IT WAS an amazing admission by a leader of a major car maker when Ford’s Jim Farley publicly declared that his company’s quality and reliability is substandard. Now he is going to do something about it.

Jim Farley has just assumed the top role at Ford Motor Company last week adding the role of president as he takes over as president and CEO – Ford and president – Ford Model e from retiring Jim Hackett and is now acting on concerns he voiced in an investor call to business analysts in May when he courageously told Wall Street that Ford quality and reliability were just nor good enough.

But the problem with having a legal requirement to keep the investor market informed is that confessions to the business analysts also fall on the ears of people who already own Fords or on the ears of those thinking of buying them.

It really puts Ford in a most difficult position where it treads a fine line between acknowledging that it has a problem and being seen to be knowingly selling a product with defects.

This is especially an issue in a country renowned for predatory attorneys who prowl the market for litigation opportunities.

James D. Farley, Jr. President and CEO, Ford

Mr Farley was appointed CEO at Ford two years ago and even then he was making it known that quality and reliability was hurting the company’s bottom line in terms of disaffected owners and the high cost of recalls and warranty claims as well as persistent rectification of new models at launch.

His publicly stated concerns are understandable given his background as a former group vice president and general manager responsible for all sales, marketing and customer satisfaction activities of Lexus in the US.

But since his appointment as CEO at Ford things have gone from bad to worse and now that he has added the role of president of the company he has put a broom through the top end of manufacturing management, including 30-year plus veterans, and brought in new blood.

While recalls are a way of life for OEMs, so far this year Ford in the US has had 62 recalls that will ultimately affect 7.6 million vehicles.

A significant proportion of these are associated with the risk of fire in electrical or engine components; some attracted advice that the cars should be parked outside and away from buildings because they could ignite spontaneously.

Three million of the cars were recalled because a missing gear selection part meant the vehicle could potentially roll away when in Park or move forward when in reverse or reverse when in drive.

The 7.6 million recalls for Ford compares with less than one million Hyundai recalls this year, Chrysler 1.1 million, GM 1.5 million and 2.3 million Tesla vehicles recalled.

Mr Farley has now announced that the man ultimately responsible for quality and reliability at Ford, Stuart Rowley would step down after 32 years with the company. He is to be replaced by current vice president Jim Baumbick. Josh Halliburton, who came across to Ford in January from quality survey and data benchmarking analysis company J.D. Power to be executive director of quality, will report to Mr Baumbick.

Mr Farley said in a statement that “quality is our No.1 priority as a company and Jim Baumbick is the right leader to deliver world-class quality and reliability at Ford with a disciplined process that runs from our supply chain to our engineering labs all the way to the factory floor”.

By John Mellor