More than a recall, US owners of about 35,000 Ford Ranger and Mazda B-Series trucks built in 2006 have been sent ‘do not drive’ orders by Ford, showing the Takata airbag affair is far from over.
It appears to be a separate issue from the recall of 391,000 Ford Rangers after a driver’s death from an exploding airbag in 2016, and comes on top an existing recall.
It seems there’s higher risk of the faulty inflators rupturing – even if the vehicles are not involved in crashes.
Owners of about 33,500 2006 Ford Rangers and 2000 2006 Mazda B-Series, all built at Ford’s Twin Cities plant, were fitted with the defective Takata bags.
Owners will be contacted by the manufacturer, who will send tow trucks to haul the vehicles into dealers for airbag replacements .
Owners will be provided with loan vehicles while their trucks’ airbags are being replaced (that’s a lot of loaners and tow trucks).
So far the Takata saga has seen the recall of 69 million vehicles in the US and 100 million across the globe.