If you have ever gotten the news that your car or truck has been recalled, you know that it can be a very frightening experience. If you are anything like me, you have visions of your car spontaneously combusting into a fireball while commuting home from a long day of work (because it can’t ever be on the way into work and get you a day off).
However, nuance needs to be applied when it comes to vehicle recalls. Some recalls can be minor, especially with today’s level of connectivity. Many recalls that involve a vehicle’s software issue can be remedied via an over-the-air update and do not require anything from the car or truck’s owner.
On the other end of the safety spectrum, some recalls are exceptionally dangerous to owners, like those involved in the infamous Takata Air Bag recall, which can result in “Do Not Drive” warnings from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration due to the high risk of personal injury and possibly death that can be caused as a direct result of the problem.
For 2024 (as of 12/27), Tesla’s EVs are topping the iSeeCars chart that keeps track of recalls. The following is a list of the top 12 most recalled brands and their corresponding numbers—some of which are bound to surprise you.
The most recalled cars of 2024
1 – Tesla- 5,135,697 vehicles recalled
Despite all of the love-it-or-hate-it fanfare that Elon Musk’s company brings with it, numbers are hard to argue with. Now, granted, the vast majority of Tesla’s recalls for 2024 were solved via an over-the-air update, but still, with almost a million more vehicles recalled than the next-highest manufacturer, it isn’t a good look. More specifically, a good number of those recalled vehicles were Cybertrucks, which racked up seven recalls on its own (to date), which may be a big part of the reason that Tesla had “only” 2,590,606 recalled vehicles this same time last year.
In relative defense of Tesla, it has sold nearly 1.3 million vehicles through the first three quarters of 2024, outpacing Ford by nearly 200,000 units. So, with more sales tends to come more recalls, especially for a relatively new company that is pioneering a segment that didn’t exist before that company began. Hopefully, the company has learned from these mishaps, and we will see far fewer in 2025.
2 – Ford- 4,372,457 vehicles recalled
Ford comes in second for 2024, with more than four million recalled vehicles, including a host of Bronco, Maverick, and F-150 Lightning models (among others). This number, however, is a drastic improvement over last year’s 6,152,748 recalled vehicles, showing the Blue Oval’s commitment to improvement.
3 – Honda- 3,794,113 vehicles recalled
Despite ranking near the top of the charts for both new and used car reliability, Honda takes the bronze medal for 2024 recalls with almost 3.8 million. While not great, this number is a tremendous improvement from a year ago when Honda had the high-water mark for recalls at a lofty 6,152,748.
4 – BMW- 1,826,500 vehicles recalled
The first luxury car division to make the recall list is BMW. With issues affecting its integrated brake system, batteries, and electronic stability control, among others, BMW racked up more than 1.8 million units recalled for 2024, more than five times last year’s 343,334 recalled vehicles.
5 – Toyota- 1,265,146 vehicles recalled
In what feels like a volume-based ranking, Toyota checks in with almost 1.3 million vehicles recalled for 2024. But considering it dominates the hybrid market, it isn’t hard to believe that with all that extra componentry, there may be some mishaps along the way. That number is also substantially reduced from last year’s 4,267,014 units recalled despite continuing to dominate total sales domestically and globally.
6 – Hyundai- 1,109,978 vehicles recalled
Hyundai is another company that has seen a sizeable dropoff in recalls from 2023 to 2024. This year, the Korean-based manufacturer posted just over 1.1 million units recalled, whereas at the same time, in 2023, it had 2,634,673 vehicles recalled at this same time.
7 – Volkswagen- 1,088,407 vehicles recalled
With issues involving brake master cylinders, engine connecting rods, and camera displays (among other things), VW has amassed nearly 1.1 million cars and trucks recalled for 2024. That number is more than double last year when it had just 468,650 units recalled.
8 – Mazda- 297,941 vehicles recalled
Staying relatively consistent year-over-year, Mazda’s nearly 298,000 units recalled is just a few ticks higher than its 2023 recall number of 285,584. This number may also have risen due to the company’s double-digit increase in sales over the last 12 months, making the recall-to-sales figure just about the same.
9 – Nissan- 178,723 vehicles recalled
Somewhat impressively, Nissan comes in 9th with just shy of 179,000 units recalled for 2024. That number is particularly impressive considering it is less than ten percent of the 1,793,515 vehicles it had to recall up to this same time last year.
10 – Subaru- 118,723 cars recalled
Subaru tops the Consumer Reports list for the most reliable new cars for several reasons, and its sub-119K recall count is one of them. Down from its 2023 mark of 171,947, Subaru does an excellent job of progressively updating its vehicles and not going crazy with introducing too many new (and un-time-tested) models.
11 – Porsche- 78,593 vehicles recalled
With the 911, 718, Cayeen, Macan, and Taycan all getting their own recalls this year, Porsche comes in eleventh with less than 79,000 units recalled. Ranging from defective center-lock wheel nuts on the 718 to “a thermal event linked to high-voltage battery modules” on the Taycan, each of these Porsches has experienced some setback over the last 12 months, but we don’t expect any of them to affect this luxury performance brand’s popularity in the slightest.
12 – Maserati- 3,384 vehicles recalled
Finally, Maserati, with its 3,384 units recalled this year, rounds out the iSeeCars list. While it doesn’t produce anywhere near the volume of cars most of the other brands on this list do, this number is more than 48 times its impressively low 2023 recall number of just 70 vehicles.
Gratefully, we never experienced issues with the Body Control Module during our time with the Grand Turismo, nor did anyone that we knew who owned a Grecale have issues with their central vision/park assist module that it was recalled for; these things still created enough of a problem that Maserati felt compelled to call those cars back to be repaired.
