WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Ford Motor Co. on Thursday said it would recall three million vehicles for breakable air-inflating devices at a cost of $ 610 million.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Tuesday ordered Ford to issue the recall of airbags inflatables to the driver, rejecting the carmaker’s 2017 petition to avoid it.
The defect, which in rare cases resulted in inflatable bowls bursting from airbags and causing potentially deadly metal fragments to fly, led to the largest car recall in U.S. history of more than 67 million inflatable pipes. Worldwide, about 100 million inflatables installed by 19 major automakers have been recalled.
The recall contains 2.7 million U.S. vehicles. Ford will include the cost in the fourth quarter results.
The vehicles were previously recalled for inflatables on the passenger side. ‘We believe our extensive data showed that a safety recall was not fair to the driver in the airbag. However, we respect the decision of NHTSA and will issue a recall, ‘Ford said.
NHTSA also required Mazda Motor Corp to recall 5,800 airbag blowers in 2007–2009 B-Series vehicles.
Takata inflatables have resulted in at least 400 injuries and 27 deaths worldwide – including 18 U.S. deaths, with two in 2006 Ford Ranger trucks previously recalled.
The recalled Ford vehicles include various model vehicles Ranger, Fusion, Edge, Lincoln Zephyr / MKZ, Mercury Milan and Lincoln MKX for 2006-2012.
In November, NHTSA rejected a petition from General Motors Co. to prevent 5.9 million U.S. vehicles with Takata airbags being recalled. GM said the recall would cover 7 million vehicles worldwide and would cost $ 1.2 billion.
Ford announced separately on Thursday and expects to measure a $ 1.5 billion pre-tax loss in the fourth quarter, related to pension and other benefit plans, driven by lower discount rates.
Ford says the loss on remittance is expected to reduce net income by about $ 1.2 billion, but has not changed expectations for pension contributions in 2021.
Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington; Edited by Leslie Adler and Matthew Lewis