Forty nameplates that both America and the Netherlands sell, spell the same way, and keep safety recall records for. For each one: how many distinct campaigns each regulator has on file, and how far apart the two counts are.
The widest gap is the Ford F-150 at +89. The closest is the Volvo XC60 at -12.
| Model | US campaigns | Dutch campaigns | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ford F-150 | 94 | 5 | +89 |
| Ford EXPLORER | 81 | 23 | +58 |
| Volkswagen ATLAS | 46 | 4 | +42 |
| Ford BRONCO | 47 | 11 | +36 |
| Toyota TUNDRA | 37 | 3 | +34 |
| Tesla MODEL X | 39 | 9 | +30 |
| Chrysler PACIFICA | 37 | 7 | +30 |
| Ford TRANSIT | 57 | 29 | +28 |
| Tesla MODEL Y | 36 | 9 | +27 |
| Tesla MODEL 3 | 34 | 9 | +25 |
| Jeep WRANGLER | 47 | 23 | +24 |
| Chevrolet TAHOE | 32 | 9 | +23 |
| Tesla MODEL S | 33 | 11 | +22 |
| Honda ODYSSEY | 32 | 12 | +20 |
| Honda PILOT | 30 | 10 | +20 |
| Ford EDGE | 25 | 5 | +20 |
| Ford MUSTANG | 41 | 22 | +19 |
| Volkswagen JETTA | 27 | 9 | +18 |
| Chevrolet SUBURBAN | 25 | 8 | +17 |
| BMW X7 | 31 | 15 | +16 |
| Toyota HIGHLANDER | 23 | 9 | +14 |
| Hyundai SANTA FE | 25 | 12 | +13 |
| Jeep GRAND CHEROKEE | 51 | 39 | +12 |
| Cadillac ESCALADE | 21 | 9 | +12 |
| Kia SORENTO | 23 | 13 | +10 |
| Porsche TAYCAN | 27 | 18 | +9 |
| Subaru OUTBACK | 21 | 12 | +9 |
| BMW X4 | 26 | 18 | +8 |
| Audi Q7 | 25 | 18 | +7 |
| Land Rover RANGE ROVER | 36 | 30 | +6 |
| Ford RANGER | 38 | 33 | +5 |
| Land Rover RANGE ROVER SPORT | 35 | 30 | +5 |
| Jeep CHEROKEE | 30 | 27 | +3 |
| BMW X3 | 47 | 49 | -2 |
| Audi Q5 | 25 | 27 | -2 |
| BMW X5 | 47 | 50 | -3 |
| Volkswagen TIGUAN | 31 | 34 | -3 |
| BMW X6 | 27 | 31 | -4 |
| Volvo XC90 | 23 | 29 | -6 |
| Volvo XC60 | 23 | 35 | -12 |
Why only forty, and why these forty
Because the two regulators do not speak the same language about cars, and pretending otherwise would produce a lie that looks like a scoop.
NHTSA files recalls by variant. The Netherlands files them by range. We read NHTSA’s entire published recall file and counted: it contains 249 separate Mercedes-Benz model strings (C 300, AMG C63, SPRINTER 2500), and no “C-Class” at all. It contains 163 BMW strings (330I, M340I), and no “3 Series”. The Dutch register, meanwhile, has one line for the whole C-Klasse.
Compare those two vocabularies naively and you get a headline: “the Netherlands recalled the C-Klasse 119 times and America never did.” It is striking. It is shareable. It is false. We nearly published it.
So this table is restricted to nameplates spelled identically in both files: F-150, X5, Model Y, Tiguan, Grand Cherokee. Those compare like with like. Everything else is left out rather than guessed at, and we would rather show you forty honest rows than four hundred confident ones.
What a difference does and does not mean
A larger American count is not proof that European owners were abandoned. Variants differ between markets. An American campaign can cover an engine or a body never sold in Europe. And a privately imported car has no national importer obliged to write to its owner, which is itself the thing worth knowing, and is why we publish the Dutch fleet size on every model page. There are 636 Ford F-150s on the Dutch road. Those cars exist. Whoever owns them is reading a much shorter recall file than an American owner of the same truck.
Every figure here rebuilds itself from NHTSA’s published bulk file and the Netherlands national vehicle register’s open data. When each was last read (and whether either source was answering) is public on the status page.