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Almost Half a Million Ford Focus Investigated by the NHTSA for Malfunctioning Doors

Bad news for Ford Motor Co., as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is currently investigating around 400,000 Ford Focus compact cars after a lot of people have complained that doors won’t latch properly or even opened while their cars were moving.
2013 Ford Focus Sedan 1 photo
Photo: Ford Motor Company
The targeted units are those from the 2012 and 2013 model years. Apparently, this is not the first time the American company is facing this kind of issue, as last year it had to recall more than 456,000 Lincoln MKZ, Ford Fusion and Fiesta models because of the same problem.

According to the US auto safety regulators, 73 drivers reported problems with latches. While one driver reported an injury when a door rebounded after an attempt to close it, others had to tie the doors down to keep them shut or even stopped driving their Focuses as they feared the doors might open while traveling.

This is an extreme safety hazard, and it is just a matter of time until someone falls out of a moving vehicle and is killed or injured,” a Ford Focus owner reported to the NHTSA after the driver’s side door latch suddenly failed and the door flew open. The driver also called Ford, which stated that it was aware of a number of failures but would not do a recall.

John Cangany, Ford spokesman, stated that “The Focus latches are a similar design to those on the recalled cars, but they were made by a different parts supply company. We are working with the agency to understand how these differences may affect the latches.

The NHTSA will now investigate how often the problem happens, and if needed, it will inform Ford about a recall, as Detroit News reports.

Ford Motor Company drew a lot of attention lately as it boasted about having an excellent 2015, having become America’s best-selling brand once more and, most recently, because its 350 horsepower monster Focus RS rolled off the production line.
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