Ford is fighting multiple DPS6 transmission lawsuits in court. The DPS6 transmission was used in the 2011 to 2017 Ford Fiesta and the 2012 to 2017 Ford Focus vehicles. Multiple lawsuits allege that Ford knowingly sold cars that used the defective transmission. Ford denies that officially, but former employees involved in that project have stepped forward and stated that “everyone” knew the transmission was defective.
In the latest DPS6 transmission lawsuit, a couple who opted out of the class-action lawsuit took Ford to court over the trouble they had with their DPS6 equipped 2014 Ford Focus. The couple alleged in their suit that the problems with the transmission caused them to feel unsafe, and they eventually stopped using the car despite having to make the payments. The verdict in their suit was handed down on December 17th, 2019.
The verdict in the DPS6 transmission lawsuit in the Central District of California was for $23,000, representing triple their total lease payments based on the penalties awarded. Testimony and evidence in the case showed that Ford was aware of the issues and repeatedly failed to resolve the issues despite complaints rolling in from owners around the country.
The case used internal Ford records that showed that the DPS6 transmission accounted for 50 percent of all “Things Gone Wrong” for Ford despite the transmission only being used in vehicles making up 25 percent of its sales volume. “Things Gone Wrong” is an industry term that describes a number of issues that need to be addressed. The DPS6 transmission had over 15 times as many “Things Gone Wrong” as other comparable vehicles.
The judge who presided over this case is also presiding over the nearly 1,000 cases for consumers who opted out of the class-action lawsuit. Ford continues to fight the cases, and its expert testified that the transmission issues posed no safety concerns.
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Comments
This is just the beginning. We all new this was bad right front the word go. This helped kill a very popular model in the Ford Focus. It took a very good automobile and placed it squarely in the dumper. Very sad.
Are they hiring the dumbest of dumb people at FORD? Seems like just about everything they build has something stupidly wrong with it. Back to the mid ’70’s to early ’80’s. The dealers better stock up on free popcorn or even consider petitioning their respective communities to open bars within dealers given how many angry people are and are going to visit the dealers for endless repairs. They will need appeasement.
Ford’s reprehensible behaviour in this transmission fiasco is the only reason I will not be ordering a GT500 anytime soon. There’s just too much money at stake, considering the unproven 10 speed automatic, and Ford’s growing reputation for bending customers over and raping them.
Talk NICE
Seth — you may not like what Bad Man said, but it is true and I think he is being conservative. You must be one of the lucky ones who did not get screwed by Ford. When a problem is something they know about, but deny, it’s a real bad feeling. Happened to me with 2 different Fords; now I only buy foreign cars, and all is well.
Would you want someone to talk bad about you.
I don’t think so.
Think about what you say before you respond.
Please and thank you
… Einstein, sometimes it’s just nice to be in an ADULT arena and speak your mind.
I know, the doilies on your living room tables are turning yellow. Wash them. And
leave those of us with real opinions alone.
As far as I’ve seen, the GM co-developed 10-speed automatic doesn’t have alot of issues, if any. I see focus clutch kit recalls daily but very few issues with the 10-speed, actually, I haven’t seen any come through at all this year now that I think about it. I will say this, it is very obvious that Ford is in trouble and they know it. The problem is, they are panicking and trying to throw anything they can at this issue, praying that it will go away but they keep igniting more and more problems and they’re getting larger. But the solutions to their problems are actually quite simple. Let’s rewind the clocks back a few years before the entire auto industry just got completely weird. The world wasn’t so concerned about everything being so cookie cutter and we had choices. We also had distinct styling with our cars, You had your American cars, your Japanese cars and your European cars. Granted they all competed with each other on some level but they were all different. Not everyone looked the same or tried to homogenize and be the same. American cars were nice, fairly inexpensive vehicles (because they were built here, mostly) and they worked and you could go to any local auto parts store and pick up parts for them. Japanese cars were on the same line mostly but they fit their own niche while Euro cars were usually more expensive to own, and expensive to repair but they had their own prestige. We lost that. I’m not saying that things shouldn’t progress and I’m not saying that globalization shouldn’t take place but I think ford is going about it very wrong.
