Ford acknowledges F-150 "teething problems"

Ford Australia has pledged to “not compromise on quality”, and has acknowledged that its F-150 range, which launched here in 2023, had fallen short of customer expectations and been the subject of numerous “teething problems”. 

But with the arrival of the facelifted F-150, Ford says it has the remedy: a new quality control process at the company’s local conversion facility, run by Thai company RMA, which handles the conversion from left-hand-drive (LHD) to right-hand-drive (RHD). 

“We acknowledge that there have been some teething problems in the first few years of this [F-150] program”, said Iain Jones, program director of Ford’s International Markets Group, which includes Australia and New Zealand.

“Quality and safety are non-negotiable at Ford, and that’s why we took voluntary actions last year to look after our customers,” he said, referring to the nine-month stop-sale that Ford Australia issued on its converted F-150s in 2025.

“Ford Australia and global product development engineers have collaborated with RMA to ensure full standards of quality are at the centre of every process that we’ve gone through,” Jones said.

“We’ve left no stone unturned to address any issues identified, and have added some additional quality control gates and checks into the conversion process to deliver the best product for our customers.

“Given how important F-150 is for Ford, we’re not going to compromise on quality,” he said.

Since launching in Australia in late 2023, the F-150 has suffered from a range of quality-related issues, some caused by manufacturing faults at the truck’s primary assembly plant in Dearborn, Michigan. Such as the rear hub bolt recall from mid-2025.

Others were related to its conversion process - such as exterior lighting that wasn’t ADR-compliant, and a defective steering rack intermediate shaft.

Some nuts-and-bolts changes have been brought in with the arrival of the facelifted 2026 Ford F-150, with a dramatically re-engineered steering rack and intermediate shaft being the most consequential, while headlamp clusters are now sourced directly from the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) with Australian-specific internals.

Previously, US-spec headlamps were modified by RMA locally.

Other changes are less obvious but are also expected to result in improved reliability, such as a new electrical architecture and wiring looms, which is also engineered for enhanced resilience to cyber attacks from criminals.

On top of that, the addition of multiple quality-assurance ‘gates’ on the RMA production line should result in faster identification of build quality problems, without having to wait until the completed truck rolls into the final quality control station at the end of the line.

Asked whether the company had lost trust with customers affected by the F-150’s recalls, Jones said the nine-month voluntary stop-sale it put on the model line was proof that it took customer care seriously.

“We deliberately stopped it to protect our customers,” said Jones.

“When we found out there were issues, we stopped the vehicle and stopped the production of that vehicle.

“We made the tough call to stop, and we spent a long time going through this truck on the remanufacturing process to validate everything and get it back to what our customers expect from our quality.”

Time will tell whether Ford and RMA’s new production method and improved components will result in fewer troubles for the F-150.

But with the stop-sale over and supply of the F-150 facelift now flowing into dealerships and customer driveways, demand remains strong for the F-150 in Australia.

That said, its rivals in the full-size pickup space haven’t been standing still during the F-150’s hiatus.

Since the start of 2026, F-150 sales are just 17 units ahead of the Chevrolet Silverado (not including the Silverado HD), while the RAM 1500 launched its brawny off-road focused 1500 Rebel in the second half of 2025, helping it clinch the lead in the sales race with 364 units sold so far this year.

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