Ford Australia’s record $10 million fine for “unconscionable conduct” over dodgy transmissions

[GTP534]

We had a Focus Titanium purchased for Christmas 2013 as a present for my wife.

Went fine at first but soon became juddery, indecisive, noisy. Every service the only issue we had was the transmission. I used to tell them, "There are only 3 wrongs with the car - transmission, transmission, transmission." By the middle of 2017 we'd had enough and decided to get shot of it.

Absolutely spoiled what otherwise was a great little car but in end she was scared to drive it.

I din't join the class action but got a great deal on a 5 month old Escape Trend demo in June 2017. It came with the power tailgate, the safety package and ..... a genuine automatic transmission. I had to haggle a bit but got the outcome I was after.

Great little car, she loves it and it's been the family workhorse since our Territory met its demise.

[Sprintey]

The thread that keeps on giving. Those reports and email are damning.
Why would you do this (ship with known problems)?
Franco's point - why replace something known and simple with something complex + something that cannot be reliably calibrated and is arguably not fit for purpose?
1.9 million of them in US, I suppose some bright engineer could work out a slushbox retrofit.

Slushbox is good.

[au2000]

this is where a company's credibility dies.. no matter how good a product range is, stuff like this kills off good work,
even with blue eyed glasses, no one can honestly stand up hand on their heart & say that Ford will back their products..
for those in the past that have bagged out people who have complained about their power shift equipped cars & supported Ford, I hope you can now feel for the poor customers who got done over & understand why people bag out Ford now.. cause I can

[BENT_8]

Originally Posted by au2000

this is where a company's credibility dies.. no matter how good a product range is, stuff like this kills off good work,
even with blue eyed glasses, no one can honestly stand up hand on their heart & say that Ford will back their products..
for those in the past that have bagged out people who have complained about their power shift equipped cars & supported Ford, I hope you can now feel for the poor customers who got done over & understand why people bag out Ford now.. cause I can

Yep, there was a time when I thought it was a user issue but after doing a bit of digging and talking to independents it became clear that the problem was with the box itself.
Its only a few months ago that a new member posted up her troubles with the Focus she'd bought and a certain loyalist suggested I was talking **** when I said her options were sell it and cop a loss or burn it and claim the insurance because despite what some say, the box cant be fixed but only patched up temporarily.
Look at how they've dismissed the type writer tick in the current Mustangs and im surprised more hasn't been said on here about the overheating issues with the rhd built versions sold here.

I love my Australian built Fords but the company itself is run by an unscrupulous bunch of dogs that cut spending on our cars so they could kill them off and flog us their 3rd world ****.

My2c.

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by au2000

this is where a company's credibility dies.. no matter how good a product range is, stuff like this kills off good work,
even with blue eyed glasses, no one can honestly stand up hand on their heart & say that Ford will back their products..
for those in the past that have bagged out people who have complained about their power shift equipped cars & supported Ford, I hope you can now feel for the poor customers who got done over & understand why people bag out Ford now.. cause I can

If you did a search here, I doubt that you'd find any informed poster bagging out PS owners and that goes way back to when I first started reporting this as an issue in the US (around 2013). The most you would see was people people asking owners to try the fixes and reflashes that Ford suggested but clearly, time has shown that these done over and over are no permanent remedy.

here's a post from a US tech describing the frustrating process encountered there with diagnosing and dealing with Ford, let alone getting paid properly for the TSB work.

They're most likely NOT going to extend to cover your car if it is out on miles or time for the 7 years or 100k miles that FSA 14M01 covered. IF they do, you will still have to be diagnosed and repaired as per Ford's already established procedures. In other words, it has to go through the online guided routine and repaired as per TSB 16-0109/14M01. IF the seals are not leaking and the clutch doesn't fail the shudder test, you don't get parts replacement.

But isn't the test flawed?

