Hundreds of thousands of Fords are being re-inspected after dealer service departments lied about replacing potentially fatal Takata airbags—or assigned unqualified technicians.
Ford is one of many car companies affected by the massive Takata airbag recall over a fault that has claimed dozens of lives. But Ford may be in deeper than other automakers, as it has reportedly been forced to recall some of its Takata repairs a second time. Why? Because it has reportedly found that some repairs weren’t done properly—or weren’t done at all, endangering customers.
Ford is in the process of inspecting more than 270,000 vehicles previously taken to dealers for Takata airbag recalls according to The Detroit Free Press. After reviewing “internal company documents, dealership memos, federal regulatory filings and court papers,” the publication estimates there may be around 4,000 Fords previously serviced under the recall that remain hazardous due to improper repair. In some cases, technicians reportedly marked vehicles as fixed and fraudulently billed Ford for incomplete repairs. But in most, Ford dealers reportedly assigned repairs to inexperienced techs who then botched service on the critical safety system.
2006 Ford Ranger STX Super Cab. Ford via FavCars.com
The former case is believed to stem from disgruntled technicians who saw their pay for recall repairs cut as they came to comprise the majority of their workload. This led to techs cutting corners, or even outright not performing work they claimed they did.
As for the botched fixes, a whistleblower reportedly said Ford slackened training requirements for airbag repairs to get through its recall service backlog. Ford reportedly said it only loosened standards for warranty repairs, not recall, but multiple dealers reportedly indicated their service departments don’t differentiate between the two. These are believed to make up the majority of the improper repairs, and concern some 232,000 Rangers built between 2004 and 2011. In these cases, the passenger-side airbag may not deploy in a collision.
As part of its recall audit, Ford is reportedly fining dealers $10,000 per instance of fraudulent repair, with some dealer fines exceeding $100,000. Ford reportedly believes the problem is confined, but the whistleblower consulted by The Detroit Free Press believes many more vehicles are implicated than Ford acknowledges.
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