Ford, Takata airbag disaster: almost 800,000 cars recalled
The manufacturer from the blue oval faces the scandal of dangerous airbags. Recall also for Mazda brand vehicles
by Danilo Loda
2' min read
2' min read
The automotive industry is shaken by one of the biggest safety recalls in history, related to airbags manufactured by the Japanese company Takata. Among the car manufacturers involved in this scandal, which also includes Nissan, Honda, Stellantis, and oartcolare Citroen, Bmw and Toyota, Ford is one of the hardest hit, with millions of vehicles recalled due to problems with defective airbags that have caused numerous fatal accidents and injuries worldwide.
On Tuesday, the Blue Oval manufacturer issued a new urgent 'do not drive' warning to the owners of thousands of vehicles whose owners had not replaced defective Takata airbags. This brings the number of recall campaigns to four, with the first one having already taken place in 2008.
The Ford vehicles affected by the warning include Ranger pick-ups (models 2004 to 2011), Mustangs (models 2005 to 2014), Ford GTs (models 2005 and 2006), Fusions (models 2006 to 2012) and Edge SUVs (models 2007 to 2010). The 'recalled' Mercury and Lincoln models are Milan, MKZ and Zephyr from 2006 to 2012 and MKX from 2007 to 2010.
The warning also affects Mazda B-Series models (2004-2009), Mazda 6 (2003-2013), Speed6 (model years 2006 and 2007) and RX-8 (model years 2004-2011). Also affected are the MPV (model years 2004-2006), CX-7 (2007-2012) and CX-9 (2007-2015) models.
The new campaign is linked to a known problem: it was discovered that the inflator, under certain conditions, can explode with too much force, projecting metal fragments into the passenger compartment. This problem has been attributed to the use of ammonium nitrate as a propellant, an unstable chemical that can degrade and become dangerous in the presence of moisture and high temperatures.
In fact, according to the US government, 27 people have been killed by defective Takata inflators, and more than 400 people have been injured. In the rest of the world, estimates speak of 35 people killed by faulty Takata gas generators.
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