Kuga recall achieves 63% amidst fallout

Yochanaan Coetzee - Ford South Africa announced last week that progress has been made with the implementation of the safety recall for the 1.6-litre Ford Kuga.

According to the manufacturer, more than 63% of the affected vehicles (local figure unknown) have already been repaired and returned to their owners.

However, the company emphasized that a number of the affected vehicles have not yet been taken in for the required maintenance.

“By Thursday, March 2, the safety recall action had been completed on almost 2 800 vehicles, with this number increasing daily,” said Jeff Nemeth, President and CEO, Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa.

“Ford urges all customers who haven’t yet participated in the recall to do so as a priority,” Nemeth added.

“Our dealers are working tirelessly replacing parts, testing and verifying the integrity of the cooling system, ensuring the latest software updates are applied and getting customers back into their vehicles,” he added.

The recall is a two-phased process.

Once the current stage of the safety recall is completed, and with proper maintenance of the cooling system, Ford claim the 1.6 Kuga is safe to drive. They have also confirmed that there have been no reports of a Kuga catching fire after the completion of the safety recall action.

The second stage of the recall will be a further product enhancement. Currently, Ford is ensuring that the changes to be made are thoroughly tested, and will communicate with customers about stage two as soon as the process is ready.

Ford says they have been in regular contact with the South African National Consumer Commission (NCC) and last met with them on 2 March, to update the commission on the progress made with the Kuga recall.

Since the inception of the recall, Ford has been providing complimentary courtesy vehicles to all affected customers to minimise the inconvenience to them and this process is still in place. However, some reports out of South Africa indicate that several customers were mistakenly billed large amounts by car rental companies, however Ford has stated that they are working to rectify the situation.

“Ford and our dealers continue to do everything we can to minimise inconvenience for our customers, and to ensure their driving safety and satisfaction,” Nemeth said.