The 1994 Ford Aspire has 2 NHTSA recall campaigns affecting an estimated 27,299 vehicles. Recall repairs are always free at any authorized dealer. Owners have filed 67 complaints with NHTSA, most often about the air bags. Last updated July 5, 2026.
THE FUEL SUPPLY, RETURN AND VAPOR HOSES OR LINES CAN CONTACT OR HAVE INADEQUATE CLEARANCE WITH THE SURROUNDING COMPONENTS DUE TO IMPROPER POSITIONING DURING ASSEMBLY.
Consequence
WEAR OF THE HOSE OR LINE CAN OCCUR, RESULTING IN FUEL LEAKAGE WITHIN THE ENGINE COMPARTMENT WHICH CAN RESULT IN FIRE WHEN EXPOSED TO A SOURCE OF IGNITION.
Remedy
THE FUEL LINES WILL BE REPOSITIONED. ANY DAMAGED RUBBER HOSES WILL BE REPLACED. STEEL FUEL LINES WILL HAVE THE CORROSION PROTECTION REPAIRED IF NEEDED.
EQUIPMENT94V1410001994-08-01599 affected
Defect
THE DATES OF MANUFACTURE WERE OMITTED ON THE CERTIFICATION LABEL. THIS DOES NOT COMPLY WITH PART 567, "CERTIFICATION."
Consequence
CONSEQUENCE OF NON-COMPLIANCE: INCOMPLETE CERTIFICATION LABEL DOES NOT PROPERLY IDENTIFY THE VEHICLE.
Remedy
A COMPLETE CERTIFICATION LABEL WILL BE PROVIDED TO THE OWNER OR WILL BE INSTALLED FOR THE OWNER BY THE DEALER, IF NECESSARY.
Complaints by component
AIR BAGS:FRONTAL
16
15crashes12injuries2deaths
EXTERIOR LIGHTING:HEADLIGHTS
6
VISIBILITY:WINDSHIELD
4
STEERING: STEERING WHEEL/HANDLE BAR
3
1crashes1injuries
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:IGNITION
2
ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING:COOLING SYSTEM
2
POWER TRAIN
2
POWER TRAIN:AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION
2
TIRES
2
UNKNOWN OR OTHER
2
Total complaints67
What owners report
Verbatim reports filed with NHTSA, lightly edited for readability and with personal
information removed.
“At highway speed the speedometer suddenly began to make a loud, grinding noise. The needle shot up to a speed far higher than the speed of the car. The needled vibrated, then broke off. We were particularly concerned because this speedometer failure was almost an exact duplicate of the speedometer…”
“Aspire is running very bad like missing, seems like its not getting gas. New thing is now it will not start unless you basically flood the car by pumping the gas pedal and that includes while its running. I took it to ford and they don't know what is wrong with the car according to frederick motor…”
“While driving, smoke entered the passenger compartment, vehicle eventually caught on fire, consumer stated transmission started giving out in 4th and 5th gears, possibly engine failure ohio traffic crash report.#10-91-204 *slc”
“Front-end collision at 30mph. Wearing safety belt, air-bag deployed. Face still hit steering wheel breaking front of jaw and knocking out teeth. Car was declared totalled.*ak”
“Threads on the jack screw bolts are stripped. Jack won't go up or down. Please provide any further information.*ak”
“The above described glass is not safety, but is only tempered glass. In an accident, the large volume of slivers of glass could have disastrous results. This was a staionary event and, fortunately did not.*ak”
“This is the second time I have had a transmission fail on this car- the third in a ford vehicle I've owned. I also have a friend who drives a new aspire and hers failed too. I took it to garages who refused to work on it because the transmissions in aspires are apparently notoriously bad. My car…”
“I was entering the outerbelt at cleveland avenue & I-270w, and as I started to accelerate the car got up to about 45 miles per hour on the entrance ramp and the speedometer started to slow. I had my two children, whitney age 8 and brittany age 15 in the car with me. This could have been a terrible…”
Defect investigations
InvestigationPE97037 Opened 1997-07-28 · closed 1997-11-28
Recall, complaint, and investigation records from official NHTSA datasets (FLAT_RCL,
FLAT_CMPL, FLAT_INV), synced weekly. Counts reflect NHTSA records for the 1994 Ford Aspire as of
July 5, 2026. Complaint narratives are consumer-submitted and unverified. This page
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