Ford Recall Criticized as Not Broad Enough

05/10/96

In an attempt to ease the public's mind about a recent recall of 8.7 million 1988-1993 vehicles, Ford published full page ads in 19 major daily papers on Wednesday. The ad came 2 days after the company received a letter from the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA) that requested data on certain 1986 and 1987 model year vehicles that Ford excluded from the recall.

Ford issued the recall to replace a United Technologies ignition switch that may short circuit and cause a fire in the steering column. The carmaker says it limited its recall to the model years 1988-1993 because United Technologies used a different switch design before the 1988 model year, and because Ford stopped using the United Technologies switches altogether in 1993.

Ford has classified the NHTSA's letter as a routine follow-up to the recall announcement. Helen Petrauskas, vice president of safety engineering at Ford said, "They indicated to us that, as always, they would be coming in and continuing to monitor the performance of other vehicles." The NHTSA, on the other hand, noted that the number of reported ignition switch fire incidents in some 1986 and 1987 vehicles is "relatively high" compared to other models from the same years and vehicles from 1984 and 1985.

Richard Schiffrin, an Arlington, Va., attorney who has filed a class action lawsuit against Ford over the switches said that 40 percent of the calls he has received are from owners who report fires in vehicles not included in the original recall population.

Safety advocate Clarence Ditlow, director of the Center for Automotive Safety, said Ford should recall all vehicles with United Technologies ignition switches: "Ford made millions of dollars in profits off of sales of those vehicles, and they should now return some of those profits to consumers in a safety recall that would address the issue."

Experts estimate that there are about 23 million vehicles between the 1984 and 1993 model years with the the United Technologies ignition switches. Even though Ford has recalled only about 30% of vehicles with the switch, it is still the biggest recall in U.S. carmaking history.

The size of the recall has prompted Ford to take the unusual step of asking consumers to bring their cars in for repair before they receive official notice from the company. Ford hopes to get as many of the repairs completed before the summer's peak repair season (mid-June to mid September) as they can. Ford will start sending letters to car owners on June 17.

Paul Dever -- The Auto Channel