Representative image: 2021 Ford F-150 SuperCrew. Photo: Kevauto / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
NHTSA’s public recall file lists 209 recalls with a report-received date on a Friday the 13th, across the 104 Friday the 13ths between January 1966 and early November 2026. Ford filed 28 of them.
The count comes from the Recalls Data file NHTSA posts on data.transportation.gov, which lists each campaign by manufacturer and date received. The file’s first entry is dated January 19, 1966 and its latest November 6, 2026, so nothing filed today, the third Friday the 13th of 2026, is in it yet.
A Friday the 13th averages 2.01 recalls in that file. All 3,173 Fridays in the same span average 1.85 (5,878 recalls). The gap is 0.15 recalls per day.
Who filed them
Behind Ford’s 28 are General Motors with 10 and Mercedes-Benz USA with 6. PACCAR, Freightliner and Chrysler (FCA US) have 5 each.
Ford’s 28 are 13.4 percent of the 209. Its 153 recalls in 2025 were 15.3 percent of the 997 NHTSA counted for that year in its 2025 annual recalls report. Before 2025, Ford’s highest annual count in the file was 68, in 2022. It has 88 so far in 2026.
The 2025 and 2026 counts
| Manufacturer (NHTSA name) | 2025 | 2026 through Nov. 6 |
|---|---|---|
| Ford Motor Company | 153 | 88 |
| Chrysler (FCA US, LLC) | 52 | 41 |
| General Motors, LLC | 28 | 28 |
| Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing | 15 | 28 |
| Hyundai Motor America | 20 | 23 |
| Jaguar Land Rover North America, LLC | 10 | 15 |
| Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC | 21 | 12 |
Those are campaigns, not cars. A 15-vehicle Nissan seat frame recall, 26V145, filed on Friday, March 13, counts the same as Nissan’s 168,149-SUV sticker recall. Forest River, an RV and bus builder, ranks third with 36 filings in 2025 and is left out of the table.
Ford
Two of the open Ford matters we’ve covered are a timing belt recall covering 135,000 engines and an NHTSA petition on 7.3L cam and lifter failures in the 2021-22 E-350, F59 and F-750.
Stellantis
NHTSA files Stellantis’s US brands under Chrysler (FCA US, LLC): 52 recalls in 2025 and 41 so far this year. One of them, 26V584, covers 97,349 Jeep Wagoneer, Grand Wagoneer, Wagoneer L and Grand Wagoneer L SUVs whose roof rack crossbar pivot bolts may not have been tightened properly. NHTSA received it September 10. FCA’s filing says interim letters were due October 8 and a second notice follows once the final remedy is available. We covered that filing, and flagged Stellantis’s recall pace in 2024.
General Motors
GM has 28 recalls in 2026 through November 6, the same as all of 2025. One was received on Friday, February 13: 26V085, covering 43,743 2022 Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban, GMC Yukon and Yukon XL, and Cadillac Escalade and Escalade ESV vehicles with the 10-speed transmission. A fault in the transmission control valve can lock the rear wheels. Dealers will install updated control module software, and owner letters were mailed April 7.
We’ve also followed GM’s thicker-oil fix for its 6.2L V8.
Toyota and Hyundai
Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing went from 15 recalls in 2025 to 28 through November 6, the biggest increase of the automakers in the table. Hyundai Motor America went from 20 to 23.
Jaguar Land Rover
Jaguar Land Rover North America filed 10 in 2025 and has 15 this year, including the June stop-sale on the Defender, Discovery and Range Rover.
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz USA filed 21 recalls in 2025 and 12 this year, yet it has 6 Friday the 13th filings, third in the file.
Checking your VIN
NHTSA’s recall lookup takes a VIN and returns open campaigns. For 26V584, the record says affected VINs became searchable on September 17.
Sources: NHTSA Recalls Data file (data.transportation.gov, dataset 6axg-epim, entries through November 6, 2026); NHTSA 2025 Annual Recalls Report; NHTSA recall records 26V085000, 26V584000 and 26V145000.
Nothing filed today is in the file yet, and the next Friday the 13th is August 13, 2027. Is the brand with the most recalls the unluckiest one, or the one most willing to file them?
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