Ford Recalling Almost 40,000 SUVs For Fire Risk

Affected vehicles were built between December 1, 2020, and April 30, 2021. The NHTSA says 39,013 cars are affected, most of which are Fords. The Expedition accounts for 32,711 of the recall totals, and it's thesecond recall for the SUV in a month, and some units may be affected by both. Owners will be notified soon, but in the meantime, they are being instructed to park their vehicles outside and away from structures and other vehicles.

Ford says it's still investigating the cause of the fires and notes that it will contact owners when more information is available. The good news is that owners can continue driving their vehicles for the time being, although parking away from everything will become a pain after a while.

Assuming Ford doesn't issue any more recalls this month, this recall caps off a turbulent month for the automaker. Just this week, theMustang Mach-E received a recallfor unintended acceleration, and earlier this year, Ford recalled 281,000 Navigators and Expeditions for a leaking brake master cylinder. While the number of vehicles recalled pales in comparison to the number of vehicles Ford sold, recalls cost money and negatively impact brand perception.

Though fires are a severe issue, Ford is hardly the only automaker with a recent recall for the problem. In March,BMW recalled 1.6 million vehiclesfor a potential fire issue, and in January, Nissan did the same for almost800,000 Rogue SUVs. Both BMW and Nissan had the problem figured out by the time the recalls were issued, so Ford's got some catching up to do.