Urgent “Do Not Drive” warnings were issued by Ford Motor Co. and Mazda for more than 457,000 vehicles with recalled, unrepaired Takata airbags.
The warning for another nearly half a million vehicles increases the total for vehicles with “Do Not Drive” notices to 770,000, according to data compiled from CARFAX. It was an 80 percent spike this past week.
“We’ve been following these in detail since May of last year,” said CARFAX Editor-in-Chief Patrick Olsen. “This is far and away the biggest increase that we’ve seen. And these are incredibly urgent for consumers to address.”
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, owners of these vehicles should not drive the vehicle until the repair is completed and the defective airbag is replaced.
“This “Do Not Drive” warning covers all unrepaired, recalled Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles, as well as all Mazda vehicles, that are equipped with non-desiccated Takata airbags,” said the NHTSA press release.
“Some of these vehicles are now more than 20 years old, which increases the risk of an airbag rupturing in a crash. If an explosion occurs, it can severely injure or kill vehicle occupants.”
The Ford warning covers 374,290 vehicles with model years between 2004 and 2014, including: the 2004-06 Ranger; 2005-06 GT; 2005-14 Mustang; 2006-12 Fusion; 2006-12 Lincoln MKZ/Zephyr; 2006-12 Mercury Milan; 2007-10 Edge; 2007-10 Lincoln MKX; 2007-11 Ranger.
The Mazda warning includes 82,893 vehicles in model years 2003-15, including: 2004-09 B-Series; 2003-13 Mazda6; 2006-07 MazdaSpeed6; 2004-11 RX-8; 2004-06 MPV; 2007-12 CX-7; 2007-15 CX-9.
Ford said in its press release about the recall it has made more than 121 million outreach attempts in the U.S. through letters, emails, phone calls and text messages.
Olsen pointed out that other carmakers have also made extraordinary efforts to reach consumers impacted by the recall.
“The reason they’re all putting forth this much effort is twofold: 27 people have died and more than 400 have been injured in incidents involving Takata airbags; and these vehicles are now so old – this latest order is for models from 2003-2015 – that they’re on their second, third, fourth, etc. owner, so tracking them down is not always easy,” Olsen said.
A CARFAX report from May pointed out that consumers have been slow to act on the recall with more than 6.4 million vehicles having the Takata airbags. Texas had 788,000 of the vehicles and California had 739,000.
Consumers who own a Ford, Mercury or Mazda model can check to see if their car is involved at carfax.com/recall. They need only plug in their Vehicle Identification Number or license plate info, and Carfax can tell them instantly – for free – if their car has any unfixed recall.
