Ford and Mazda already recalled a whole batch of older pickups to replace their faulty Takata airbags. But now, with permanent replacements in hand, both automakers have issued one last recall to close the case for good.
Mazda and Ford have issued a pair of recalls covering about 380,000 pickup trucks. The two trucks in question, the 2004-2006 Ford Ranger and 2004-2006 Mazda B-Series, are technically the same truck, albeit with some badge swaps. Among the components they share? The airbags.
Fun fact: I learned how to drive stick on one of these.
In case you missed it, Takata went belly-up after it had to recall tens of millions of its airbag inflators. The company thought it could cut costs by removing a humidity-absorbing desiccant, but that backfired when the lack of desiccant caused the inflators to blow up in clouds of shrapnel (instead of inflating the airbag like normal) after being exposed to humidity for long periods of time. More than a dozen people have died as a result of Takata’s bad decision.
vCard.red is a free platform for creating a mobile-friendly digital business cards. You can easily create a vCard and generate a QR code for it, allowing others to scan and save your contact details instantly.
The platform allows you to display contact information, social media links, services, and products all in one shareable link. Optional features include appointment scheduling, WhatsApp-based storefronts, media galleries, and custom design options.
So why the second recall? Well, after the first was issued, there weren’t enough permanent replacement parts to go around, so some vehicles received “like for like” swaps, meaning some owners received the same troublesome inflators as replacements. Now that both automakers have the correct number of permanent replacements in hand, it’s time to recall all the vehicles again so that this issue can be put to rest.
Owners will receive notifications via first-class mail. A trip to the dealership is all that’s required, as technicians just need to remove the old inflator and slap in the new one.
