Nissan & Ford to join recall rush soon?

It’s recall season in the US, with beleaguered Toyota having to make another recall last week. Already with four massive recalls in its hands – floor mat, stuck accelerator, hybrid ABS, and power steering hose – a fifth issue surfaced last week, forcing the recall of 8,000 Toyota Tacoma pick-up trucks on 12 Feb 2010.

According to PickupTrucks.com, a manufacturing defect might cause the front drive-shaft of the four-wheel drive pick-up to come apart on the move without warning. Fortunately for Toyota, majority of the affected vehicles are still sitting in their stockyards.

Toyota Tacoma (source: toyota.com)

Another report, by The Detroit Bureau, further elaborated that the defective shafts were sourced from Dana, who sold 34,000 with this defect, with Toyota accounting for only 8,000 of them. Of the remaining 26,000 shafts, 17,000 were sold to Ford, who used them in the Ford Escape, Mercury Mariner, and Mazda Tribute. The remaining 9,000 went to Nissan.

Ford Escape: North American version (left, source: ford.com) vs Asia-Pacific version (right)

A subsequent report, also by The Detroit Bureau, reported Nissan is already looking into the matter, with 2010 models of several Nissan and Infiniti trucks potentially affected, speculating that the affected models are the Frontier and Titan.

Once again, consumers in Malaysia have little cause for concern, as the Toyota Tacoma is not sold in our markets, and neither is the Nissan Titan. Owners of the Ford Escape and Mazda Tribute in Malaysia have little to worry either, as the versions sold in North America are completely different from what we get here.

The Nissan Frontier is essentially the Nissan Navara that we get here, though it must be noted that the North American versions are petrol powered, and are thus mechanically different from ours.

Nissan Frontier is among affected model in US, but we expect the slightly different Navara to fare better.

KON