Ford Kuga recall extends to Botswana

Pauline Dikuelo | Wednesday January 18, 2017 10:37

 

According to Barloworld Motor Botswana’s managing director, Ian Utting, following the reports from South Africa they have also recalled all the 24 sold Kugas while the four they use in-house will also go through an assessment. The recall is limited to 1.6 litre models manufactured in Valencia, Spain, between December 2012 and February 2014. “Even though we have not yet received any report of a burning Kuga in Botswana, we have decided to recall all of them for assessment and have been busy trying to contact all the owners of the 24 Kugas we have sold,” he said.

Utting said they intend to check the faulty parts in the engine and replace them immediately.

Owners of the Kugas will be given a courtesy car to use with the company estimating the assessment period to last for about a week.

In addition he said those in the northern part of the country will have to return the cars to the Francistown office while the ones in the southern part will have to use the Gaborone office.

The company also has plans to deploy technicians to their other branches including Serowe and Mahalapye. South African newspapers have reported that investigations had revealed that overheating, which led to engine cylinder heads cracking and oil leaking caused the fires. However they said that the recalled vehicles will be subjected to a software update and a check on the cylinder head. Early this week, Ford announced that it will recall 4,500 of its Kuga SUV models in South Africa after dozens of reports of the vehicles catching fire spontaneously.

In a joint statement with the National Consumer Commission, Ford’s Southern Africa president and chief executive, Jeff Nemeth said the company could confirm 39 incidents of the cars catching fire, as well as one death, which Nemeth said was not directly linked to the defect.