Ford tells owners not to drive their Ford trucks
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| 2006 Ford Ranger – appropriately painted yellow |
On Thursday, Ford confirmed that a defective Takata airbag inflator caused another death, this time in a Ranger pickup truck. This latest death spurred Ford to recall 2,902 2006 Rangers in the U.S. and Canada. This narrow recall is all of the Ranger pickups built at the Twin Cities Assembly Plant in Minnesota from Aug. 10, 2005, to Dec. 15, 2005.
If you happen to own a 2006 Ford Ranger, you can enter your VIN into Ford’s recall tool, but stopping by your dealer should be just as effective. Ford says that the replacement parts are currently available to make a permanent repair, and the company is willing to tow the vehicle to the shop. Ford also says loaner vehicles are available if necessary. As with all recalls, the work is free of charge.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says ongoing testing of Takata-made airbags will force an additional 2.7 million airbag inflators to be recalled. The inflators in question were …
According to Automotive News, there’s a similar recall in the works for Mazda B-Series pickups of the same vintage, and this latest death is among at least 21 lives lost because of metal fragments firing from Takata airbag inflators.