Ford Recall Increases To Nearly 1.5 Million Cars

2015 has found Ford Motor Company plagued with a range of defects that affect the safety of the cars. These product defects range from door latches to gearbox motors, and affecting several hundred thousand cars.

On Friday, April 24th, Ford recalled a total of 390,000 defective cars, including certain Fiesta, Fusion and Lincoln MKZ, due them having a defect in the door latches. This is the third time this year that Ford recalled defective product due to this issue, having recalled a little over 200,000 units earlier in January, and a further 213,000 units in March.

The defect, a “broken pawl spring tab”, kept the doors from latching, leaving the drivers in danger while the defective cars were in use. There have been reports surrounding this product defect of doors bouncing back open, after being closed, and hitting the drivers themselves, or the door simply opening on its own, while the driver is attempting to park for example, and striking another vehicle.

To complicate matters for Ford, other product defects have come to light. On Wednesday, April 29th, Ford made a further recall of nearly 600,000 vehicles. The newly recalled defective products include the 2014 Focus, Edge, Escape and Transit Connect, the 2015 Edge, as well as further units of the 2013-2015 Fusion and Lincoln MKZ, and the 2014-2015 Fiesta.

The defects in these cars are to the bolts that hold the steering gear motor (which can corrode and cause the power steering to fail), issues with the nickel plating in the fuel pump (which may cause the engine to stall while in use), issues to the parking lamps (the overzealous brightness of which is greater than allowed and could affect the vision of other drivers), and an issue with the underbody heat shield (which may not be present at all and is a risk for fire).
While thankfully there have been no reports as of yet of injuries attributed to these product defects, there is a great risk and danger of accidents, and therefore personal injuries, should the defective vehicles not be fixed.