Ford

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Ford

Basic information
Founded	1903
Type	Public
Industry	Automotive
Official website	https://ford.com/

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Ford Motor Company, commonly known as Ford, is an American multinational automobile-manufactoring company. Founded by Henry Ford in 1903, who made the first patent Ford automobile (the quadricycle) in 1896, the company is now known for anti-consumer practices, such as marked-up parts sharing that probably started in the late 1990's.

Consumer protection summary

Privacy

• Collects an enormous amount of sensitive personal information from many sources, including data from the vehicle, data from the connected app, and data from purchasing the vehicle.
• Data collected includes purchase history, financial information, coarse and precise location, contact information, identifiers (like VIN, account ID), user content (like voice recordings when you use smart features), search and browsing history for advertising, usage data, sensitive information (under "Inferences"), diagnostics, and more.
• Aggregates data from external sources as well, including things you post to social media.
• Unfriendly design of the privacy policy prevents searching for terms quickly.
• There is a lack of clarity in how long data is retained.
• CCPA Metrics from 2023 show that there were 96 requests for data to be deleted, and 7 of these requests were denied.

Anti-consumer practices

Frequently recalled vehicles

Ford has been known for being the maker of America's most recalled vehicles, setting the record for most recalls issued in 2021, 2022, and 2023. Ford has filed dangerous patents and has issued a software update that ended up bricking a vehicle.

Forced advertising

Ford has also obtained patents for systems like one that serves ads based on the driver's conversations, and another patent for a system to annoy the owner of, restrict access to and then repossess or destroy vehicles where the owner "has defected" on finance payments.

Bad engineering

Ford's design and manufacturing practices ensure that the average consumer will end up with costly and potentially irreparable damage to critical engine components usually just out of the warranty period.^{[citation needed]} Various models and engine designs use a rubber belt rather than a metal chain to transmit power to the engine's oil pump. This belt which is submerged in the crankcase engine oil can prematurely degrade and cause a sudden loss of oil pressure. Ford has also knowingly released a flawed transmission in the Fiesta and Focus models where the transmission can fail in a variety of ways; loss of forward power from a stop, loss of power when in top gear at constant speed, sudden unintended acceleration, and loss of power when the transmission is shifting between gears.