Ford offers fix for Fusion hybrid brake glitch

[Rich Parsons]

Per: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100205/us_nm/us_ford_fusion


Ford offers fix for Fusion hybrid brake glitch

By David Bailey David Bailey – Thu Feb 4, 9:41 pm ET
DETROIT (Reuters) – Ford Motor Co said on Thursday it would fix up to 17,600 hybrid sedans that could suffer braking problems as its largest rival, Toyota Motor Corp, grapples a reported braking problem on its market-leading Prius hybrid.

The Ford decision came the same day U.S. safety regulators opened a formal probe into consumer complaints that brakes on Toyota's 2010 Prius had momentary problems after motorists rolled over potholes or bumps, allegedly causing four crashes.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration database has a complaint from a motorist claiming that the Fusion hybrid brakes offered minimal resistance. The administration has no formal investigation into the Ford vehicles.

Ford said a software glitch on Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan hybrids built on or before October 17 could cause drivers to perceive a loss of braking as the car shifts unnecessarily from regenerative braking into the conventional mode.

It looks like there was a single complaint against the Ford system and they have a fix to offer to vehicles built berfore a certain date. To me this represents a perception and feel issue as stated that they have since fixed for production.

Consumer Reports said that with the regenerative braking disengaged, as happened in the incident near their track, the brake pedal needed to be pushed more than an inch farther down to engage the conventional brakes.

"The fact that the pedal goes away is I think for many people very disconcerting, but the fact is if you push hard you do go in to full braking," said David Champion, director of Consumer Reports' auto testing center.