Ford Motor Company (F) Midsize Cars Of Close to 1 Million Are Under Probe by Safety Regulators

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has commenced preliminary probe into several complaints that it has received concerning Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) midsize cars. Approximately 938,000 sedans are being investigated over possible steering wheel failure.

The affected vehicles are Ford Fusion and Lincoln MKZ of 2010-2012 model years. Another affected model is Mercury Milan of 2010 and 2011 model years. However, the probe could affect more vehicles such as Focus, according to the lawsuit that preceded the probe.

So far no injuries have been reported though four of the complainants said that the failure had cause crashes. The total complaints received so far are 508, with most of them saying that the said steering failure led to difficulty in controlling the vehicle.

The agency also said that in most instances, the drivers would get a warning whenever such a failure happened.

Some of the complaints indicated that the problem would sometime be resolved by simply restarting the vehicle, though the problem would resurface after some time. Many other users have also complained that they’ve had to spend money taking their cars to dealers with no reliable solutions.

The lawsuit filed in San Jose, California, also says that Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) received several complaints from users, but had done nothing to publicly warn those who own the affected vehicles.

A Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) spokeswoman has said that they are cooperating with the authorities to ensure that the process runs smoothly. She however declined to go into details of the investigations saying that the company doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

If the probe reveals that there is indeed a problem that the manufacturer needs to rectify, a huge recall could just be on the way.

This article has been written by Victor Ochieng.

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