A new DailyMail.com analysis of federal regulatory data reveals which automakers were forced to recall the most vehicles last year in the US, and Ford topped the list.
Despite a year filled with reports of recalls, many of them software patches affecting millions of vehicles in both the U.S. and China, Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors didn’t even crack the top 12 “most recalled” auto companies. ” by 2023.
DailyMail.com also identified the most common reasons behind these recalls, with braking problems, electrical systems and airbag defects at the top of the list.
But both Ford and Tesla have already stumbled out of 2024.
This month, Musk’s electric vehicle company issued a recall for more than 1.6 million cars in China due to self-steering issues and Ford recalled more than 100,000 vehicles due to an issue with engine oil pressure.
A new DailyMail.com analysis of federal regulatory data reveals which automakers were forced to recall the most vehicles last year in the United States. Ford topped the list with 58 specific recalls, but Indiana-based Forest River, a maker of motor homes, recreational vehicles and travel trailers, also scored highly.
The 2023 rankings were compiled from recall data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), to identify the number of “potentially affected” cars by manufacturer throughout 2023. Ford recalls the year last affected 6,152,738 vehicles, according to these data.
The 2023 rankings were compiled from Recall Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)leaked by DailyMail.com to identify the number of ‘potentially affected’ cars by manufacturer throughout 2023.
Ford Motor Company recorded more recalls last year than any other brand, reporting 6,152,738 affected vehicles, according to this data.
Personal injury attorneys also compiled findings throughout the NHTSA database, which begins in 1966. John Foy and associateswho have advised on car accidents as part of their legal practice.
“Any manufacturer that has been affected by recalls will need to evaluate their production process to rule out any factors that may be diminishing the quality or durability of their vehicles,” the company’s founding lawyer, John Foy, told DailyMail.com. .
“This may include,” according to Foy, “rigorous testing of advanced technologies such as sensors, software and electronic systems,” a reality that emerges from federal data for 2023.
Problems with motor vehicle ‘electrical systems’ affected nearly 7.7 million cars in the United States last year, making it the second-largest category of recalls in 2023. (Above, a pickup truck Ford F150).
Problems with motor vehicle ‘electrical systems’ affected nearly 7.7 million cars in the United States last year, making it the second largest category of recalls in 2023.
NHTSA’s definition of “electrical system” includes not only an automobile battery and its cables, but also other core components such as alternators, fuses, main body wiring, and the spark ignition of a traditional combustion engine.
The new findings suggest that it is not only Tesla Motors that has had problems with the electrical components of its motor vehicles in 2023.
Attorney John Foy believes some of the industry-wide systemic problems revealed by this analysis of last year’s recall data will only truly be corrected through deeper government scrutiny.
“Regulatory standards can also play a role for some brands,” Foy told DailyMail.com, “as can transparency, as road safety is only guaranteed when manufacturers meet compliance requirements and are honest about The falls”.
Problems with motor vehicle ‘electrical systems’ affected nearly 7.7 million cars in the United States last year, making it the second-largest category of recalls in 2023. New finding suggests not only Tesla has had problems with key electrical components
In 2021, in one of the most innovative methods of burying information about automotive problems, Tesla founder Elon Musk was accused of trying to plug online search results about a federal whistleblower investigation into the electric car company selling a $50 ‘Cyberwhistle’ online.
Musk’s jokey Cyberwhistle post came days before a Reuters report revealed the existence of an SEC investigation sparked by that whistleblower’s testimony.
But, as Foy noted, cars can be recalled for a variety of reasons related to safety issues or potential defects, and not all are equal in severity.
These problems may be more purely a product of compliance with state and federal statutes, such as emissions standards or environmental laws, or they may arise from more serious, specific automobile failures that pose a safety risk or render the motor vehicle inoperable. .
Software or technology failures, like those millions of “electrical systems” failures, can fall into any of these categories.
On one end of the spectrum: Chrysler recalled 600,000 Dodge Ram pickup trucks this month after the trucks were found to have software. designed to hide polluting emissions.
And on the other: A Tesla crashed into a fire truck in California last year, killing the driver and seriously injuring a passenger while operating the company’s Autopilot software.
A look at the market share of each of the major automakers whose defective cars catapulted them to the top of the recall list in 2023 suggests that many of these problems cannot be explained by sales volume.
Both General Motors (GM) and Toyota surpass Ford in total sales and market share, for example, but rank lower in the total number of vehicles recalled.
GM sold more than 2.2 million cars in 2022, according to data obtained by GoodCarBadCar.comgaining a 13.16 percent market share compared to Ford’s 10.73 percent.
According to analysis by John Foy & Associates, among the 100 most affected manufacturers, including Tesla and Land Rover, the average number of vehicles recalled for each company since 1966 was 12,147,944, meaning Ford’s total is 1,592 percent higher than the norm.
But those numbers can be misleading.
“While it is easy to take NHTSA’s findings and consider the manufacturers with the largest number of vehicles affected by recalls as inferior or deficient in some way, it is important to consider what other factors may affect the results,” Foy advised.
“It makes sense that it is the largest car manufacturers that make up the majority of the ten most affected brands, as they arguably monopolize a large part of the market and will therefore naturally be more affected by the recalls than the manufacturers smaller because they have more vehicles in production.’
‘t“Those that have been in business since the ’60s will have higher numbers than newer automakers,” he added.
Beyond those warnings, there is at least one silver lining for Ford: according to Automotive newsThe number of Ford vehicles recalled in 2023 dropped 30 percent in the U.S. compared to recalls in 2022.