Cars and Drivers

Ford Recalls 108,000 2015 Ford and Lincoln Vehicles to Fix Seat Belts

Paul Ausick

Published: August 14, 2019 2:34 pm

Last Updated: January 30, 2020 5:23 pm

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) said Wednesday that it is recalling 108,399 model year 2015 Ford Fusion and Lincoln MKZ vehicles delivered to U.S., Canadian and Mexican customers to repair an issue with the seat belt anchor pretensioners. The company said that it is aware of one injury related to the problem.

The company said that in affected vehicles, increased temperatures generated during deployment of the driver or front-passenger seat belt anchor pretensioner could degrade the tensile strength of the cable below the level needed to restrain the driver or passenger. Seat belt assemblies that do not adequately restrain occupants during a crash increase the risk of injury.

The affected Ford Fusion vehicles were built at Ford’s Flat Rock assembly plant between August 1, 2014, and January 30, 2015, and the Hermosillo, Mexico, assembly plant between August 1 and November 24 of 2015. The Lincoln MKZs were built at the Hermosillo plant between August 1 and November 21, 2014.

Last week Ford recalled about 14,000 model year 2020 Ford and Lincoln SUVs that dealers had not yet sold to customers to fix a problem with the transmission.

Ford said that dealers would apply a coating to protect the cable during pretensioner deployment, but did not announce a schedule of when the company would begin notifying owners.

The company’s stock traded down about 2.8% on Wednesday at $9.01 in a 52-week range of $7.41 to $10.56. The stock’s 12-month consensus price target is $10.86.

The share price dip likely has more to do with investor worries over a recession than it does with the recall. The S&P 500 index is down about 2.5% in mid-afternoon trading.

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