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Junkyard Gem: 1995 Mercury Tracer Trio

With the rise of Radwood, cars with exaggerated characteristics associated with the 1980s and 1990s are cool again. That means some combination of pastel and/or neon colors, squiggly squeezed-from-toothpaste-tube graphics, nonfunctional decklid spoilers, giant TURBO badging, and kicky youth-centric nomenclature are required if you want your wheels to be considered in compliance with the sacred tenets of Radism. I do my best to find rad machinery while crawling around in car graveyards, and since I came of driving age in 1982 I know a bit about the subject. Today's rare Junkyard Gem shows us the Mercury Division's belated attempt to sell fun cars to rad-leaning youngsters: a Tracer Trio, found in a Denver yard a few weeks back. The Trio package added 310 bucks to the cost of the $11,280 base Tracer sedan (that's about $575 on a $20,925 car in 2022 dollars), and it got the hip-and-trendy young buyer a leather-wrapped steering wheel, seven-spoke wheels, a decklid spoiler and these rad fender badges. I'm going to say that the much louder graphics and candy-cane-colored displacement badges on the Pontiac Sunbird W25 out-radded the Tracer Trio by a mile, but then Pontiac generally out-radded everyone in those days. Even Plymouth got into the act with such radness as the Breeze Expresso and Sundance Duster (we'll overlook the anti-rad Horizon Miser here). Perhaps tellingly, Mercury, Pontiac and Plymouth all got the "Old Yeller" treatment not long after the Rad Era ended. The Tracer name always went on Mercuries built on Mazda platforms, starting with the Australia-built, Ford Laser-based 1987-1989 cars and then continuing with Mexico-assembled, Ford Escort-based 1991-1996 cars. That generation of Escort/Tracer was mechanical twins with the Mazda Protege, itself the bridge between the 323 and the Mazda3. Some Tracers got the a 1.8-liter Mazda engine that was related to the Miata's engine, but this one has the pure-Detroit CVH 1.9. You're looking at 88 horsepower right here; the Mazda 1.8 offered 127 horses. At least the original buyer of this car got the base five-speed manual transmission instead of forking over $815 extra (about $1,510 today) for the four-speed slushbox. As a 29-year-old slacker living in San Francisco's Mission District and driving a hooptie '65 Chevy Impala sedan at the time, I would have taken the manual transmission without the Trio package, had I been forced to buy a new Tracer.

Ford Recalling 70k Escape and Mariner Hybrids for cooling issue

Ford is recalling about 70,209 examples of the 2005-2008 Ford Escape Hybrid and the 2006-2008 Mercury Mariner Hybrid because the cooling pumps for their hybrid systems could fail.
According to the company's defect notice, it's possible for the original "Motor Electronics Coolant (MEC) Pump" to wear out and fail, which would could cause the hybrid system to overheat. If this happens, the vehicle goes into a safety mode that takes away most or all of its power. However, braking and steering still operate normally. After cooling down, the affected models restart normally. The company says that it's not aware of any accidents or injuries related to this problem.
Ford will begin repairing the vehicles in late October, and dealers will be installing improved, brushless pumps on the affected models at no charge to owners. If drivers had their pumps fail before this recall, they can contact Ford for a possible reimbursement. Scroll down to read the recall announcement from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or download the full defect notice as a PDF, here.

More than 800,000 Fords recalled for faulty Takata airbags

The Basics: Ford is recalling about 816,000 Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury vehicles built in the US for faulty passenger-side Takata airbags. The affected vehicles were all built in North America, with 654,695 recalled vehicles in the US and 161,174 vehicles in Canada. A wide variety of cars, trucks, and SUVs are affected. This is a planned expansion of an earlier recall. 2005-09 and 2012 Ford Mustang 2005-06 Ford GT 2006-09 and 2012 Ford Fusion 2007-09 Ford Ranger 2007-09 Ford Edge 2006-09 and 2012 Lincoln Zephyr and Lincoln MKZ 2007-09 Lincoln MKX 2006-09 Mercury Milan The Problem: Like every other Takata recall, the problem rests with faulty airbags that can potentially expel shrapnel, injuring or killing vehicle occupants. Millions of vehicles from dozens of automakers are affected, so don't think that Ford is alone on this one. Injuries/Deaths: Ford stated in a press release that there have been no injuries or death linked to the vehicles in this recall. All in all, 11 deaths and 180 injuries across a variety of automakers have been linked to these Takata airbags. The fix: Ford will contact owners soon, and the affected vehicles will have their airbags replaced by a dealer at no additional charge. If you own one: Wait for contact from Ford, then head to the dealer to get a replacement. If you're wondering if your vehicle is affected, go to this Ford website and enter their Vehicle Identification Number (VIN). The recall reference number is 17S01. Related Video: News Source: FordImage Credit: Associated Press Recalls Ford Lincoln Mercury Auto Repair Ownership Safety Truck Coupe Crossover SUV Sedan airbag Takata airbag recall