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Ford recalls more than 3,000 trucks and SUVs over safety issues

A recliner chair with a mind of its own, and a door that swings open unbidden? No, it's not a haunted house, it's a new recall notice from Ford.

Edward Moyer Senior Editor
Edward Moyer is a senior editor at CNET and a many-year veteran of the writing and editing world. He enjoys taking sentences apart and putting them back together. He also likes making them from scratch. ¶ For nearly a quarter of a century, he's edited and written stories about various aspects of the technology world, from the US National Security Agency's controversial spying techniques to historic NASA space missions to 3D-printed works of fine art. Before that, he wrote about movies, musicians, artists and subcultures.
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Edward Moyer
2 min read
​If you own an F-150, Explorer or Super Duty vehicle, or spiffed up your door handles with chrome covers from Ford, pay attention.

If you own an F-150, Explorer or Super Duty vehicle, or spiffed up your door handles with chrome covers from Ford, pay attention.

Scott Olson/Getty Images

Drive a Ford SUV or pickup? You could be at risk of flying out the door or kicking back a bit too much in the driver's seat.

The Ford Motor Company announced two recalls Wednesday. The first involves 2,500 Explorer and Super Duty vehicles and an issue with the just-mentioned driver's seat. The second pinpoints about 850 F-150 and F-250 to F-550 trucks with faulty door handles.

The seat problem has to do with an improper weld between the frame and the recliner mechanism. As Ford puts it in a notice on its site, the weld "may fail to comply with certain federal motor vehicle safety standards, and may not adequately restrain an occupant in a crash, increasing the risk of injury."

We'll leave it to you to imagine clipping your rear seat passenger's legs during a collision.

The door problem involves exterior handles sexied up with a chrome cover accessory bought from Ford dealers. That accessory "may experience inertial loads that could cause it to unlatch during a side impact, increasing the risk of injury in a crash." See you on the side of the road?

Ford says it's not aware of any accidents or injuries associated with either issue.

If you bought a 2017 F-150, Explorer or Super Duty vehicle, or if you ponied up for chrome-ified door handles, you should take a close look at Ford's notice about the recalls.

Ford says it'll replace the driver seat back frame as necessary, at no cost, and that it'll remove the door handle covers and reimburse customers for parts and labor.