The test is NOT flawed. Any shudder recording of less than 250 RPM passes. Any recording 250 rpm or over, it fails and gets a clutch. The time time given to the technician is flawed. It pays .6 of an hour to the tech for all this:

Get the car into the bay, verify warranty status, check for any new TSBs or other updated information related to it, connect a finicky diagnostic system, check for any codes that may relate to the shudder, perform the adaptive relearn on the clutch, test drive and record the shudder readings, and do the calculations for the shudder readings. If it passes, the job is done. If it doesn't, then *for no more pay* the technician must upload the data to Ford, then complete the required online (if Ford's website works) diagnostic form to get a required Repair Validation Code, or RVC, because Ford does not trust the word or competence of technicians. No RVC and the clutch replacement will not be paid for by Ford. Fudge the numbers or break the *VERY* specific criteria to record the shudder and the claim can and will be bounced by Ford even after the repair is done.

If it was for any other non shudder/non TCM reason, the tech would get 1.0 hour *without* being chained to the upload and online RVC process. 

Again, the test is fine. I get over 90% failure rate even with the lack of time given to do the whole procedure.

On Media interpreting memo from Ford advising dealers that they must do repairs to vehicles,

Their interpretation of the memo is wrong. The memo says that the vehicle MUST be repaired as per established procedures i.e. TSB 16-0109, the online guided routine in WSM section 307-01. Customer Resource Center has to be contacted for any after warranty assistance. Contacting CRC rarely gets the entire job covered, rather, it will give a portion towards the repair, unless they radically change the policies in this instance. I wouldn't hold my breath.

Let's suppose they do cover your car. It HAS to be diagnosed as per the description I gave mybkvu above. If it can't hit the 250 RPM threshold or the seals are not leaking, you don't get a clutch, period.

[au2000]

there were some, in a thread only a few months ago the Bent 8 referred too.

http://fordforums.com.au/showthread.php?t=11477014

Re: Ford petition for dodgy powershifts
Quote:
Originally Posted by kellyvb View Post
Not long after the 3 month warranty ran out. Even then I thought it was normal the shuddering of the car, because it had been in for services and nothing had ever been mentioned.

then the reply by a Technical Contributor:

So if you thought it was normal you weren’t concerned about it?
But now you demand a refund because it’s so bad?
Or because you jumped aboard the bandwagon?

then this


You may find more favourable outcomes are reserved for loyal customers who buy the cars new and have a full service history at Ford dealers. This makes a big difference in how customers are handled. Even more so to customers who gave a history of Fords and bleed blue.
I’m sure you’ll say that shouldn’t matter, they should just give everyone free cars.

There’s no great mystery to theses transmissions now. Any dealer should be able to fix it for you given the opportunity. Are you giving them the opportunity to fix it?

[jpd80]

All I'm saying is that's not how the overwhelming majority of members here feel.
Most are concerned that these buyers haven't been treated properly from day one.

Also, that particular car was purchased second hand through a Nissan dealership
so that's another step removed from the Ford process, not blaming the person but this
is how the Focus problem is going to compound, I know it's crap but I woulda taken the
$9200 partial refund and run.....(but it's not my car or my money)

[jpd80]

and in that thread Bent8 raised the question of retrofitting the 2.0 litre with the 6-speed auto.
I can tell you now that Ford will never do that, the development costs alone would be prohibitive.

I see three things happening,
1. this will drag on and on and the media will slowly lose interest
2. Ford Aust moved away from PS to 6F35 in 2015, that was them signalling an end
to the retailing exposure side, why the yanks kept selling the things god only knows.
3. Depending on US litigation and outcome, local law suits may be able to ride on
the back of those findings, Ford's transmission engineers left a good email trail to follow.

[jpd80]

did anyone hear back from Kelly to find out what happened with her Focus?

[BENT_8]

Originally Posted by jpd80

did anyone hear back from Kelly to find out what happened with her Focus?

Her last activity was a week after the last post in the above thread, i'd like to think she signed their gag order and got compensated.

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by BENT_8

Her last activity was a week after the last post in the above thread, i'd like to think she signed their gag order and got compensated.

Stands to reason, that was back in late February....

