Skip to main content

Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury cars recalled due to faulty Takata airbags

If you’re one of the lucky owners for a 2005-2006 Ford GT — or certain other Ford vehicles — you may want to start making plans to visit your local dealership soon.

Ford has just announced that an additional 816,309 of its vehicles have been recalled due to faulty Takata airbags. The airbags can expel bits of shrapnel, potentially causing injury or death.

Recommended Videos

This development follows last summer’s massive recall that affected 1.9 million cars. This recall specifically pertains to passenger front airbags in Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury branded vehicles. Of the total number of vehicles, more than 75 percent were made in the U.S., with the rest built in Canada. And it’s not just exotic supercars that were affected — cars, trucks and SUVs are also being recalled.

The vehicles include:

2005-09 and 2012 Ford Mustang
2005-06 Ford GT
2006-09 and 2012 Ford Fusion
2007-09 Ford Ranger
2007-09 Ford Edge
2006-09 and 2012 Lincoln Zephyr and Lincoln MKZ
2007-09 Lincoln MKX
2006-09 Mercury Milan

Owners should be receiving a call from Ford soon, and will then be able to go to a dealership to get their airbags replaced at no additional cost. Owners can also enter their VIN number on its Safety and Recalls page to see if their vehicles were affected. The reference number for the recall is 17S01.

The Takata recall turned the automotive world upside-down when the company announced in 2013 that 3.6 million vehicles were being recalled for faulty airbags. Fast-forward to 2015, and that number mushroomed to more than 40 million. As of now, regulators believe there are 85 million vehicles out there with potentially defective Takata airbags. While the Takata recall came to light in 2013, estimates show that the problem could have started as early as 2001. There were blips of this issue popping up between 2001 and 2013, with at least 20 recalls being made due to faulty Takata airbags. To date, 11 deaths and 180 injuries have been linked to Takata airbags.

If you, or anyone you know, own a potentially affected vehicle, direct them to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website immediately.

Imad Khan
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Imad has been a gamer all his life. He started blogging about games in college and quickly started moving up to various…
How to find out if your car has been recalled

Recalls happen, regardless of whether you drive a Toyota Corolla or a Bugatti Chiron. Automakers are normally forced to fix problems after the national government concludes an investigation, but they sometimes voluntarily choose to ask owners to bring their car in for repairs if they notice a defect through internal testing. Keep in mind a recall notice doesn't automatically make your car a lemon, bad, or unreliable. There's no such thing as a perfect car, even in 2020. While many issues aren't life-threatening, it's important to get them fixed sooner rather than later.

Owners of a car affected by a recall normally receive a notice in the mail. When in doubt, there are several free online resources available that will help you tell if your vehicle (or your future vehicle) needs something fixed.
The NHTSA website

Read more
Ford’s plan for Rivian-powered, electric Lincoln SUV canceled due to coronavirus
Rivian R1S on the road

Ford’s plan to add an all-electric Rivian-powered SUV to its Lincoln model lineup has reportedly been canceled due to the coronavirus. 

The companies announced the decision to cancel the car’s production on Tuesday, April 28, Automotive News first reported. The electric SUV was supposed to be ready for release by 2022. 

Read more
Audi halts vehicle deliveries to the U.S. as it mulls impact of tariffs
2021 Audi Q5

If you’d been thinking of buying an Audi, now might be the time.  The German brand, owned by the Volkswagen Group, has announced it would halt shipments to the U.S. in the wake of President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on all imported vehicles.
Audi is currently holding cars that arrived after the tariffs took effect, on April 3, in U.S. ports. But it still has around 37,000 vehicles in its U.S. inventory, which should be able to meet demand for about two months, according to Reuters.
Automakers on average hold enough cars to meet U.S. demand for about three months, according to Cox Automotive.
Audi should be particularly affected by the tariffs: The Q5, its best-selling model in the U.S., is produced in Mexico, while other models, such as the A3, A4, and A6 are produced in Germany.
Holding shipments is obviously a temporary measure to buy time for Audi and parent company Volkswagen. If tariffs stay in place, vehicle prices would likely have to go up accordingly, unless some production is shifted to the U.S. Volkswagen already has a plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and is planning a new plant in South Carolina. That latter plant, however, isn’t expected to be operational until 2027 and is currently dedicated to building electric vehicles for VW’s Scout Motors brand.
Other global automakers have also taken drastic measures in response to Trump’s tariffs. Jaguar Land Rover on April 5 said it is pausing shipments of its its UK-made cars to the United States this month. The British sports-luxury vehicle maker noted that the U.S. market accounts for nearly a quarter of its global sales, led by the likes of Range Rover Sports, Defenders, and Jaguar F-PACE.
And on April 3, Nissan, the biggest Japanese vehicle exporter to the United States, announced it will stop taking new U.S. orders for two Mexican-built Infiniti SUVs, the QX50 and QX55.

Read more