Ford’s brand new 2011 Explorer is basically fresh off the assembly line. The Detroit company is pinning its hopes on the new SUV model that has been redesigned from bottom to top, inside and out, to reflect a contemporary vision of what customers today want in a modern sports utility vehicles.
Gone is the cumbersome construction and so are gas-guzzling engines of old. However, there are still bugs to be worked out, as the brand-new product is being affected by a recall for faulty second-row reclining seats. Thankfully for the brand’s image, only 2,000 vehicles are affected, built between July 15th and December 13th of last year and sold in both the US and Canada.
According to a recent Detroit News article, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website posted a note from Ford, saying that a test of second row seats with manual recliner mechanisms revealed some components might not be up to standard. Some 1,658 vehicles are being recalled in the US, while Ford is also going to fix 239 Explorers in Canada.
Explorer owners will begin receiving notifications on February 14th, and Ford dealers will not shift any of the affected vehicles until a new mechanism has been installed. Ford has stated it is not aware of any accidents or injuries connected to the recall.
The problem was first identified in mid-December, when a noise was believed to be coming from the second row seat. Upon further inspection, “there was unexpected observable movement of the center recliner seatback during manual forward loading.”