Anyone who has read any of my comments and posts already know that I’m a huge fan of performance vehicles. Granted I’m in my mid-30’s so I’m still at the edge of being in a younger crowd than the Muscle car guys who lived in the original glory days of the Muscle cars but I’m still a huge fan of American V8 performance, and Australian V8 performance. It’s no secret that people still love the whole retro craze, it’s why the mustang is doing so well and why Ford is bringing back the Bronco along with the reason cars like the Challenger, Charger and Camaro still exists as we enter into 2020. It’s also no secret that technology is changing and electric cars and smaller engines are now becoming a big part of the automotive world. The thing is that it that they shouldn’t be ALL of the automotive world, just like SUVs aren’t the only vehicles worth making. Cars still hold a valuable place in the market. Here’s my whole point and I think that this would help Ford a lot with all that’s going on with them and give them a bit of stability along with increasing revenue, building back customer loyalty, decreasing expenses and a few other things.
1.) The CD6 Platform
Despite issues that plague the current explorer, the CD6 chassis is a solid one and one that Ford is planning to do alot with in the upcoming years. Rumors of a larger Mustang being built on the new Chassis have been floating around since the early 2019 year and production for this new car is proposed for the 2024-2025 time frame. Ford has been talking for the last few months about a Mustang family of vehicles but alot of die hard Mustang enthusiasts aren’t too thrilled about this. As a fan of the Mustang and having owned two Mustangs in my life, It may come to some surprise to alot of readers but I feel that the Mustang has had a good life and it’s time to retire the car on a high note. The legendary Carroll Shelby is no longer with us and we’ve seen the GT350 and the GT500 run it’s course. The epitome of cool cars, the Mustang Bullitt has been remade several times and it’s time to let it retire. Not to mention Ford kind of dragging the famous Mach-1 through the mud with the sacrilegious Mach-E and adding a bit of shame to the Mustang name with the Mach E being called a Mustang. Some electric owners like it, but the majority of the true Mustang fans do not, and the mustang is a car meant to please fans. As it stands, there was another Ford vehicle that has been just as Iconic to the Ford Performance name both here and outside of this country and that is the Ford Falcon. Coincidentally, the falcon is also the car that gave birth to the Mustang along with help from the Ford Thunderbird. Overseas, the Falcon (or Fairmont in South africa) was the hot Ford Performance vehicle to have, especially equipped with the 300hp 351-Cleveland V8 or (5.8L V8 for those of us who only know metric). Unlike the Ford Mustang, the Falcon came in several body styles including a mid size Torino-like coupe, a sedan, a small pickup truck (or Ute if your from the Glorious Land Down Under which i hope to visit someday) and even a wagon that was very similar in size and shape to the dearly departed Ford Flex. Up until recent years, the Ford Falcon was a monster of a vehicle in Australia, especially under the FPV umbrella (Ford Performance Vehicles) with 5.8L, 5.4L and 5.0L V8 engines as well as an Inline-6 Turbo engine, available in two body styles (Sedan and Ute.) Now, if Ford is going to make a global vehicle, why not use the name of a vehicle that is familiar with the world outside of the mustang and use a car that is already alot more versatile and would fit better into what they’re trying to do anyway? Ford could offer the Falcon on the CD6 platform (since they’re already planning to use it for a coupe) and offer a Falcon family of vehicles in coupe, sedan and crossover body styles. I’m not quite sure how a ute would do in America, I mean people loved the Chevrolet El-Camino and Ford Ranchero and people love nostaligic like vehicles so it could work but honestly, sticking with the coupe, sedan and crossover would work out better. The thing about this is, ford would be able to offer it with a longitudinal drivetrain and use the 10-speed auto, the 7-speed DCT and the Tremec 6-speed manual for people who would want to shift their own gears. Still on the CD6 platform would be the Ford Explorer. The Explorer would be the largest vehicle produced on the CD6 platform geared to fullfill the same niche it does now, only better and still using the same 10-speed automatic transmission.
