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Ford Territory floor mats recalled

Ford Australia has recalled almost 5000 sets of Ford Territory floor mats because the driver’s side mats can bunch up and interfere with the accelerator pedal.

Tim Beissmann

11:1820 May 2010

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The affected Ford Genuine Accessory Carpet Mat set is black with silver “TERRITORY” embossing and a rubber spike backing material. It has been sold through authorised Ford dealers since June 2009.

Ford has received complaints from two owners this year that had trouble stopping their vehicles fitted with the floor mats. In one case in March a female driver chose to get out of her vehicle while it was still travelling at around 10km/h after having trouble bringing it to a stop with the bunched up floor mat.

In the other the floor mat reportedly interfered with the accelerator pedal and the driver was forced to pull the car off to the side of the road before bringing it to a stop.

Ford Australia spokesman Todd Nissen said the company investigated the two incidents and found that only the black floor mats were defective.

“The vehicles themselves aren’t being recalled, it’s the mats that are being recalled,” he said.

“When we received the reports we started looking into things because we wanted to make sure there were no issues with the pedals, we wanted to make sure the vehicles are as safe as they can be.

“We looked into that and determined that there were no issues with the brakes, no issues with the accelerator pedals, but these particular black mats could be prone to bunching up so we determined that the best thing to do would be to recall the mats.”

Mr Nissen said Ford Australia was currently working with dealers to communicate with the 4990 owners of Territory models with the defective floor mats. He encouraged affected owners to book in with their Ford dealer for a safety recall service as soon as possible and in the meantime insisted that the driver’s carpet mat should be removed from the driver’s footwell area.

“We apologise for the inconvenience and we want people to have faith in the safety and the performance of the vehicles.

“The main thing is we certainly don’t want people to be inconvenienced by this, but we also want to make sure that we’ve done the right thing and are looking out for their safety as well as their vehicles,” he said.