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Ford Recalls 101,000 Vehicles

Ford Recalls 101,000 Vehicles

By Jerry Hirsch, Los Angeles Times

This year’s record wave of automotive recalls continued Tuesday with Ford Motor Co. calling back about 101,000 vehicles in North America — including its Edge and Flex sport-utility vehicles, for a variety of problems.

This latest action demonstrates how automakers are recalling vehicles for major defects and minor issues. The recalls included more than 90,000 SUVs and sedans that can have a linkage problem that shuts off power to the wheels, as well as 368 Transit Connect commercial vans because the brake fluid reservoir cap has a European rather than U.S. label.

Automakers have become sensitive to recalls after Toyota paid a $1.2 billion federal fine this year for misleading regulators about defects, and General Motors became the target of numerous federal investigations for waiting about a decade to recall cars with a faulty ignition system linked to more than 50 crashes and at least 13 deaths.

Ford’s recalls bring the number of vehicles called back by automakers in the U.S. to about 40 million this year, surpassing the previous high of 30.8 million, in 2004.

GM accounts for about 26 million of the recalled autos. There also have been large recalls by Toyota, Subaru, Nissan, Honda and others. Without GM, the industry has recalled about 14 million vehicles this year, about two-thirds of the number all automakers recalled in the U.S. in all of last year, according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Ford’s action includes 92,022 Taurus, Lincoln MKS and Police Interceptor sedans, and Flex and Lincoln MKT SUVs, all from the 2013-2014 model years. It also includes 2012-2014 model year Edge and 2014 MKX SUVs.

All of these vehicles have a potential problem where the linkage in the powertrain to the right front wheel can break. When that happens, the engine still runs but the wheels don’t get power. Additionally, this condition may result in the car rolling away from a parked position if the gearshift is placed in “park” without the parking brake being activated. No accidents or injuries have been attributed to this problem.

Dealers will inspect the vehicles and replace parts if they see problems.

Ford also recalled 197 Fiesta compact cars from the 2014 model year because the fuel tank supplier left out an adhesive layer and the tank can leak and start a fire. Dealers will replace the fuel tanks in these cars. There were no incidents reported linked to this potential problem, the automaker said.

Additionally, Ford recalled 2,124 Escape SUVs in North America because the panorama roof glass may have an improperly cured urethane bond between the glass and the attaching bracket. The roof can leak and the glass can come loose. No accidents or injuries have been attributed to this condition.

Also, 6,000 Ford commercial vehicle and motor home chassis were recalled, either for an electrical problem or an issue with the brake system, depending on the vehicle.

AFP Photo/Brendan Smialowski

U.S. Auto Sales Best Expectations For June

U.S. Auto Sales Best Expectations For June

New York (AFP) – Leading automakers, including scandal-plagued General Motors, Tuesday reported better-than-expected June auto sales in the U.S., an indication of higher consumer confidence.

Three of the four biggest auto sellers in the U.S. — GM, Toyota and Chrysler — notched increases from the June 2013 period, while Ford Motor reported a smaller decline than expected.

The companies reported lower sales in June than in May, when overall industry sales rose 11.4 percent from the year-ago period.

Though all the reports were not yet in Tuesday, the early indications pointed to a much better performance than expected, said Alec Gutierrez, a senior analyst at Kelly Blue Book.

“It’s an indication of consumer confidence. It’s the result of the unemployment rate continuing to come down slowly but surely,” he said.

Gutierrez said some consumers also may be moving up purchases to take advantage of favorable financing in anticipating that the U.S. Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in 2015.

“If interest rates start to creep up, that could have a negative consequence on some of the momentum we’re seeing,” he said.

General Motors, the largest U.S. automaker, eked out a one percent rise in sales to 267,461 vehicles compared with June 2013, much better than the 8.5 percent decline forecast by online car shopping site Edmunds.com.

“June was the third very strong month in a row for GM, with every brand up on a selling-day adjusted basis,” said Kurt McNeil, US vice president for sales operations. “In fact, the first half of the year was our best retail sales performance since 2008, driven by an outstanding second quarter.”

GM said the month’s result was the best June since 2007, suggesting that consumers were continuing to overlook the automaker’s travails.

GM is mired in government probes following its delayed recall of 2.6 million vehicles for an ignition-switch problem linked to 13 deaths. The automaker Monday recalled 8.4 million additional vehicles, bringing total recalls this year to a record 30 million.

“While consumers are definitely aware of the recall and concerned, I think they view the actions of GM as proactive and of them standing behind their product,” said Gutierrez.

In addition, Gutierrez noted that today’s fleet of GM products is not the same as those with the failed ignition switches, which were on models between 2003 and 2011.

Chrysler reported a nine percent increase in U.S. June auto sales as its Jeep and Ram brands again scored strong gains.

Chrysler, a unit of Italian company Fiat Chrysler, said it sold 171,086 vehicles last month, its best June sales since 2007.

The rise topped the 6.3 percent increase projected by Edmunds.com.

Chrysler, the number-three U.S. automaker, pointed to especially robust year-on-year increases for the Jeep brand (+28 percent) and the Ram Truck line (+14 percent).

Chrysler said sales of its Fiat brand rose 11 percent in June.

“In spite of two fewer selling days in June versus a year ago, we were able to increase our sales nine percent and post our strongest June sales in seven years,” said Reid Bigland, head of U.S. sales at Chrysler.

Ford reported June U.S. sales of 222,064, down six percent from June 2013 but still better than the 6.5 percent decline projected by Edmunds.com.

“Both the Fusion and Transit Connect set records in June, continuing their sales momentum,” said John Felice, Ford vice president for U.S. marketing, sales and service.

Japanese auto giant Toyota reported an 11.9 percent rise in auto sales to 201,714 units, much better than the 1.3 percent rise projected by Edmunds.

“Sales in the first half of 2014 indicate a steadily recovering industry, and we expect this pace to increase as we move into the second part of the year,” said Bill Fay, Toyota division group vice president and general manager.

AFP Photo/Geoff Robins

Another Round Of Auto Recalls

Another Round Of Auto Recalls

Toyota To Spend $3.5 Billion On Share Buy-Back

Toyota To Spend $3.5 Billion On Share Buy-Back

Tokyo (AFP) – Toyota is to buy back as much as 1.89 percent of its shares for 360 billion yen ($3.5 billion), raiding a growing corporate cash chest for the first time in five years, the Japanese carmaker said Wednesday.

The world’s largest automaker said it will purchase up to 60 million shares over a 10-month period following the next shareholders’ meeting in June.

It will cancel half of them, to avoid sparking fears of dilution in future share sales, the company said in a statement.

The other shares will be handed over to a trust that will manage them on behalf of a new foundation to “support efforts to address mobility challenges around the world” such as traffic jams and better use of energy, it said.

The last Toyota share buy-back was in February 2009, a company spokeswoman said, adding it had repurchased 930,000 shares for 2.8 billion yen at the time.

Observers said it was a way for Toyota to invest its large cash pile into its own shares and to increase value.

“The company has improved its business performance greatly thanks to a weaker yen and now has abundant cash,” said auto analyst Tatsuya Mizuno. “By using the cash to buy back its own shares Toyota could show the management’s confidence to investors that they are worth pouring cash into.”

Toyota shares rose 1.09 percent to 5,621 yen ahead of the announcement on Wednesday.

AFP Photo/Brendan Smialowski