Ford Motor Company’s (NYSE: F) runaway quality meltdowns were confirmed once again today as it recalled ~200,000 model year 2015-17 Expeditions and Lincoln Navigators for blower motor fires. In the required NHTSA filing just made public, Ford said “if the customer experiences blower motor symptoms (inoperative, intermittent, excessive noise, burning smell, etc.) prior to the availability of the remedy blower motor, the dealer will install a new blower motor service part of the current design.”
No cause of the Expedition and Navigator fires has been identified to date. Ford “believes they originate in the blower motor, which is located on the passenger side interior behind the glovebox.” Ford was alerted by NHTSA of the potential fire problem during October of 2020 because of consumer complaints to the Federal safety Agency. Mailing of owner notification letters is expected to begin September 12, 2022 and is expected to be completed by September 16, 2022. The supplier of the defective part is the ironically named Detroit Thermal Systems of Romulus Michigan.
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Parked: August US Light Vehicle Sales Still at 1.1M
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Thanks to an accounting quirk, US Light Vehicle sales were up by 4% YoY compared to August 2021. This positive number comes from a weak 2021 base and an extra selling day, instead of a real recovery of the market, according to an analysis by LMC Automotive* just released. However, actual volumes in the last three months have been flat at ~1.13 million units.
Perhaps in an inadvertent nod to the ongoing Biden Administration recovery, LMC observed that “the sales ranking resembled normal times, with General Motors, Toyota and the Ford F-150 leading the sales charts by OEM, brand and model, respectively. This was Kia’s best-ever August, and the brand moved into the fourth position in terms of sales volume last month. Trucks accounted for 79% of sales.”
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