1971 Mercury Capri

The 1971 Mercury Capri has 5 recalls, the most serious involving the steering wheel and, on manual transmission models, a gear shift lever that can snap during shifting and leave the driver unable to change gears.

The steering wheel concern centers on the attachment between the wheel itself and the collapsible column section meant to absorb energy in a crash. If that connection is weak, the wheel may not stay properly coupled to the column, which affects both normal steering and how the assembly performs in a collision. On manual transmission cars, the gear shift selector lever can break under the force of normal shifting, suddenly removing the driver's ability to select gears.

Vehicles equipped with the optional Decor Group reclining driver's seat face a separate issue: a weld in the seat back frame may be poor quality or missing entirely, allowing the reclining mechanism to stop working and the seat back to loosen and eventually collapse. The windshield wiper pivot splines can also loosen over time, causing the wiper arm and blade to detach from the pivot and fly off the car, leaving the windshield uncleared in rain or snow when visibility is already limited. Finally, the headlight switch housing can crack and break the electrical circuit, causing the headlights and taillights to go dark without warning or preventing them from turning on at all.