Aug. 18, 2014—As more vehicle recalls were announced last week, domestic automakers announced they will begin taking new safety precautions in the face of new industry scrutiny.
In its 11th round of recalls this year, Ford Motor Co. added nearly 160,000 2013–2014 Focus ST hatchbacks and Escape crossovers to the list on Friday, according to Fortune.
The vehicles are being recalled due to a wiring issue that may cause engines to stall or lose power.
The Ford recalls are small in comparison to competitor General Motors (GM), which has recalled more than 29 million vehicles this year. The company is also facing lawsuits relating to more than 13 deaths due to a delayed ignition switch recall, Fortune reported.
Since its recent ignition switch recall investigation, GM has increased safety precautions in the company through various new programs and safety investigation postions.
Meanwhile, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said they were investigating several Chrysler Group models earlier this summer over an ignition-related issue, the New York Times reported. Chrysler then recalled nearly 800,000 older Jeep SUVs to correct the problem.
Recently, Chrysler also announced it created a new vehicle safety and regulatory compliance group.
The new Chrysler safety group will be headed up by Scott Kunselman, a senior vice president at the company, Bloomberg reported last week. Previously, Chrysler’s global engineering group was responsible for vehicle safety and regulatory compliance.
