Ford has been in the news of late for reasons it wishes it wasn’t. Build quality and recalls are pointing to some serious problems with the Blue Oval products. With many of the 2023 Super Duty trucks being new, we looked at different ratings for the reliability of past versions. Unfortunately, it appears reliability isn’t a strong point for Ford’s F-250, F-350, and F-450 trucks. 

Ford has had plenty of recalls for Super Duty trucks recently

The Ford F-250 had six recalls in 2022. These recalls were for problems with airbags, windshield wipers, trailer brake controls, and driveshafts fracturing. A year ago Ford recalled almost a quarter-million Super Duty trucks from 2017 to 2022. This was for body insulation dropping onto driveshafts, causing them to break.

Recalls are a part of life for almost every new car at some point. However, the wide-ranging issues behind the recalls are a little concerning. 

What rating did Repair Pal give the Ford Super Duty

According to Repair Pal, the F-250 Super Duty is ranked 15 out of 17 full-size trucks. Poor ownership costs are partially to blame, ranging around $1,250. It did say that its rate of repairs is average. But when unscheduled repairs occur, they cost a lot more than other trucks to fix. 

It also says that when an F-250 is in for repairs, almost a quarter of those trucks have major issues. Repair Pal bases its ratings on repair invoices and other statistics. So it looks at three main categories, cost, frequency, and severity. 

For comparison, the Chevrolet Silverado 2500 HD ranked ninth, the Ram 2500 is in tenth place, and the Toyota Tundra ranked sixth. Half-ton full-size trucks consistently score better than heavy-duty versions, with the Ram 1500 considered the most reliable full-size truck. 

How does JD Power rate the Ford Super Duty?

In JD Power surveys, owners complained most about the Super Duty’s difficult navigation system, noise levels in the cabin, and headlights not being as effective as they should be. But its rating overall is above average for reliability. Edmunds says owners complain about how the price drastically increases when adding options. 

They also don’t like the effectiveness of the brakes, and egress and ingress when steps are not ordered. Things they like about it are the power and torque of the diesel option, payload and towing capacity, the lighter weight of the aluminum body, and the amount of space inside the cabin. So not all is bad from those surveyed by the consumer ratings company. 

So the bottom line is if you don’t really need the towing capacity and payload of a Super Duty, stick with the F-150. And if you need a truck with the abilities of a Super Duty, make sure you’ve got a strong warranty behind it.