Americans Seem to Love Buying Cars That Get Hit With a Lot of Recalls

Millions of cars have already been recalled this year. In February, Ford recalled more than 4 million vehicles over a software issue that could cause an attached trailer’s tail lights, turn signals, and brake lights to stop working. Toyota also recently recalled more than half a million Highlanders due to faulty back-row seats. But high recall counts and thousands of fatal crashes are not enough to deter Americans from buying some of the country’s most popular cars, a new analysis found. Brown & Crouppen, a law firm that focuses on road accident cases, examined which vehicles have the worst track records for recalls and deadly incidents yet continue to sell in large numbers. Ford’s Ranger and F-150 pickup trucks, along with the Nissan Altima, took the top three spots. Using U.S. data on vehicles from 2020 to 2025, the firm analyzed the number of recalls, fatal crash involvement, and safety ratings, as well as total sales and how often people searched them online using terms like “buy” or “for sale.” Those metrics were then combined into a weighted score, with the most emphasis placed on recalls per 100,000 vehicles sold, followed by fatal crashes per 100,000 cars sold. Safety ratin