Scrutiny of Focus’ Air Bags Increases

U.S. safety regulators have intensified another investigation into reported defects involving Ford Motor Co.’s Focus compact car, citing 130 complaints of burn injuries from air bags.

The injury complaints add to a litany of problems that have beset the Focus since Ford put it on sale in 2000, marketing the car to young buyers to introduce them to the Ford brand.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration this month upgraded the investigation into 576,700 of the 2000 and 2001 model year Focus cars to an engineering analysis, a step that often precedes a recall.

NHTSA said Ford had received 100 complaints about the Focus’ air bags, adding to the 40 already made to the agency.

Along with the 130 reported injuries, there were 18 reports that the deployed air bags caused other parts of the vehicle to catch fire.

Typically, the gas in a deploying air bag comes from a chemical reaction that inflates the bag in less than one-tenth of a second.

The chemicals that launch a bag are heated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and there have been several other reports of burns or irritations from air bags in other models.

In the last two years, Ford has been forced to issue nine safety recalls for the Focus; six probes of possible defects are still pending. And a lawsuit was filed in July in California over the Focus’ brakes.

NHTSA has five other investigations pending into the Focus over complaints of under-hood fires, stalling engines, broken suspension pieces, bad wheel bearings and air bags that deploy unexpectedly.

The California lawsuit claims the front brakes on the 2000 and 2001 Focus wear out so quickly that they require “continuous replacement.” A reply from Ford is due this week.

Ford says that it has fixed many quality problems with the Focus and that warranty claims from the first months of service are declining.

But quality concerns may be one reason sales of the Focus are off 10% this year through July at 139,289 vehicles.

The Focus is outsold in the United States by General Motors Corp.’s Chevrolet Cavalier.

Ford shares fell 26 cents Wednesday to $11.63 on the New York Stock Exchange.