FORD says it has overhauled its local remanufacturing process for the F-150 and strengthened quality controls, as it moves to rebuild customer trust following a series of recalls affecting the full-size pickup in Australia.
Speaking at the launch of the updated model – which brings more features and introduces a new Platinum range topper – the company acknowledged “teething problems” with the initial rollout.
The current F-150 first hit Australian roads in 2023, but Ford says it had since reworked processes, introduced additional checks across the conversion program and simplified sourcing of some components with the view to improving quality.
“We’ve gone through every process and really gone into minute detail to protect our customers,” said Iain Jones, program director for Ford’s International Markets Group.
While some of the issues were as a result of the local conversion – or remanufacturing from left- to right-hand drive – others were a result of recalls applied to the core vehicle in America.
“Some of those issues have also come from the left-hand drive vehicle, there’s no secret there’s been issues in the US as well,” said Jones.
These included a potential fire risk due to a fuel leak and an issue with rear wheel hub bolts.
But Ford also had issues with the local engineering and remanufacturing of the vehicle.
There were recalls relating to exterior lighting that did not conform to Australian standards, something that prompted a stop-sale in 2025.
Early in the F-150’s Australian life Ford also offered customers compensation because it had to reduce the gross combined mass – the maximum load rating for the car, trailer and whatever each is carrying – by 450kg.
But Jones says additional checks and engineering work has ensured the F-150 issues have been addressed.
“We did not want to release any product … ‘till they’ve got everything from both the US side and our side here addressed,” he said.
“We’ve tuned processes, we’ve tuned quality gates in the process and sign-off criteria, and gone through every process.”
Some of those changes with the 2026 model include sourcing the electric power steering system and headlights from the original supplier in America rather than locally engineering a solution in the complex conversion to right-hand drive.
Ford said it was all about improving quality and the result for the customer.
Ford spokesperson Ben Nightingale said there was still solid demand for the F-150, which in America is the best-selling large pick-up truck.
“We were on stop-sale for a lot of last year,” he said.
“We went off stop-sale in November; our December sales figures were really, really strong.
“The demand for the product is there – people want F-150. It’s just about the product delivering ongoing and our ongoing support of that.”
Mr Jones argued that the steps Ford took – including the decision to pause sales – was indicative of the customer-first approach.
“We deliberately stopped it to protect our customers,” he said.
“That’s equally the trust. We made the tough call and stopped (sales) and we spent a long time going through this truck and the remanufacturing process to validate everything and get it back to what our customers expect from our quality.”
He also said that the 200 Ford service centres around the country gave reassurance that any issues would be addressed.
“Any customer that has an issue with their truck, we will look after them.”
The F-150 is remanufactured locally in Australia, with vehicles converted from left-hand drive to right-hand drive in partnership with RMA Automotive at a dedicated facility in Melbourne’s north.
Ford said the scale and complexity of the program – which involves significant engineering changes and the modification of hundreds of components – required a detailed review following the early issues.
“The scale of the engineering program was actually almost as large as the original program, but a lot of the work that we did was mostly behind the scenes and undercover,” said Tom Dohrmann, Ford’s SVE conversions manager.