Owners of nearly 3 million Ford, Lincoln, Mercury and Mazda sedans, SUVs, and pickup trucks will soon receive notice in the mail instructing them to visit their nearest dealer to have driver-side airbag inflators replaced.
The move, mandated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, comes even after Ford petitioned an exemption all the way back in 2017. However, NHTSA says that the airbag inflators are responsible for more than two dozen deaths worldwide, two of which occurred in Ford Ranger pickups covered by the latest recall.
Here are the recalled models, which date between the 2006 and 2012 model years: Ford Ranger, Fusion, and Edge; Lincoln MKX, MKZ, and Zephyr; Mercury Milan; Mazda B-Series. The Mazda pickup shared a platform with the Ford Ranger, while Mercury was a premium-leaning brand of Ford that the automaker discontinued a decade ago.
Most of those models had previously been recalled to replace passenger-side airbag inflators.
The faulty airbag inflators on both sides could rupture, causing metal fragments to fly into the driver’s face. Ford is one of more than a dozen automakers to have used the inflators, which were made by third-party supplier Takata Corporation. More than 100 million airbag inflators have been recalled worldwide over the past several years.
The recall is expected to cost Ford around $610 million.
