America’s
second-largest carmaker Ford has recalled 1.4 million vehicles to fix problems
with steering columns and other technical defects. The move came in the wake of
a major safety scandal at rival General Motors.
Deutsche
Welle, 30 May 2014
In the
largest of the recalls, Ford said on Thursday it’s calling back some 915,000
million sport utility vehicles (SUVs) to fix a problem with the torque sensor
within the steering column that could potentially cause a loss of power
steering – a factor that could raise the risk of a crash.
Another
additional recall affects Ford’s Taurus sedans built between 2010 and 2014
because they could be prone to a corrosion problem. Finally, a problem with
floor mats potentially coming into contact with the gas pedal has also prompted
the company to pull back over 80,000 FordFusion, Mercury Milan, Lincoln Zephyr
and Lincoln MKZ cars from the 2006 through 2011 model years.
Most of the
Ford recalls are in the United States and Canada. The company has not said how
much the recall campaigns are expected to cost the carmaker.
GM, Toyota
cases heighten concerns
The move
comes amid growing scrutiny of automobile safety in the US by regulators. Car giant General Motors is under intense pressure to improve its safety standards
after it was accused of failing to address technical defects that began with
its ignition switch issue in older model cars. Those faults have been linked to
13 deaths.
GM was
fined a record $35 million (25.7 million Euros) earlier this month, the maximum
allowed by US law. The car giant has recalled over 13 million cars in the US so
far this year.
In a
separate case, US authorities recently made carmaker Toyota pay a $1.2 billion
penalty for concealing information from government safety regulators.
Karl
Brauer, senior analyst at Kelley Blue Book, said the recalls could be caused by
heightened concern by automakers because of the GM and Toyota cases.
"I do
think manufacturers are more willing to issue a recall at this point because
their sheer number in recent months has become a sort of background white noise
for consumers," he said in a statement.
Reuters/AP /sp
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