Mondeo Owners Urged to Have Airbags Replaced

[russellw]

Ford commences national Takata recall outreach program targeting 16,701 Ford Mondeo owners to replace driver’s side air-bags

More than 60 per cent of Ford vehicles now repaired as part of Takata recall

Customers urged to check their 17-digit Vehicle Identification Number at THIS LINK

MELBOURNE, Australia, October 24, 2018 — Ford Australia has started a national outreach campaign to repair 16,701 Ford Mondeos affected by the Takata air-bag recall.
Ford Mondeo models built between 2007-2009 and 2014-2017 are affected by the Takata recall. As part of its ongoing air-bag recall work, Ford is contacting affected Mondeo owners to advise that they need to have their potentially faulty driver’s side Takata air-bag inflators replaced.
Older vehicles are being prioritised first, with NSW and Victoria the States with the highest number of affected Mondeos. The repair work is free and takes less than ½ a day. Ford is also directly contacting businesses operating Mondeos in their fleets, as the mid-size vehicle is a popular with businesses.
Although Ford’s overall Takata recall work was progressing well, Ford Australia President and CEO, Ms Kay Hart, urged affected owners not to be complacent.
“If customers have received a recall notice, it’s important they book their vehicle in for repairs at any of our Ford dealers nationally,” she said. “I encourage any customer who receives a notice not to delay and book in for their free repair.”
Ms Hart said the company had a plentiful supply of replacement inflators for all affected models. So far Ford dealers nationally have repaired 54,246 vehicles, including Mondeos.
“We’re really pleased with the response from owners and while we have a 61 per cent completion rate, we still have a long way to go to ensure every affected Ford vehicle is accounted for, and the faulty Takata inflators are replaced,” she said.
Ms Hart also praised the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries’ communications campaign, supported by the affected OEMs, which had helped lift consumer awareness of the Takata recall.
“After the FCAI campaign started in July, we saw a lift in website traffic to our dedicated recall page and because of the widespread reach of this campaign, consumers are more aware of the dangers caused by a mis-deployment involving a Takata air-bag,” she said.
Ms Hart said the national Ford dealer network had done a great job of repairing Takata affected vehicles, while carrying out their normal scheduled servicing and mechanical work. “It’s a big job but we have good dealer processes in place to ensure minimal disruption and inconvenience to customers,” she said. “Our priority is the safety of our customers.”
Ford has a dedicated Takata recall page on the Ford Australia website, to allow owners to check their vehicles via a 17-digit VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) check tool.

“Anyone can check if their vehicle is impacted by entering their VIN on our Takata Recall page at ford.com.au,” Hart said.
In total Ford initially planned to recall 107,401 Mondeo, Econovans, Couriers and Rangers thought to be affected by the mandatory Takata recall in Australia.

Since the recall was announced earlier this year, the company has been able to revise down its total recall numbers after 15,776 Courier utilities were found not to have been fitted with air-bags. The initial data indicated a driver’s air-bag was optional on such vehicles, so to be conservative Ford included all these vehicles in the original recall. However, subsequent data and repair records have since confirmed these Couriers contained no air-bags. Accordingly, in the order of 92,000 Ford vehicles are affected by the mandatory Takata recall in Australia.
All Econovan, Courier and Ranger owners with known contact details would have now received between two and three recall letters from Ford, and email and text message contact methods has also begun.
Ford Australia Service Engineering Manager, Mr Tim Nethercote, said the repair work on the Mondeos differed from the Econovan, Courier and Ranger.
“Because of the steering wheel design specific to Mondeo, we’re actually replacing the steering wheel along with the affected Takata inflators for the 2007-09 models, and the full driver air-bag module for the 2014-17 model,” he said. For the 2007-09 models, Mr Nethercote said the affected Mondeos had four different steering wheel designs and each would be replaced free of charge.
“Importantly, there is no cost to the customer,” he said.
Customers can also call the Takata hotline on 1800 503 673, and if required Ford’s web-page has a ‘Live Chat’ function for customers to access the customer relations team.
Anyone concerned by the Takata recall can also check their vehicle at IsMyAirbagSafe.com.au or the Facebook page (IsMyAirbagSafe).
So far, Ford has completed air-bag repairs on Thursday Island, throughout the Outback, and in remote mining camps in Western Australia. In one case, the company flew a technician into the remote South Wesley Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria to complete one air-bag repair.

[Kiwi67]

Can I just say Ford are a joke.

I got the obligatory letter in the mail. In December 2018, i called into Sunshine Ford on the Goldcoast on the 4th January 2019. Told the service advisor about the letter and was told parts are on back order and we'll let you know. I then in Feburary got a 2nd letter warning to get it the airbag done. I called the Ford hotline number, spoke to a lady who then called up Sunshine Ford while I was on hold. The service agent told her I never came in and then in the same breath asked her where the parts were.
Again. Sunshine Ford never recalled me back to confirm parts arrival. Finally in March I got another final letter. I called the ford hotline again, got the same lady who confirmed to me that if you don't get it sorted by the third letter they invalidate your cars warranty. Luckily for me it was a on file that I'd tried to get it sorted. So, she told them to call me for which the same service advisor at sunny Ford did. Hd politely bull****ted me that they had tried numerous times to call me and left messages. Well that's fully crap for starters as it's my own business phone. I know all calls and emails etc , even searching the dealers numbers I had nothing ever came up. So within 2 minutes of booking the airbag in guess what? I got the booking email to say date was confirmed . So if I wasn't answering my phone, why not email it then ?
They obviously had my email address to send the booking confirmation to in the first place.

Sunshine Ford. Never getting my car for a service ever again.
Snd never getting an ounce of my money. Poor service, they lie. And over priced servicing.

[thebigd]

Originally Posted by Kiwi67

Sunshine Ford. Never getting my car for a service ever again.
Snd never getting an ounce of my money. Poor service, they lie. And over priced servicing.

Hi Kiwi.
I've never dealt with the Service Department at Sunshine Ford, so I cant comment the issues you've raised. What I can say is that the company I work for continues to buy it's new cars from them. Our branch is at Coopers Plains (Brisbane), so we have several dealers closer than Sunshine Ford (Gold Coast). Having dealt personally with their new car sales team on a number of occasions, I cant speak highly enough of them, and that's reason we make the trip down the M1 every time we buy a new Ford. I personally recommend them for a competitive deal on any new Ford vehicle.