Ford Ranger added to wider Takata airbag recall

FORD has added almost 70,000 of its Ranger trade utes to the Takata airbag recall as the net to replace the potentially lethal devices is cast wider to include commercial vehicles as well as passenger cars.

However, Ford’s action is part of a voluntary recall – not the compulsory one affecting as many as one in seven vehicles on Australian roads – that has scooped up more than 20,000 Courier trade utes and 1300 Econovans.

The recall notice says as the airbags fitted to the Ranger age, a combination of high temperatures and humidity can degrade the airbag’s explosive propellant used to inflate it.

So far, the Takata recall scandal has resulted in a single death in Australia after a driver was killed in Sydney last year after what police described as a “survivable” low-speed crash. Another person has been seriously injured by flying shrapnel.

The Ford Ranger recall predates the current generation of the trade ute that was designed and developed in Ford’s Australian engineering hub housed inside its former Broadmeadows head office, and the You Yangs-based proving ground.

However, the new-generation, heavily Aussie-influenced Ford Ranger, introduced in 2011, has risen to become one of the market’s best-selling vehicles, outstripping traditional passenger cars to claim the number two spot behind Australia’s best-selling vehicle for the last two years – the Toyota Hilux. The rise of the trade ute, which now account for one in every five new vehicle sold in Australia, is due in part for their ability to be rugged enough for the worksite on weekdays, and yet double as family transport or a lifestyle vehicle on weekends.

Click here to see if your Ford Ranger is part of the recall.