Long gone are the days when Italian exotics had a reputation for being heinously unreliable and bursting into flames if you looked at them the wrong way, but even so, Ferrari faces a recall in 2026. The company has been producing sports cars since 1947, but it still gets things wrong from time to time, and the reason the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has published a recall for the 12Cilindri is comically basic: its rear and side windows have been tinted too heavily. But unlike aftermarket tint that can simply be pulled off and cleaned, Ferrari will have to replace the glass on noncompliant vehicles. That’s because this privacy glass was never even meant to reach North America.
A Handful of Ferraris with a Federal Headache
Specifically, 80 examples of 2025-2026 12Cilindri vehicles are being recalled because “the rear and side windows have less than 70% light transmittance.” Obviously, this can obscure or impair driver visibility, but it also means the cars fail to meet the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 205, which applies to glazing materials. The 6.5-liter naturally aspirated V12 (a rare commodity these days) produces 819 horsepower and catapults the car from rest to 62 mph in just 2.9 seconds, with a top speed of over 211 mph. With such blistering performance, it helps to be able to see what’s around you. Interestingly, it seems that only the U.S. market is affected by this issue, which the recall report says was caused by “a wrong configuration of the model technical features.”
Basically, it looks like privacy glass that may be legal in other countries was inadvertently fitted to cars headed for America. As the above image shows, vehicles with the correct windows kinda mess with the look that Ferrari is going for in blending the glasshouse into the roof, rear quarters, and spoiler. But rules are rules.
Customers Must Wait Until May for Their Ferraris to Be Made Legal
Ferrari
Unfortunately for those who may be accustomed to being attended to at the snap of a finger, Ferrari dealer and customer remedy notifications are only planned to be sent on May 15. That means nearly two months of waiting, though we doubt it will make much difference to their lives. Either they’ll ignore the potential (albeit relatively minor) risks that come with driving with glass that’s too blackened—the windshield is not affected by this oversight—or they’ll simply choose something else to get around in. After all, most Ferrari owners have several cars to choose from. Hopefully, the Ferrari EV, which is named after the Italian word for light, Luce, won’t have the same problem. Bad joke. Sorry.
About the author
Sebastian Cenizo
Senior Editor, Autoblog