America’s faultiest cars REVEALED: Our analysis shows the manufacturers who recalled most vehicles in 2023… and Telsa DIDN’T make the list!

A new DailyMail.com analysis of federal regulatory data shows which automakers were forced to recall the most vehicles in the U.S. last year — and Ford topped the list.

Despite a year of recall reports, many of them software patches affecting millions of vehicles in both the US and China, Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors didn’t even crack the top 12 “most recalled” car companies for 2023.

DailyMail.com has also identified the most common reasons behind these recalls, with brake problems, electrical systems and airbag defects all topping the list.

But both Ford and Tesla have already stumbled out of the gate in 2024.

This month, Musk’s electric vehicle company issued a recall on more than 1.6 million cars in China due to car steering problems, and Ford recalled more than 100,000 vehicles due to an engine oil pressure problem.

The 2023 rankings were compiled using National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recall data to identify the number of “potentially affected” vehicles by manufacturer in 2023. Last year’s Ford recalls affected 6,152,738 vehicles, based on this data

The 2023 rankings are composed of Recall information from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).filtered by DailyMail.com to identify the number of ‘potentially affected’ cars by manufacturer in 2023.

Ford Motor Company saw more recalls than any other brand last year, reporting 6,152,738 affected vehicles based on this data.

Findings from the entire NHTSA database, which begins in the year 1966, were also collected by the personal injury attorneys of John Foy & Associationswho have advised on car accidents as part of their law practice.

“Any manufacturer affected by recalls will need to evaluate their manufacturing process to eliminate factors that could reduce the quality or durability of their vehicles,” company founder John Foy told DailyMail.com.

“This may include,” Foy said, “conducting rigorous testing on advanced technologies such as sensors, software and electronic systems” – a reality reflected in 2023 federal data.

Problems with motor vehicle “electrical systems” affected nearly 7.7 million cars in the United States last year, making it the second largest recall category in 2023. (Above a Ford F150 truck)

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.

The NHTSA’s definition of an “electrical system” includes not only a car’s battery and cables, but also other core components such as alternators, fuses, main body wiring, and the spark ignition of a traditional internal combustion engine.

The new findings suggest that it is not just Tesla Motors that has had problems with the electrical components of their motor vehicles in 2023.

Attorney John Foy believes that some of the systemic, industry-wide problems revealed by this analysis of last year’s recall data can only truly be corrected through deeper government oversight.

“Regulatory standards may also play a role for some brands,” Foy told DailyMail.com, “as can transparency, as road safety is only assured if manufacturers adhere to compliance requirements and are honest about errors.”

Problems with motor vehicle “electrical systems” affected nearly 7.7 million cars in the United States last year, making it the second largest recall category in 2023. The new finding suggests that it’s not just Tesla that has had problems with key electrical components

In 2021, in one of the more innovative methods of burying information about car problems, Tesla founder Elon Musk was accused of trying to undermine online search results about a federal whistleblower investigation into the electric car company by selling a $50 “Cyberwhistle” online.

Musk’s Cyberwhistle joke came days before a Reuters report revealed the existence of an SEC investigation launched following that whistleblower’s testimony.

But as Foy noted, cars can be recalled for a variety of reasons related to safety issues or potential defects, not all of which are equally serious.

These problems may arise purely from compliance with state and federal laws, such as emissions standards or environmental laws, or they may arise from more serious and concrete automotive malfunctions that pose a safety risk or render the motor vehicle inoperable.

Software or technology problems, such as those millions of “electrical system” failures, can fall into any of these categories.

On one end of the spectrum: Chrysler recalled 600,000 Dodge Ram trucks this month after discovering the trucks had software designed to hide pollutant emissions.

And on the bright side, this time last year, a Tesla crashed into a fire truck in California, killing the driver and seriously injuring a passenger while on the company’s Autopilot software.

A look at the market share of each of the major automakers, whose defective cars propelled them to the top of the 2023 recall list, suggests that many of these problems cannot be explained by sales volume.

For example, both General Motors (GM) and Toyota surpass Ford in total sales and market share, but rank lower in total vehicle recalls.

GM will have sold more than 2.2 million vehicles in 2022, according to GM data GoodCarBadCar.comgiving it a market share of 13.16 percent, compared to Ford’s 10.73 percent.

Based on John Foy & Associates’ analysis, the average number of vehicles recalled for each company of the 100 most affected manufacturers, including Tesla and Land Rover, since 1966 was 12,147,944 – meaning Ford’s total is 1,592 percent higher than the norm.

But those numbers can be deceiving.

“While it is easy to take the NHTSA findings and view the manufacturers with the most recalled vehicles as inferior or defective in some way, it is important to consider what other factors could influence the results,” Foy advised.

‘It makes sense that the largest car manufacturers make up the majority of the ten most affected brands as they arguably monopolize a large share of the market and will therefore obviously be more affected by recalls than smaller manufacturers as they have more vehicles in production.’

‘Thoses that have been in business since the 1960s will achieve higher figures than newer automakers,” he added.

These caveats aside, there’s at least one silver lining for Ford: according Automotive Newsthe number of Ford vehicles recalled in the US in 2023 was down 30 percent compared to recalls in 2022.