Ford to Dealers: We'll Make It Worth Your While to Hunt Down Old Rangers
Tuesday was — accidentally, it turns out — all about the Ford Ranger, at least for those with no interest in Tesla and its business machinations. As we await the return of the midsize pickup’s online build and price tool, Ford is taking an unusual step to get old versions of the truck into the repair shop.
The automaker is offering dealers cash for every 2006 Ranger they can track down and pull off the road.
Not all 2006 Rangers, mind you. Just ones involved in February’s recall of 33,320 vehicles equipped with potentially deadly Takata airbags that haven’t made it to the shop.
A Ford spokeswoman confirmed to Automotive News that the automaker will hand dealers $1,000 for every ’06 Ranger slapped with a “do not drive” order, once those vehicles are found and fixed. The spokeswoman said that although 75 percent of the recalled vehicles have already been located, the extreme danger caused by the unstable airbag propellant made “unprecedented measures” necessary.
“We want to get to these vehicles as quickly as we can,” she said. “We just don’t want our customers driving these vehicles at all.”
While the Takata recall covered millions of vehicles from numerous automakers, the Rangers hit with a “stop driving” order are thought to be especially dangerous. Ford issued an earlier, smaller recall after discovering a connection between two airbag-related deaths in the United States. The unstable Takata airbag inflators found in both vehicles, which detonated and sprayed both crash victims with metal shards, were assembled on the same day.
Tests carried out on other airbag inflators showed drivers in a larger crop of vehicles faced a heightened danger.
“Further inflator and propellant test data showed higher propellant pressures and ruptures inside certain inflators in vehicles built during the period included in this expanded recall,” the automaker stated in February. “Ford is not aware of any injuries or fatalities involved in these additional vehicles.”
[Image: Ford Motor Company]
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Where are the sub_trolls and their ring leader DeadWeight to tell us how awful Ford is for doing this? I can't believe the nerve of this evil corporation. I mean they are the capslock-required WORST and DEADLIEST manufacturer of so-called "automobiles" (more like rolling deathtraps and fire starters) in the history of the industry. Everyone hates them and always has. Nobody has ever had a good one that didn't kill them at least 3 times a day, and don't forget all those poor multi-millionaires who barely scraped together enough coins and pocket lint to buy an Explorer before it tried to murder their families 20 years ago because no other car company has ever had an issue with fires with a machine that regularly mixes a plethora of flammable substances with heat and electricity and is reproduced millions of times and is driven millions of miles. None. Also, has every one stayed below their comment posting limits today? We sure don't want any overages.
@John....I'm a big DW fan. The Dude can throw , a whole string of coherent words together...He is most certainly an asset here at TTAC. That being said, your last comment, was well done sir !