Ford Dealers Were Told To Fix Faulty Gearboxes
Despite the company's claims that its Ford Focus is a 100% safe vehicle, the company on July 12, quietly told dealers to start fixing faulty gearboxes.
Ford's Focus and Fiesta models came under attack by thousands of buyers who complained about issues with the PowerShift dual-clutch transmission.
Last week, the Detroit Free Press issued a scathing report on the company's lack of competence in dealing with the issue. According to Freep, the company launched the low-cost vehicles while knowing they featured faulty transmissions.
On July 12, the company told dealers to "arrange to diagnose the vehicle and repair as necessary" on all models from 2011-17, even if they are out of warranty.
A previous class-action lawsuit already covers 2011-16 models that were built with transmissions that have been known to regularly fail.
The original memo told dealers to fix the gearboxes at no charge through July 19, despite the company releasing its own statement in which Ford said the Free Press' report made "conclusions that are not based in fact."
Ford CEO Mark Fields was already called testify in ongoing litigation about the gearboxes.
