A mass action lawsuit has been filed, under the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act, against Ford Motor Company claiming a defective PowerShift transmission in Ford Focus models from 2012-2015 and Ford Fiesta models from 2011-2015. Currently, there are more than 4,000 past or current owners who have joined the lawsuit.
Thousands of Ford Focus and Ford Fiesta owners have reported consistent jerking and shuddering while driving these vehicles, and many have experienced delayed acceleration and deceleration. In some instances, drivers reported unintended acceleration when stopped at traffic lights, and other times the cars would roll backwards on an incline.
"A friend had a Ford Fiesta, and when he started experiencing problems with the transmission and the dealership was unable to come up with a solution, we looked in to it and found that thousands of people across the country were experiencing the same issues," said Ken Stern, founder and principal of Stern Law PLLC. "Ford must be held accountable for design and manufacturing defects of the PowerShift transmission that has compromised the safety of the vehicles and cost owners significant loss in vehicle value, reliable transportation and time," Stern said.
Ford has issued more than 20 Technical Service Bulletins (TSB) on these models to alert dealership service technicians about known mechanical issues. A TSB is not public and dealers are not mandated to contact owners to complete the repairs. The most common course of dealer action has been to re-flash the transmission control module (TCM) and replace clutches, but the transmission problems persist.
Many customers have taken their vehicles to dealerships for repairs and spent hundreds of dollars, but the vehicles continued shudder. Often customers were told that the problems weren't real, but were part of normal operation. Feeling their cars were unsafe and unreliable, some customers ultimately sold them at a loss."
According to Kelley Blue Book, the resale value of Ford Focus and Ford Fiestas with the PowerShift transmission is $3,000 – 4,000 less than Focus and Fiesta models without it.
In 2014, Ford extended the powertrain warranty on the vehicles from five years and 60,000 miles to seven years and 100,000 miles to cover the clutch shudder on cars built before June of 2013, but no consistently reliable repair has been provided.
(Source: Stern Law, PLLC)
