JD Power recognizes Ford for finally fixing quality issue

I've been covering Ford and other Detroit automakers for some time now, and the issue that keeps popping up with Ford is quality control. The data bear this out.

While Ford's recall pace isn't as bad as it was last year - when it broke GM's all-time recall record for the year in just the first six months - so far this year, Ford has issued 51 recalls, according to the National Highway Traffic Administration; the next three automakers combined have just 51 recalls in 2026.

Between January 2024 and mid-2025, Ford initiated 94 recalls affecting nearly 6 million vehicles, Indy Auto Man noted. By July, Ford had issued its 89th recall of 2025, easily surpassing GM's 2014 record of 78 recalls for the entire year.

So the company is still a work in progress, but according to analysts at JD Power, that progress is already starting to pay major dividends.

JD Power ranks Ford first in initial quality

While Ford leads all automakers in recalls so far this year, analysts at JD Power report that the company was the top pick in its 2026 U.S. Initial Quality Study.

JD Power uses a scale of problems per 100 vehicles. The fewer problems per 100 score indicates higher vehicle quality.

The total number of reported PP100 improved in 2026 to 175 from 192 a year ago. It was the best year-over-year improvement since 1997 and the fourth-best performance in the study's 40-year history.

Among mass market brands, Ford ranked the highest with a score of 152 PP100. Nissan was second with a 156 score and General Motors' brand Buick came in third at 162.

Related: Ford is betting a new battery strategy will make EVs profitable

Ford's ubiquitous F-150 led in its pickup category, while the Ford Mustang and Ford Super Duty also ranked highest in their respective categories.

Ford CEO Jim Farley commented on the recognition and the work Ford has been putting in to improve its quality.

"Oh boy, this is a big day for Ford," Farley said in an interview with Yahoo Finance. "We've worked really hard for four years to be an overnight success story. It's been an incredible journey over the last several years. We have completely transformed all of our plants and our quality operating system."

"You go into any of our plants in the US, you'll see our workers completely obsessed with all the data. Every torque wrench is measured. We look at every defect and understand why it happened," he said.

Bloomberg / Getty Images

Ford details plan to turn around its quality control troubles

Ford set a record last year for the most recalls in a single year, but the issue runs deeper than that.

A recent study by iSeeCars.com, analyzing 31 years of recall history, found that Ford is the least proactive car brand in issuing recalls. Fewer than 30% of the cars recalled over the last three decades were due to a problem Ford found on its own.

By 2023, the company reached a breaking point when Ford said it spent $4.8 billion fixing customer vehicles. In 2024, the company said it was initiating a new quality assurance program that incorporates "testing vehicles to failure," running them "at extremely high mileage" in order to find potential problems before customers do.

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The company said at the time that it would take up to 18 months to see the benefits of that new process. "It makes our quarters lumpy, and it's challenging, but it will reduce warranty (costs) over time," Farley said at the time.

During a recent call, Chief Operating Officer Kumar Galhorta identified four areas the company is focusing on now:

• Seamless launch execution
• Minimal defects
• Greater reliability
• Time

"We are not satisfied with the current level of recalls or the number of vehicles impacted. We are working to reduce the cost of these recalls," said Chief Operating Officer Kuman Galhorta during the company's second quarter earnings call last year.

Galhorta went on to say that the majority of its recalls are "tied to vehicles engineered several years ago before we made all the robust process changes across our industrial system."

Related: Ford CEO's son is practicing what his dad preaches

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This story was originally published June 26, 2026 at 11:33 AM.