As far as engines go, Ford doesn’t do too terrible with their gasoline engines. I love and respect their ecoboost line, seeing that they can pull big power out of small engine packages like the 350hp/350tq 2.3L engine, the 400hp/415tq 3.0L V6 and the 3.5L Ecoboost that can put out 450hp/510tq in the raptor and 647hp/550tq in the Ford GT supercar. Ford also has an amazing smallblock Modular V8 lineup including the 480hp/420tq 5.0L Coyote V8, the 526hp Flat Crank 5.2L Voodoo engine and even the new 760hp/625tq 5.2L Predator V8. Throughout the years Ford has been able to work some serous magic out of small displacement V8s and that is one of their strong points. Both GM and Mopar use 6.2L V8 engines to do what Ford does with only 5-Liters. Ford even has a proven 700hp 5.0L Supercharged V8 setup that works quite well. Ford could easily put the 3.0L 400hp Ecoboost V6 as the base engine in the Falcon, have an entry level 5.0L 480hp V8, a mid level naturally aspirated 5.8L V8 and a supercharged 5.0L as the top engine. The reason I went with the 5.8L is because the Falcon is known for its 5.8L Performance. Taking all that Ford has learned from three generations of the 5.0L Coyote V8, putting that kind of technology into a 5.8L naturally aspirated variant of the Trinity 5.8L engine to create the 5.8L Peregrine V8 (Peregrine being a type of Falcon so the name fits) pushing out about 540hp/475lb-ft of torque putting it between the 480hp of the 5.0L Coyote and a supercharged 700hp 5.0L V8 and still being smaller than the high performance V8 engines of GM and Mopar (actually being just larger than the 5.7L Hemi and marginally larger than the GM 5.3L V8 but way more efficient than both. And, just like the Mustang had it’s 60’s high octane Hollywood claim to fame. The Falcon had some fame out it’s own as the Automotive Star of the Mad Max Movies. Fan’s would go nuts over a Mad Max Edition of the Ford Falcon in any body style. Plus a Falcon Police Interceptor wouldn’t be a bad idea either. Kind of goes along with the Mad Max thing so you have some really cool selling points here for the Falcon. Of course the Explorer wouldn’t need such firepower and the 2.3L 350hp/350tq engine would be a great base along with the 400hp 3.0L Ecoboost V6 and a 450hp 3.5L ecoboost V6 would work for the explorer just fine.
The next step beyond that would be the body on frame vehicles that would include the Ranger, the Bronco, the F150, the Expedition and the Super Duty pickup trucks. To be honest, the Ranger isn’t a bad truck, where it lacks is in it’s interior. Honestly, the thing needs to be a baby F150 in nearly every way. We do need and FX4 Wild Trak and a Ranger Raptor and they need to be unique. The Bronco needs to be its own vehicle (It really should look like the Bronco6g concept with a modern retro styling from the 1-st gen bronco on the inside. Both vehicles need a base 350hp/350tq 2.3L, a 400hp 3.0L and a 3.0L diesel V6 powered by the 10-speed auto (gas) a 10-speed auto (diesel) and a manual transmission for all three power trains. The F150 needs to evolve a bit to be on par with the Ram pickup trucks (Ford if you’re going to compete with trucks, Compete with Dodge!) Along with the Raptor, which should get a slightly detuned version of the Supercharged 5.0L, It’s time for a Ford Lighting to return to the lineup and actually give the 5.8L Peregrine V8 another engine bay to fill. The reason I say this is because the original Ford lighting was powered by a 5.8L (351W) V8. However, unlike the original lightning or even the Gen-2 Lightning, this truck should have multiple cab configurations, short bed only, Independent suspension front and rear and all wheel drive. As far as the Expedition is concerned, I think it’s the most beautiful, elegant full size SUV on the road. Cadillac may be a better overall SUV but the Expedition has an Amazing look. Give the SUV the 450hp/510 3.5L Ecoboost V6 with a 10-speed and a better AWD system and suspension and this thing rocks! I can’t find any flaws with the Super Duty besides the fact that there needs to be more cool packages and options for the big diesels and the new Godzilla V8. Other than that, the Super Duty kicks butt!