[au2000]

Can only hope she got a reasonable result and is now in a safer vehicle but ultimately, how ford treat customers when there's a known flaw is the real issue, knock on wood rangers ever are plagued with such a issue, could u imagine the nightmare re publicity that would create,

[Crazy Dazz]

Unfortunately this is the downside to being an American Company, and their litigious environment.
In Australia, to sue somebody you must prove that you actually suffered a loss, and damages are generally limited to actual losses. America is the home of Mass Tort. The actual loss is insignificant and almost irrelevant. It is the amount the parasitical lawyers can extract for "Emotional Distress" and Punitive Damages that is the gravy train.

So as an Australian, if you discover there is a problem, you're inclined to own up, recall the product, and try to fix the problem. You figure the customer loyalty and reputation value probably outweigh the costs. (Perhaps not for a whole transmission, but certainly for something smaller.)
But not in America. There even a small fault can be worth big bickies in court. So the strategy becomes one of deny, obfuscate, deny again, and then outright lie. It's led to the scenario where every fault is viewed in terms of litigation. And sadly, the result is that it is almost always cheaper to never admit there is a problem.
That also explains why they persisted with the PS right through the model life. Last thing you want to do is tacitly admit its faulty by replacing it.

It's like tobacco. An Australia would just say "well of course smoking is bad for you, if you don't like it, don't smoke." Whereas in America, they stand in Court, Hand on the Bible and swear that they are not aware of any health or addiction problems.

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by Crazy Dazz

Unfortunately this is the downside to being an American Company, and their litigious environment.
In Australia, to sue somebody you must prove that you actually suffered a loss, and damages are generally limited to actual losses. America is the home of Mass Tort. The actual loss is insignificant and almost irrelevant. It is the amount the parasitical lawyers can extract for "Emotional Distress" and Punitive Damages that is the gravy train.

So as an Australian, if you discover there is a problem, you're inclined to own up, recall the product, and try to fix the problem. You figure the customer loyalty and reputation value probably outweigh the costs. (Perhaps not for a whole transmission, but certainly for something smaller.)
But not in America. There even a small fault can be worth big bickies in court. So the strategy becomes one of deny, obfuscate, deny again, and then outright lie. It's led to the scenario where every fault is viewed in terms of litigation. And sadly, the result is that it is almost always cheaper to never admit there is a problem.
That also explains why they persisted with the PS right through the model life. Last thing you want to do is tacitly admit its faulty by replacing it.

It's like tobacco. An Australia would just say "well of course smoking is bad for you, if you don't like it, don't smoke." Whereas in America, they stand in Court, Hand on the Bible and swear that they are not aware of any health or addiction problems.

An in saying all of that,all most regular folks got for the Explorer rollover
was basically a $500 voucher on a new Ford

Be under no illusion, most of the class action suits are get rich schemes for the lawyers
while their customers get to pick over whats left after the lawyers get paid.......

Here in Australia, my wife's permanent disabilty claim, lawyers get 60% of the payout....

[jpd80]

Some good news out of the states that will hopefully filter to local cars,
Ford is extending warranty on clutches to 7 years and 10 years on the TCM

Ford extends transmission warranty for 560K Fiestas, Focuses
POSTED 10:06 AM, AUGUST 14, 2019, BY AP WIRE SERVICE
https://fox6now.com/2019/08/14/ford-...estas-focuses/

The latest move covers 2014 through 2016 model year Focuses built before Nov. 5, 2015, as well as 2014 and 2015 Fiestas built before Oct. 15, 2014.

It extends clutch warranties to seven years or 100,000 miles, while the warranty on the transmission control computer goes to 10 years or 150,000 miles. Ford also will reimburse customers in this group who paid for clutch repairs out of their own pockets, and it’s giving owners of older Focuses and Fiestas another chance to get a free transmission software update.

The extension, coupled with previous Ford actions, means that all Focuses and Fiestas built before the second half of 2015 will get the extended warranties. The company says fixes were made at the factory for cars built after that time.

[K.P.]

My friend had a brand new (ex-demo ~ 100ks) Focus with the Powershift auto box and yes, within 3-4 years after numerous "fixes" it was admitted it was an inherent fault. A number of months of negotiation later, she got a full refund and recently bought a new Suzuki Swift.