Ombud and regulator ‘slow on Kugas’
The motor industry ombudsman and the regulator for compulsory specifications should shoulder part of the blame for their sluggish intervention in the Ford Kuga burning vehicles saga, MPs said on Tuesday.
The motor industry ombudsman and the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications should shoulder part of the blame for their sluggish intervention in the saga of Ford Kuga vehicles bursting into flame, members of Parliament’s portfolio committee on trade and industry said on Tuesday.
Ford had to recall up to 4,556 Kugas following incidents of SUVs catching on fire.
Police are still investigating whether the fault found in the vehicles was behind the death of motorist Reshall Jimmy.
Ford has been criticised for its handling of the issue as safety recalls only commenced about a year after incidents of a Kuga catching on fire first surfaced.
However, the ombud and the regulator were placed in the awkward position of having to justify their existence to MPs.
Motor industry ombudsman Johan van Vreden told the committee that, while he was aware of reports that Ford Kuga models had been catching fire on South African roads, his office could not intervene at its own behest.
“Being an ombud is a thankless position to be in. You have to be independent and objective. You cannot be proactive. To date, we have not had a complaint about a Kuga burning out in our office. That kind of complaint … is out of the scope of the ombud,” said Van Vreden.
Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa CEO Jeff Nemeth told the committee that Ford had checked 3,200 of the 4,556 Kugas recalled to date. He said 2,700 had been returned to their owners after a service, while 359 customers had opted to trade in their Kuga for another Ford model. He said 1,300 Kugas remained in the market.
He insisted there was no link between the fires plaguing the Kuga models and the death of motorist Jimmy.
Ford found itself with a public relations headache and a consumer safety storm when the company took a whole year to act on the crisis of Kuga engines catching fire, initiating a safety recall in January.
However, Nemeth told the parliamentary committee that while the company acknowledged that it could have handled the matter better, none of the incidences where Kuga engines caught fire had been found to have led to injury or death.