Ford was warned for at least a year that its Kuga sports utility vehicle (SUV) had potentially deadly problems, but it appears not to have acted on the alarm bells. At least 47 Kugas have caught alight and one person has died after his car burst into flames. An investigation by The Times has established that Ford SA was warned of the problems last January following an investigator’s probe into two Kuga fires. Insurance companies also confirmed that they had alerted the company to issues relating to the Kuga as far back as 2014. Ford issued an alert to Kuga owners only in December after the National Consumer Commission summoned it following The Times’ reports about the burning vehicles and about the death of Reshall Jimmy. Jimmy died when his Kuga caught fire in December 2015. Ford and the consumer commission are due to make a "major announcement" on Monday. Speculation is that it will involve a recall of the model, one of which caught fire as recently as Saturday. E-mails seen by Th...

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