Ford F-150 deliveries paused again in Australia after compliance breach
07/05/2024 07:05
A breach of Australian motor vehicle regulations has resulted in the third interruption to local deliveries of the Ford F-150 pick-up in four months.
Ford Australia has issued another stop-delivery notice for the 2024 Ford F-150 pick-up due to “lighting features” which do not meet regulations for new motor vehicles locally, known as Australian Design Rules.
It is the second stop-delivery notice issued since deliveries began in late November 2023 – and comes less than two weeks after shipments of long-wheelbase F-150s to Ford dealers were halted to fix another “potential” fault.
The notice issued to Ford Australia dealers yesterday pauses the “sale and delivery” of all F-150 variants, which are ‘re-manufactured’ from left- to right-hand drive in Melbourne by Thai company RMA with Ford’s backing, for sale in its showrooms.
MORE: Ford F-150 shipments halted in Australia again (published late April 2024)
“Ford Australia has placed a temporary hold on the sale and delivery of all re-manufactured F-150s, as we have identified that specifications of certain lighting features do not conform to Australian regulatory requirements,” a Ford Australia spokesperson said in a written statement on Tuesday.
“Affected vehicles cannot be delivered to customers until appropriate rectification work is complete.”
“In the meantime, we thank customers for their patience and in recognition of the inconvenience this may cause, we are extending a Complimentary Five Years/75,000km (whichever comes first) Service Program to all F-150 customers whose vehicle had either been delivered or contracted by 6 May.”
Five years/75,000km of servicing is valued at $2081, according to the pricing calculator on the Ford Australia website.
If the improper lighting units are fitted to customer-delivered cars already on the road, Ford Australia is likely to be required to issue a recall – which would be the fourth in five months, after three between mid-January and late March.
Among them was a recall for side indicators that were not compliant with Australian Design Rules, but the defect was specific to long-wheelbase versions – so the latest stop-delivery notice may have been prompted by another fault.
The recalls also covered a steering rack that could detach from the intermediate shaft – with F-150 owners told to stop driving their vehicles immediately – and a clock spring fault that could prevent the driver’s airbag from inflating in a crash.
It is understood the stop-shipment notice issued last month – which paused freight of F-150s to dealers, but did not halt deliveries of vehicles already at dealers – remains in effect.
It has now been clarified that this notice affected long-wheelbase versions only.
Meanwhile, the first pause on F-150 deliveries – issued in late December and lifted in January – was attributed to a fault with the 3.5-litre petrol V6’s twin turbochargers.
MORE: Ford F-150 deliveries halted in Australia (published early January 2024)
The re-manufacturing of Ford F-150s from left- to right-hand drive in Victoria is the largest of its kind conducted by RMA, a Thai company which specialises in modifying Ford Ranger utes for use by police and military in Asia.
It has also previously conducted ‘overflow’ engineering work for Ford in the Asia-Pacific region.
Each F-150 is converted for sale in Australia with the backing – and under the supervision – of Ford head offices in Victoria and Detroit, including a full five-year factory warranty.
The other three US pick-ups offered in Australia with factory backing – from Ram, Chevrolet and Toyota – are locally remanufactured to right-hand drive by the Walkinshaw Automotive Group, the engineering firm formerly behind Holden Special Vehicles.
Between the first deliveries in November 2023, and the end of April 2024, 943 Ford F-150 pick-ups have been reported as sold in Australia.
So far this year the F-150 (789 deliveries) has outsold the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 (739), but is about a third behind the top-selling US pick-up, the Ram 1500 (1162 deliveries), which has reported a 42 per cent sales decline year to date.
Ford has previously said it is currently configured to remanufacture up to about 20 F-150s to right-hand drive per day, equating to 100 a week – and an estimated 4800 to 5200 annually, depending on how many weeks of the year the factory operates.
The post Ford F-150 deliveries paused again in Australia after compliance breach appeared first on Drive.
