Ford Recalls 140,000 2012 Focus Vehicles, Chrysler Follows Suit With Much Smaller Recall

Ford Motor Co. on Monday announced the recall of 140,310 2012 Ford Focus vehicles from the 2012 model year. The problem features vehicles sold in the United States and was issued after passenger-side windshield wiper motors were found to be faulty on some vehicles during tests conducted by U.S. safety regulators.

According to documents filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration a seal plug in the wipe motors electrical connector may be missing on some vehicles, causing it to short out and potentially leading to reduced visibility with an increased chance of crashing.

At this time Ford has not received any complaints about accidents or injuries from customers. Customers looking to have their motor fix will have to wait until May 21, 2012 at which point the wiper motor connector will be cleans and sealed as needed.

In a much smaller recall Fiat (owners of Chrysler) have recalled 1,689 2012 model Jeep Patriot and Compass sports utility vehicles that may have been built with a fuel tank assembly containing a damaged rollover valve. During an accident or rollover a damaged tank could potentially catch on fire.

Chrysler also said in its own NHTSA filing that no accidents have been reported and no leaks, fires of injuries have been revealed at this time. The Fiat recall is expected to begin in June 2012.

While recalls are nearly inevitable it’s nice to see that car company’s these days are so swiftly reacting to issues with their vehicles and fixing those issues as quickly as humanly possible. Now if cars were just made out of something stronger than fiberglass…