As far as the Electric crowd goes. I still stand firm on my desire for the EVOS to replace the Mach-E. The EVOS is a much better looking vehicle and honestly I think it would go over well. The Design of that looks better than ANYTHING Telsa has and done right it can compete with the Model-6 Performance in every category and come out on top. Even if you want to Change the taillamps to the MAch-E design (which wouldn’t be a bad idea). Actually and EVOS family of vehicles would be a great idea Changing the Mach-E from it’s own car, to a trim package on the EVOS would also be cool as you could have the regular EVOS, the EVOS GT-E, an EVOS Mach-E and the EVOS Grand-E with a more cargo friendly area and that would be sick! Blending the inteiror styling from the EVOS concept with the Mach E to create a sportier, elegant and more emotional interior, maybe taking some cues from the Focus RS on the EVOS Mach-E as it was a serious hot Performance Hatch. With a vehicle like that, you can drop vehicles like the Puma, the Ecosport, the Escape and even the Edge, Replacing all of them the the Ford EVOS family and that solves all of your FWD Eco-car issues because you’ve now just moved them to a RWD based electric chassis with AWD options with the Grand-E Variant of the EVOS that would fit into the size bracket of the Edge. An F150 based electric truck should also be born to truly DESTROY TESLA and put and end to all of this BS and it should be named ATLAS! No, the truck shouldn’t look like that hideous thing that Tesla made. It should look like an F150 but be all electric and the name ATLAS Should be spelled out in the grill and on the tailgate and yes there should be several variations of the ATLAS pickup truck.
The only other thing Ford should do is get rid of Lincoln. Lincoln is dead weight and it needs to be cut from the brand. Seeing that Ford is so concerned with it’s European presence, why not take what it has and spread it across its global lineup with the Vignale trim. A Falcon Vignale, an Explorer Vignale, an EVOS Vignale, an EVOS Grand-E Vignale, an ATLAS Vignale, an Expedition Vignale and even an F150 Vignale would definitely be a profitable idea as it takes a blend of Lincoln and pure European levels of luxury and offers it to just about Every single vehicle in this suggested lineup. the Lincoln brand can finally take its dirt nap, Ford can stop investing money into the dying company and customers will have a luxury vehicle at premium Ford pricing so it’s affordable and affordable means more people would buy it. To me, this lineup makes a ton of sense and Ford can market the lineup globally making it a win for the company and a win for the customers because now Ford would have products in nearly every niche of the market, no front wheel drive issues to plague the company, it would have saved a ton of money by reducing the amount of different chassis that it builds, reducing the different drivetrains it creates, reducing the different engines it makes, increasing its presence in the electric market, decreasing its marketing expenses by dropping the Lincoln brand, opening up more floor space in its factories and by doing all of this will increase the amount of jobs because not only will Ford be moving into the electric market more but it will be selling more cars because it will be making affordable, dependable, stylish cars that people will flock to from every market so it will need more workers to keep up with the demands of its vehicles.
Another thing that Ford seems to forget is that Performance still sells. Ford had an old statement, “Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday.” the statement came from Ford’s involvement in Racing. Outside of Repairs, Customization is a huge money making business when it comes to automobiles. The industry has become so focused of CAFE and all of that kinds of stuff that they’ve seemed to forgotten that people still love affordable performance vehicles. The Ford Performance division along with the Ford Accessories division, need to be revamped to be able to be profitable in this new era. