Over a Million Jeeps Can't Park in a Garage Right Now

FCA US has issued a recall for more than 1 million model year 2021–2025 Jeep Gladiator and Wrangler vehicles due to a risk of fire — even when the vehicles are turned off. The electric hydraulic power steering pump wiring may overheat and cause a vehicle fire even when the vehicle is parked with the ignition in the "Off" position.

NHTSA is aware of 51 fires and one injury likely tied to this defect, and owners are being advised to park outside and away from other vehicles and buildings until repairs are completed. Owner notification letters aren't expected to be mailed until July 9. That gap — between a known defect and a driver actually learning about it — is exactly where fleets are most exposed.

Ford Focus: A Stall Problem That Didn't Get Fixed the First Time

The Ford situation tells a different story — and in some ways, a more instructive one. Ford is recalling more than 250,000 vehicles that were incorrectly repaired under a previous recall meant to fix a problem that caused the engine to stall while driving. The recall covers 255,404 Ford Focus automobiles, model years 2012–2018. A malfunctioning canister purge valve can cause the engine to stall unexpectedly, increasing the risk of crash and injury.

This is a second-order problem that fleet managers rarely plan for: a recall repair that didn't actually resolve the defect. For any fleet that ran older Focus inventory and thought this issue was closed, it wasn't. Ford will address it with a powertrain software update, with owner notification letters expected July 6. But the broader lesson stands: scheduling a repair and confirming a recall is fully resolved are two different things.

The Numbers Behind the Blind Spot

These two recalls aren't anomalies. In 2024 alone, 27.7 million vehicles were recalled in the U.S. — yet 72.7 million vehicles on the road still carried unresolved recalls. That works out to roughly 1 in 4 vehicles with a known, unaddressed safety risk. The defects behind those open recalls aren't trivial: faulty brakes, airbag failures, steering malfunctions.

For fleet managers relying on manufacturer mailers and driver self-reporting to track recall exposure, those numbers represent a significant gap in duty-of-care. By the time a recall notice reaches a driver's home address (or a driver notices something unusual) the liability window has been open for far too long.

Proactive Recall Management Isn't Optional Anymore

The Jeep and Ford recalls illustrate two distinct failure modes: a safety risk that persists even when a vehicle is parked and off, and a defect that survived its own recall remedy. Both scenarios require something more than a reactive, mail-based process to catch.

That's the problem EMKAY's Recall+ program is built to solve. Rather than waiting for a manufacturer letter, Recall+ sends real-time alerts directly to both the fleet administrator and the assigned driver the moment a recall is identified. Notifications continue until the recall is fully resolved, which matters precisely in cases like the Ford Focus. Alerts go out via email, text, and Driver 360, and full reporting covers safety risk, remedy status, campaign number, and completion — all tracked in one place.

Fleet managers can also customize alert frequency to match how their team actually operates. The result is transparent, trackable recall communications that hold up to compliance scrutiny and strengthen duty-of-care documentation.

What to Do Now

If your fleet includes 2021–2025 Jeep Wrangler or Gladiator vehicles, or 2012–2018 Ford Focus models, check your VINs against the EMKAY database and confirm recall status immediately. Don't wait for the July mailers.

And if your broader recall process still depends on those mailers reaching the right people at the right time, it's worth asking whether that's good enough. The Jeep fire risk didn't start when the letter dropped. It started with a manufacturing fault that 51 vehicles already discovered the hard way.