go completely dark at startup – no speedometer, no warning lights, no fuel gauge.

F-150 Lightnings and Mavericks were recalled because they can fail to lock into park and roll away.

Cracked fuel injectors on multiple SUV models created fire risk.

Electronic door latches on the Mach-E could trap passengers inside.

Ford recalled roughly 12.9 million vehicles in 2025 alone.

Jim Farley's Obsession With Chasing Federal EV Subsidies Caused Ford's Brake Failures and Record Recalls

Unlike GM and Chrysler, Ford did not get bailed out by the government during the 2008–2009 financial crisis.

But since Ford CEO Jim Farley took the reins, they’ve been on a tear chasing government EV Cheddar.

Farley has run the company since 2020 – the exact year this recall wave began.

While quality problems spread across every truck, SUV, and van in the lineup, Farley was busy betting the company on Biden's EV mandate.

He poured billions into the F-150 Lightning and the Mustang Mach-E, chasing federal incentives and green energy credits.

He told Car and Driver this month he would've done the Lightning "totally differently" – admitting Ford hadn't designed its electric vehicles right and that he was "absolutely flabbergasted" when engineers finally tore apart a Tesla for comparison.

The Mach-E's wiring harness was 70 pounds heavier than Tesla's equivalent, and 1.6 kilometers longer.

That is not a software bug.

That is what happens when a CEO stops building trucks for the people who buy trucks and starts building Bidenmobiles for bureaucrats who don't.

Lightning production ended in December 2025 – three years after it started.

The EV dream is dead.

The recall wave it came with is still very much alive.

In 2025, Ford issued 152 recalls – an all-time record for any automaker in a single year, nearly double the previous record of 77 set by General Motors in 2014.

Honda finished second that year with 53.

Ford's stock has dropped 54% from its 2022 high.

Ford Owners Paid Full Price While Their Trucks Had Brake and Safety Defects

Ford's official line is that record recall numbers reflect a more aggressive voluntary safety strategy – catching problems before they become tragedies.

That is a creative way to describe selling millions of Americans trucks with failing brakes, dark dashboards, and rollaway risks.

Three years ago, Farley warned investors it would take "several years" to fix Ford's quality problems.

He was right about the timeline.

What he didn't mention is that you'd be paying $60,000, $70,000, $80,000 for an F-150 in the middle of that learning curve – with no warning that every vehicle in the lineup was cycling through NHTSA's recall database.

No discount for the inconvenience.

No compensation for the dealership trips.

No apology for making customers into unpaid quality testers on vehicles they bought in good faith.

Ford turned America's most trusted truck brand into a six-year experiment – and the people paying the bill were the ones behind the wheel.

Of course, it’s not just Fords – they’ve often just been a harbinger.

Shortly after Ford’s Norfolk, Virginia plant shuttered, the death knell rang for almost every reliable American car regardless of manufacturer.

Cash for Clunkers effectively killed quality, reliable American automobiles.

.

And there’s plenty of reason to believe they were killed by design.

Sources:

  • Bonny Chu, "Ford in deep water after sweeping recalls hit every model since 2020 – with one exception," Fox Business, March 8, 2026.
  • "Ford issues major recall over software communication issue," Fox Business, February 2026.
  • "Ford shatters decade-old recall record with 152 safety alerts issued this year alone," Fox Business, December 25, 2025.
  • Rob Stumpf, "We 'Totally Would've Done It Differently': Ford CEO On The Failure Of The F-150 Lightning," InsideEVs, March 4, 2026.
  • "Ford Is on Track to Double the Previous U.S. Recall Record," Autoblog, December 25, 2025.

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