USA: Ford Recalls Recalls

Fearing continued public criticism and an adverse effect on car sales, Ford announced on July 23 that it will resume issuing public notices of recalls of its cars for safety defects.

In order to avoid the press's widespread dissemination of recalls and resulting public reaction, such as followed the recall of Ford's Pinto subcompact, Ford has restricted recall announcements to individual notification of car owners since the beginning of the year.

Ford's initial decision was met with a flood of criticism, which forced the company to reevaluate its policy. "There was just a spate of bad publicity," said Philip Caldwell, public relations officer for Ford. "We hadn't any choice but to resume public recall announcements."

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) precipitated Ford's move to silence recalls. Under Reagan, the agency has "not issued any press releases on recalls," Janet Ward, spokesperson for NHTSA, admitted. During the same months in 1978, the Traffic Safety Administration issued press releases on 22 recalls. "Once NHTSA backed off, the auto company did too," explained Caldwell.

Chrysler, which had also been accused of ending routine announcements of recalls, denied the accusations, and a spokesperson said the company would "announce all recalls where the public will be served."