Ford Tiptoes Around Toyota Storm With Its Own Hybrid Fix
February 08, 2010
Careful -- at least at the moment -- what you call it when it comes to fixing hybrids. You 
might want to say "recall," but Ford's got a better idea, to coin a phrase.
Almost in lockstep with embattled Toyota Motor Corp. reportedly on the verge of announcing a recall or brake software recalibration on its Prius, Ford Motor Co. also announced a decision last week to reprogram the braking strategy for its Fusion Hybrid and Mercury Milan Hybrid.
Toyota, already grappling with a recall of more than 8 million conventionally powered vehicles worldwide, seemingly is reluctant to formally recall the 2010 Prius to address the braking calibration.
Ford is seemingly just as anxious to stay clear of the net of bad public perception tossed around Toyota, staying far away from the word "recall" in terming its action for the Fusion and Milan Hybrids a "customer satisfaction program."
Odd, though, that when Edmunds.com's Inside Line visited a Santa Monica, California, Ford dealer last week to have the brake reprogramming performed on its long-term Fusion Hybrid, Ford's own paperwork repeatedly referred to the service as a "recall."
Yes, big-time official recalls are an action that confirms some part or component is faulty and needs replaced. And given the financial disincentive to declare a recall, sometimes the government has to get insistent. But the brakes on Ford's hybrid cars aren't defective, just glitchy (ask Consumer Reports) and Ford is voluntarily addressing the situation; the reflash of the Fusion Hybrid's software required just 10 minutes, Inside Line reported.
Nonetheless, Ford's actions and the process surrounding them sound an awful lot like a recall, although Ford says the service paperwork employs the term recall only in the most generic sense. Is Ford performing what amounts to a recall in everything but name, hoping to avoid being damned by association in light Toyota's circumstances shining a white-hot spotlight on anything connected with recalls or hybrids?
And is it time for "New Rules" regarding what automakers are required to do -- and how they characterize those actions -- when something's not working properly? -- Bill Visnic, Senior Editor
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 4:40 AM under Ford , Technology , Toyota | Comments (0) | digg this | Seed Newsvine
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