Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) finished last among legacy car makers in a reputation survey published since 1999. The list covers the 100 most visible U.S. companies.
The new ranking comes from the 2025 version of the Axios Harris Poll 100. Ford ranked 60th, dropping five spots from last year’s poll, putting it just behind eBay.
The other legacy car companies on the list were Toyota (4th), Honda (13th), GM (44th), Hyundai (51st), and Volkswagen (53rd).
Among all car companies, Tesla finished 95th, down 32 spots. Axios commented that this was probably because CEO Elon Musk was associated with huge federal job cuts. He has since pulled back from his work in Washington, as Tesla sales have dropped sharply.
The study’s methodology involved three waves of surveys. The first asked consumers to rank the best and worst companies. The second was used to determine the 100 companies. The third asked about “contextual” issues, including opinions about brands and topics, including politics. These were in the field from January through mid-May.
The study also helped determine opinions on subjective matters, including “character,” “ethics,” and “citizenship.” Trader Joe’s ranked first in the poll, followed by Patagonia and Microsoft. The companies at the bottom of the list included Spirit Airlines, which finished last, followed by the Trump Organization and X (formerly Twitter).
There is insufficient data to determine why Ford finished so poorly on the list. It has certainly had tremendous quality and warranty problems, which would directly affect the consumer. It finished 19th out of 32 brands in the Consumer Report’s auto brand ranking. In surveys by J.D. Power, it has done better than some other car brands.
Ford’s warranty and recall problems have cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars, based on its quarterly earnings. Management has promised to solve these problems but has not. Ford recalled 273,000 vehicles last week.
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