Review Car

Ford Freestyle Under Investigation

The Freestyle brought to the market by Ford Motor Company is under investigation for unintended lunging by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. They received around 238 complaints that the Freestyle was lunging when going at slow speeds, without the driver having her or his foot on the gas. This investigation includes around 17,000 Freestyle's, from the 2005 year model up to 2007 year models. There has been around 18 accidents that have been attributed to the defect in the equipment, and one of those accidents did lead to minor injuries. 

According to those that have these Freestyle's they have reported that when the vehicle does start to lunge that the person can apply their brakes in order to get it to stop. However, it is not uncommon for the vehicle to lunge around ten feet before the person can get their bearings about them to press the brake in time. Hence, the reason that there has been reported accidents related to this defect. According to some of the reports, it would seem that the lunging is worse when the person has their air conditioner on, or if they have the wheel turned at a sharp angle. 

Ford has said that they are going to work with the NHTSA as much as they can in order to make sure that this problem is figured out and corrected. Is this going to affect Ford? Since the model years that are being affected are from 2005 to 2007, most people are going to find that Ford has stepped up their game so to say and less and less problems are escaping their attention on the floor. Most automakers are doing their best now to put their vehicles through strict evaluations to make sure that these kind of things no longer happen. However, there is always a chance. With that being said, most people are still going to be loyal Ford fans. After all, compared to the number of incidents that other automakers have had, this does not seem to be that big of a deal.