Lotta Auto Recalls This Week

If the industry is trying to shake the growing assumption that modern vehicles aren’t as reliable as their predecessors, it certainly did a poor job of it this week. 

Ford is recalling 277,000 Super Duty pickups and Lincoln Continental luxury sedans from the 2017-2020 model years due to the anti-reflective coating on the rearview camera becoming sun-bleached. Apparently, UV radiation (which it was always going to be exposed to) can cause the material to degrade. This can reportedly result in a “progressively foggy or cloudy rear-view camera image.”

Since safety regulations require that all modern vehicles be equipped with a functional rearward camera system, the Blue Oval is having to issue yet another sizable recall in a year where it has already experienced plenty. 

Ford told safety regulators it is presently aware of 7,625 Super Duty and 1,236 Lincoln Continental warranty reports in the U.S. as of July 13th that might be related to the defect. Though the automaker stated that it is not aware of any reports of accidents or injuries at this time. Magna Electronics in Holly, Michigan, is the supplier responsible for the cameras and the solution will be to replace those units with ones that won’t get cloudy under the sun. 

Dealers were notified this week, whereas owners won’t be notified until September 12th. 

Next up is General Motors, which is recalling almost 121,000 Chevrolet Spark (MY 2013-2015) and Spark EV models (MY 2014-2015) because the hood won’t stay shut. This one branches off from an earlier recall that encompassed nearly 90,000 cars for the same reason. This one’s decidedly more dangerous to leave alone, because most incidents reference the hood opening unexpectedly at speed. 

GM said it has 22 crash allegations and one minor injury claim on the books. The safety report cites India’s Shivani Locks as the supplier of the hood striker and latch. General Motors plans to replace those units with ones wearing a new protective coating the automaker said would mitigate corrosion. 

Dealers were notified last week and owners should start seeing recall notifications after October 10th. Though you may want to take a gander at your hood latch in advance of the formal recall if you happen to be a Spark owner. It might not be in the best shape and you really don’t want to learn that it’s about to fail on the expressway. 

Rivian is also recalling some of its small-batch automobiles this week. The electric vehicle manufacturer has 207 R1T pickups and R1S SUVs from the 2022 model year that could have bunk seatbelt anchors. The NHTSA report suggests they’ve been improperly anchored to the B-pillar and may not provide adequate restraint in the event of a crash. 

This one’s pretty straightforward. Rivian will inspect vehicles and determine whether or not it needs to tighten down the bolts. Owners should start hearing about the issue by mid-October. 

And, in case you missed it, Hyundai and Kia had a massive fire recall last week. The NHTSA has stated that the campaign affects 245,030 examples of the Hyundai Palisade SUV (MY 2020-2022) and 36,417 examples of the Kia Telluride SUV (MY 2020-2022). While the automakers have estimated the number of vehicles that are actually in danger of burning up, regulators still halted their sales until the matter could be addressed. 

Both models have a failure-prone tow hitch system that can let in moisture and cause a short circuit. This opens the door for fire risk, meaning you don’t want to keep them indoors until the issue has been dealt with. Formal recall notices won’t begin until October and there haven’t been any updates on a proposed solution to the issue. But concerned owners may still want to take their vehicle in for an inspection anyway, and the service center will know why. 

While those are the biggest and most severe recalls from the last week, you may want to hit up the NHTSA website and plug in your VIN to see how your vehicle is doing. Frankly, there have been so many recalls this year that it’s getting difficult just to keep up with them. Last week, Ford had about 50,000 F-Series pickups faulted with a loose undercarriage (which sounds like an extremely lewd comment from a century ago) and Subaru had 188,000 cars with out-of-spec headlamps. But those are just off the top of the dome and hardly offer a comprehensive picture of the record-setting number of recalls we’re on pace for this year. 

[Image: Ford Motor Co.]

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