Living with Recalls

FORD RECALLING ALL COUGAR CARS.

As recently as a few months ago, any U.S. automaker would have cringed at the very thought of that kind of headline. No effort would have been spared to keep the news from the general public. But last week's disclosure that Ford's Lincoln-Mercury division was calling back 85,000 Cougars to correct possible defects was not ferreted out by any prying reporter. Ford sent out the news itself; the company actually seemed anxious to get the word around.

Not that recalls themselves are any thing new. For years, Detroit has been calling back cars to correct belatedly discovered flaws. The auto companies have usually gone about that part of their business by confidentially instructing dealers to get in touch with the owners of suspect cars. Then came last September's federal requirement that Washington be notified of all call-backs --and National Traffic Safety Bureau Administrator William Haddon Jr. was soon making all the details public.

Convinced that what Detroit calls "recall campaigns" could no longer be hushed up, General Motors decided to try turning the publicity to its own advantage. Henceforth, decreed G.M.'s top brass, the company would take the initiative away from Haddon by disclosing recall campaigns on its own. Thus, at the same time that registered letters went out to the car owners involved, Pontiac announced to the press last November that it was calling in 16,000 Tempest, GTO and Le Mans cars to correct a suspected steering-shaft misalignment. By February both Chrysler and Ford had adopted G.M.'s policy. Last month alone, automakers announced at least six call-backs involving more than 180,000 cars and trucks.

Less Prominence. The upshot, as Haddon himself observes, is that recall campaigns are "getting much less prominent play." The public and press alike seem to be gradually accepting recalls for what they usually are: routine checkups paid for by the manufacturer, reminders that the automakers are necessarily and honestly interested in safety.

Ford's latest campaign involved all Cougars sold since the line was introduced last fall. The cars have a vacuum-powered headlight system, which slides a panel over the lenses by day, exposes them when they are switched on at night. Trouble is, in a few cases turned-on lights have been covered up unexpectedly, causing sudden blackouts. So Ford decided to play it safe and check every car, even though its engineers are sure that "the likelihood of this occurrence is not great." It is even less likely that the frank and open recall campaign will hurt the Cougar's popularity, which pushed Lincoln-Mercury's mid-May sales 25% ahead of the same period last year.

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