Ford to recall 33,256 vehicles due to defects

Dearborn, Michigan: Ford Motor Company said it is recalling 33,256 vehicles, including its best-selling Fusion, because front seats and head rests may collapse back during a crash.

The voluntary recall affects 2010 model-year vehicles including the Ford Explorer and Mercury Milan, according to a notice yesterday on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's web site.

The affected seats manually recline and will be replaced by manual seats without the defect or power seats, Ford said in the notice. The models affected are Ford's Explorer and Explorer Sport Trac sport-utility vehicles, Ford's Fusion and Mercury's Milan and Mountaineer.

"We're not aware of any accidents or injuries" associated with the defect, said Wes Sherwood, a spokesman for Ford. Sherwood declined to identify the supplier of the seats.

The automaker, based in Dearborn, Michigan, will notify owners by April 30 to bring vehicles to dealers for repairs free of charge.

Ford fell 3 cents to $14.17 at 11.08am in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares gained 42 per cent this year before yesterday.

Toyota announced record US recalls this year and last year because of defects that may cause unintended acceleration, including in its top-selling Camry and some Lexus models.

Toyota, the world's biggest carmaker, agreed to pay the record US fine levied by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration following a recall of 2.3 million vehicles for sticky pedal defects that may cause unintended acceleration.

Toyota said in a statement on April 19 when it agreed to pay the fine that it "denies NHTSA's allegation that it violated the Safety Act," and said "we believe we made a good-faith effort to investigate and develop an appropriate counter-measure."