AUGUST 2025 NEWSLETTER

The Recall Crisis is Bigger than Anyone is Willing to Admit: See the Counts!

While dealerships are placing greater emphasis on recall repairs as a source of revenue and customer acquisition, most don't have a full picture of the opportunity. The rates of repair are easily outpaced by the announcement of new recall campaigns and owners are hard to find. Now those counts are being made available to each dealership by Recall Masters.

Every year, unrepaired recalls are piled on top of the vast number of recalls that also went unrepaired in previous years. Consider that once a recall campaign reaches the three-year mark, repair rates fall flat. There's also the existence of "OEM voluntary" campaigns that are not initially deemed a safety risk by NHTSA, though many will go on to become a formal NHTSA campaign. The backdrop of the recall crisis is also concealed by consumer privacy, as there is no formal national database of vehicle owners and federal/state privacy laws make it difficult for the OEM and dealerships to even locate current owners.

Recall Masters is lifting the veil from the auto industry. The ten-year-old company not only pioneered comprehensive recall management, but has aggregated the largest database of current owners. And with federal and state compliance intact, RM is making that localized recall count data available to dealerships. Click here learn more about this data and to secure your Open Recall Report.

2025 is Only Halfway Over, but Ford has already broken the Single-Year Recall Record for an OEM

Ford is on a torrid pace for recalls in 2025 - a record for the first six months for any single OEM brand. 90 NHTSA recalls and almost 6 million affected vehicles later, the team at Recall Masters, Inc. took a look at the impact on fixed operations. Looking at the breakdown based on recall remedy, it's still a very manageable number for Ford stores. That number is more than any car company has ever issued in an entire calendar year. The previous record holder was GM, which had 77 recalls back in 2014...read the full article on the Fortune Magazine website.

Are We Self-Driving Our Way Over a Cliff?

A Blog Post by Sean Reyes, Chief Marketing Officer for Recall Masters 

I have a confession – I’m scared to get into a self-driving car. Even if I sat in the driver’s seat and could take immediate control, I just don’t have any desire to risk death or injury should some line of software code misplace a comma or some other character. Perhaps I’m a control freak or maybe I just love driving, but the self-driving wave is like a Russian tsunami headed our way and the impact could cost us more than a few cyclists and unsuspecting pedestrians.

Self‑driving vehicles (or autonomous vehicles, AVs) promise transformative change—reducing human error, increasing mobility access, and reshaping urban life. Yet beneath the hype lies a complex web of current safety concerns, potential future hazards, and deep economic consequences as consumers shift away from ownership toward mobility‑as‑a‑service (MaaS).

The first pedestrian fatality involving a self‑driving vehicle occurred in March 2018, when Elaine Herzberg was struck by an Uber test car in Tempe, Arizona. That case underscored early gaps in collision‑avoidance systems and testing oversight. Since...Read the blog in its entirety on the Recall Masters website.

Low-Pressure Fuel Pump Failure Pushes Ford to Issue Recall

Ford Motor Company has recalled 850,318 certain 2021-2023 Bronco, Explorer, Lincoln Aviator, F-250 SD, F-350 SD, F-450 SD, F-550 SD, 2021-2022 Lincoln Navigator, Mustang, F-150, and 2022 Expedition vehicles. According to a report, a low-pressure fuel pump may fail, which can result in an engine stall while driving. An engine stall increases the risk of a crash. The remedy is under development. Owner notification letters notifying owners of the safety risk were mailed July 16, 2025. Second letters will be sent once the remedy is available. Read more about this recall campaign on the NHTSA website.

Ford Fuel Injector May Crack and Leak Fuel inside Engine Compartment

Ford is issuing a recall for certain 2021-2024 Bronco Sport and 2020-2022 Escape vehicles equipped with 1.5L engines. According to a recport, a cracked fuel injector may leak and cause a fire A fuel leak in the presence of an ignition source, such as hot engine or exhaust components, can increase the risk of a fire. The remedy is currently under development. As an interim repair, dealers will update the engine control software. Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed August 18, 2025. Second letters will be sent once the remedy is available.  Read more about this recall campaign on the NHTSA website.

More Recall Campaign News

• Ford recalls 312,120 vehicles for loss of power brake assist. EBB module software remedy announced.
• Kia recall due to door belt molding trim that can detach while driving.
• Jeep Grand Cherokee and Jeep Grand Cherokee L recall for second-row seat head restraints may not lock in upright position.
• Kia recall for rear window trim pieces that may detach affects 100K+.
• Ford recalls 2025 F-150 hybrid trucks for seat belt warning system malfunction.
• Daimler Vans recalls 40K+ for rearview camera image that may not display.