1969 Ford Bronco (early Bronco Convertable) on 2040-cars

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NHTSA closes rollaway investigation into 1.56M Ford SUVs

It's taken four years of study, but the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has finally closed the books on its investigation into rollaway accusations surrounding 1.56-million Ford SUV models.
The probe, which centered on the 2002-2005 Ford Explorer, 2002-2005 Mercury Mountaineer and 2003-2005 Lincoln Aviator, ends without the federal agency calling for a recall. According to The Detroit News, the investigation was closed due to a "low number of complaints" - NHTSA documented 180 such complaints that resulted in 14 crashes and six minor injuries, but the number of incidents have been slowing. The suspected defect rate for the trucks' automatic transmissions was found to be 4.4 per 100,000 units, and the brake-shift interlock mechanism failure rate was judged to be even lower at 3.4 per 100k.

Watch divers pull 1973 Ford Mustang Mach 1, Mazda RX-7 from a river

It’s like the ultimate barn find, only swap out the relatively ideal dry confines of a barn for a watery grave. Adventures with Purpose, a YouTube channel devoted to the exploits of a group of divers in Oregon that specializes in pulling submerged cars from the water, recently found six vehicles in the Tualatin River, near Portland. The most notable finds? A 1973 Ford Mustang Mach 1 fastback and a Mazda RX-7 sports car, plus a Chevrolet LUV pickup, which is not shown being pulled from the water. As you might expect, neither are exactly in top condition, with the badly rusted Mustang basically disintegrating into scrap pieces as itÂ’s pulled onto a flatbed truck parked on a boat ramp. The RX-7, meanwhile, is caked with mud, its windshield and roof crumpled, but itÂ’s basically intact. A hat tip goes to CarBuzz for spotting the videos. The divers use inflatable salvage bags to help raise the vehicles. They removed the MustangÂ’s rusted and encrusted V8 first — the '73 model came with either 302 or 351 engines — and had to pause to remove some of the thick mud that had built up inside the car. Other things they found from both pulls include an old sledgehammer, a stop sign and a rusted Washington state license plate. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. The crew say they received a call from someone who told them theyÂ’d find plenty of vehicles in the river. The whole Mach 1 salvage operation took two days. “A lot of you are going to be a bit upset at how destroyed the Mustang Mach 1 became after we tried removing it from the river,” the team wrote in its description. “In our defense, there was an extra 8,000 pounds of mud inside the car, along with the Mustang being underwater in the river for over 40 years.” The Adventures with Purpose team says it has recovered 326 cars, six guns, two bodies and a tractor, among things. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.     Ford Mazda Coupe Performance Classics

Enterprise working with renter's insurance to cover $47k Mustang stolen from its lot

There was more than a bit of public indigence following the recent story of Enterprise Rent-A-Car billing a customer $47,000 to replace a Ford Mustang GT Convertible stolen from a Nova Scotia lot. To recap: Kristen Cockerill rented the Mustang for two days, returned it to the lot on a Sunday and left the keys in a secure dropbox only for Enterprise employees to find the car gone the next day.
Despite Enterprise policies stating that customers are responsible for vehicles dropped on off-days, the company has admitted that the situation could've been handled a bit better.
In a recent statement, Enterprise has backed off the big-bill story, and claims to be working with Cockerill and her insurance company to resolve the issue. Further, the Enterprise general manager overseeing Nova Scotia has spoken with the harried renter, and apologized "for the way this claim was handled during the last few months."