Ford Recalls Brand New SUVs For Potentially Causing Crash

MICHIGAN — Ford Motor Company has issued a recall for the new 2020 Ford Explorer and 2020 Lincoln Aviator vehicles because they can cause a crash, according to an alert from the company.

Specifically, the recall is for a potentially missing manual park release cover.

According to Ford, "Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards require the manual park release cover be in place and only removable with a tool. If the cover is not installed, the manual park release lever may be inadvertently activated, which could result in unintended vehicle movement if the electronic park brake is not applied, increasing the risk of crash."

Ford says the instrument cluster of affected vehicles may be in factory mode, which disables warning alerts and chimes, and does not display the PRNDL gear positions and which gear is selected.

"Factory mode is used to reduce battery drain during the production process. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards require the gear positions and selected gear to be displayed whenever the shifter is not in park."

Ford said they are aware of one report of an accident occurring during vehicle transport within the production process, which resulted in only vehicle damage.

The recall affects 13,896 vehicles in the United States and 239 in Canada. The majority of affected vehicles are in dealer inventory, Ford said.
Affected vehicles were built at Chicago Assembly Plant and include:

• 2020 Ford Explorer vehicles built from March 27, 2019 to July 24, 2019
• 2020 Lincoln Aviator vehicles built from April 10, 2019 to July 24, 2019