Ford commences national Takata recall outreach program targeting 16,701 Ford Mondeo owners to replace driver’s side air-bags
More than 60 per cent of Ford vehicles now repaired as part of Takata recall
Customers urged to check their 17-digit Vehicle Identification Number at THIS LINK
MELBOURNE, Australia, October 24, 2018 — Ford Australia has started a national outreach campaign to repair 16,701 Ford Mondeos affected by the Takata air-bag recall.
Ford Mondeo models built between 2007-2009 and 2014-2017 are affected by the Takata recall. As part of its ongoing air-bag recall work, Ford is contacting affected Mondeo owners to advise that they need to have their potentially faulty driver’s side Takata air-bag inflators replaced.
Older vehicles are being prioritised first, with NSW and Victoria the States with the highest number of affected Mondeos. The repair work is free and takes less than ½ a day. Ford is also directly contacting businesses operating Mondeos in their fleets, as the mid-size vehicle is a popular with businesses.
Although Ford’s overall Takata recall work was progressing well, Ford Australia President and CEO, Ms Kay Hart, urged affected owners not to be complacent.
“If customers have received a recall notice, it’s important they book their vehicle in for repairs at any of our Ford dealers nationally,” she said. “I encourage any customer who receives a notice not to delay and book in for their free repair.”
Ms Hart said the company had a plentiful supply of replacement inflators for all affected models. So far Ford dealers nationally have repaired 54,246 vehicles, including Mondeos.
“We’re really pleased with the response from owners and while we have a 61 per cent completion rate, we still have a long way to go to ensure every affected Ford vehicle is accounted for, and the faulty Takata inflators are replaced,” she said.
Ms Hart also praised the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries’ communications campaign, supported by the affected OEMs, which had helped lift consumer awareness of the Takata recall.
“After the FCAI campaign started in July, we saw a lift in website traffic to our dedicated recall page and because of the widespread reach of this campaign, consumers are more aware of the dangers caused by a mis-deployment involving a Takata air-bag,” she said.
Ms Hart said the national Ford dealer network had done a great job of repairing Takata affected vehicles, while carrying out their normal scheduled servicing and mechanical work. “It’s a big job but we have good dealer processes in place to ensure minimal disruption and inconvenience to customers,” she said. “Our priority is the safety of our customers.”
Ford has a dedicated Takata recall page on the Ford Australia website, to allow owners to check their vehicles via a 17-digit VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) check tool.
“Anyone can check if their vehicle is impacted by entering their VIN on our Takata Recall page at ford.com.au,” Hart said.
In total Ford initially planned to recall 107,401 Mondeo, Econovans, Couriers and Rangers thought to be affected by the mandatory Takata recall in Australia.
Since the recall was announced earlier this year, the company has been able to revise down its total recall numbers after 15,776 Courier utilities were found not to have been fitted with air-bags. The initial data indicated a driver’s air-bag was optional on such vehicles, so to be conservative Ford included all these vehicles in the original recall. However, subsequent data and repair records have since confirmed these Couriers contained no air-bags. Accordingly, in the order of 92,000 Ford vehicles are affected by the mandatory Takata recall in Australia.
All Econovan, Courier and Ranger owners with known contact details would have now received between two and three recall letters from Ford, and email and text message contact methods has also begun.
Ford Australia Service Engineering Manager, Mr Tim Nethercote, said the repair work on the Mondeos differed from the Econovan, Courier and Ranger.
“Because of the steering wheel design specific to Mondeo, we’re actually replacing the steering wheel along with the affected Takata inflators for the 2007-09 models, and the full driver air-bag module for the 2014-17 model,” he said. For the 2007-09 models, Mr Nethercote said the affected Mondeos had four different steering wheel designs and each would be replaced free of charge.
“Importantly, there is no cost to the customer,” he said.
Customers can also call the Takata hotline on 1800 503 673, and if required Ford’s web-page has a ‘Live Chat’ function for customers to access the customer relations team.
Anyone concerned by the Takata recall can also check their vehicle at IsMyAirbagSafe.com.a u or the Facebook page (IsMyAirbagSafe).
So far, Ford has completed air-bag repairs on Thursday Island, throughout the Outback, and in remote mining camps in Western Australia. In one case, the company flew a technician into the remote South Wesley Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria to complete one air-bag repair.
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