Ford has told its U.S. dealers to give free repairs to any Focus and Fiesta owners who complain about problems with the cars’ PowerShift dual-clutch transmission. The offer, made after Ford knowingly launched the cars with faulty transmissions.
In the July 12 memo, Ford says dealerships should “arrange to diagnose the vehicle and repair as necessary.” The fixes can be applied to 2011-17 models, many of which are out of warranty. Previous class-action lawsuits have covered 2011-16 models with transmissions that customers complained would shudder, jerk and hesitate.
The memo, first reported by the Detroit Free Press, followed a July 11 report by the newspaper that said Ford knew about the transmission defects yet sold them anyway. The automaker responded, saying the report made “conclusions that are not based in fact.”
Former Ford CEO Mark Fields has been called to testify in ongoing litigation surrounding the troublesome gearboxes, which have haunted the automaker for years.
Ford reached a settlement in 2017 in a class-action lawsuit covering 1.9 million owners, but the deal is being challenged in California federal court on the grounds that not enough owners would be compensated. A separate mass-tort case involving thousands of customers is pending in Michigan.
