One of these cars is actually a gas saver. The other two…… Well, they make up for it in other ways!

One of these gets good gas mileage, the others, well..........

If you have one of the recalled Fords, take it in before you end up like this.

The Ford Motor Car Company, not wanting any of its loyal customers to meet a fiery death, issued a recall for some of it’s vehicles, about 4.5 million (more) of them to be precise. Why more? This recall is actually related to similar recalls in the past, it just expands the scope some. It concerns a faulty switch manufactured by Texas Instruments, that can reportedly cause the vehicle to burst into flames, or at least start smoldering a bit.

It works like this: Switch leaks flammable hydraulic fluid, said fluid commences to ignite, and vehicle is toast (literally). As this can happen even when the vehicle is off, simply leaving your rig at home is no defense. In fact, you might come home to find you no longer have one. How often has one of these switches actually caused someone’s Ford to end up in the well done state? According to a 2008 piece in the New York Times, about 1,500 of them!

Here are the vehicles affected by Ford’s latest recall:

1995-2003 Windstars, 2000-2003 Excursion diesels, 1993-1997 and 1999-2003 F-Super Duty diesels, 1992-2003 Econolines, 1995-2002 Explorers and Mercury Mountaineers, 1995-1997 and 2001-2003 Rangers and 1994 F35 motorhomes

If you’ll notice, many of the vehicles affected by the recall are Ford Explorers. Remember back to the cash for clunkers program, and you’ll recollect that that same Ford Explorer was one of the most traded in to be destroyed. I consider myself to be extremely lucky, having once owned a 2000 Explorer XLT from which I thankfully escaped unscathed.

Okay, so why might this not be the largest recall in Ford’s history? Well, it still is, but not by the margins you’d think at first. Why? Cash for clunkers, of course. The Ford Explorer saw the most action at the trade in lot during the cash for clunkers program, with some 68,500 of them going to the crusher. Ford’s Windstar van, another vehicle listed in the recall notice, was also strongly represented in the cash for clunkers trade in department, with roughly 20,000 of them biting the dust. So, counting the predestroyed vehicles, this round only affects about 3.8 million vehicles, not 3.9 million.

Bottom line – If yours is one of the vehicles listed, don’t wait, get it in to be fixed ASAP! Happy motoring!