Photo: Ford
Remember when Darren Palmer, the Ford Motor Company’s vice president of electric vehicle programs, mocked Tesla for their woeful build quality? He said the Mustang Mach-E is much superior to any sedan and crossover manufactured by the most valuable carmaker in the world, but as you’re well aware, the joke fell on him and the high-ranking suits in Dearborn.
FoMoCo called back the Mustang Mach-E over inadequate windshield and panoramic sunroof adhesion in September 2021, and three months later, the Focus-based Transit Connect was recalled over panoramic roof separation. Adding insult to injury, the Blue Oval followed has announced yet another inadequate adhesion recall that affects nearly 40,000 Transit Connects.
The Critical Concern Review Group started taking this problem seriously in July 2019 “due to an increase in field claims related to windshield water leak, wind noise, and looseness.” How are the turntables, right? Ford has received approximately 325 field reports from August 2016 to the month of October 2021. Ford isn’t aware of any accidents or injuries related to this condition, but nevertheless, it still has to fix a lot of Transit Connects.
Documents filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reveal that portions of the windshield glass periphery have an inhomogeneous primer layer. This results in inadequate adhesion of the windshield to the body structure, which means the windshield may fly off the vehicle in a crash. The Ford Motor Company puts the blame on inconsistent primer application for the 2016 model year population of vehicles, but the root cause for 2020 models is currently under review. Only these years are affected.
The 2016 models were produced between December 2015 and June 2016 at the Valencia plant in Spain. The 2020 models were built between November 2019 and February 2020. That said, dealers have been instructed to reinstall the windshield using… wait for it… “properly formulated materials.”
Mailing of notification letters is expected to begin on April 18th and will be hopefully completed by April 22nd. Customers who had the windshield reinstalled or replaced from their own pockets are eligible for reimbursement until May 6th, according to the attached recall report.
The Critical Concern Review Group started taking this problem seriously in July 2019 “due to an increase in field claims related to windshield water leak, wind noise, and looseness.” How are the turntables, right? Ford has received approximately 325 field reports from August 2016 to the month of October 2021. Ford isn’t aware of any accidents or injuries related to this condition, but nevertheless, it still has to fix a lot of Transit Connects.
Documents filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reveal that portions of the windshield glass periphery have an inhomogeneous primer layer. This results in inadequate adhesion of the windshield to the body structure, which means the windshield may fly off the vehicle in a crash. The Ford Motor Company puts the blame on inconsistent primer application for the 2016 model year population of vehicles, but the root cause for 2020 models is currently under review. Only these years are affected.
The 2016 models were produced between December 2015 and June 2016 at the Valencia plant in Spain. The 2020 models were built between November 2019 and February 2020. That said, dealers have been instructed to reinstall the windshield using… wait for it… “properly formulated materials.”
Mailing of notification letters is expected to begin on April 18th and will be hopefully completed by April 22nd. Customers who had the windshield reinstalled or replaced from their own pockets are eligible for reimbursement until May 6th, according to the attached recall report.
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