For the past two years Ford has dealt with a number of issues related to not being able to keep the doors of its vehicles shut, from an investigation by federal regulators to the recall of millions of cars. Today, those issues continue, albeit in a different manner, as the carmaker recalled 74,000 hatchbacks with hatches that can open while the car is moving.
Ford announced Wednesday the compliance recall of 73,915 model year 2013 to 2017 Focus hatchback vehicles equipped with manual transmissions after finding the hatch can open too easily.
According to the carmaker, the rear hatchback can be unlocked and unlatched with a single press of the interior latch release — located on the left side of the steering column — when the vehicle is traveling under four miles per hour.
Federal vehicle safety standards require that two separate actions be used to unlock doors and operate the internal latch release control mechanism.
Ford says it is unaware of any crashes or injuries related to the issue. Dealers will reprogram the control module at no cost to owners.
Wednesday’s recall comes just weeks after Ford announced it would recall 1.5 million vehicles that have doors that just won’t stay shut. That recall came as an addition to the previous recall of 456,000 vehicles in Sept. 2014.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration closed a year-long investigation into those vehicles in Dec. 2015 after determining that a recall by Ford to replace all four door latches on affected models fixed the problem.
by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist
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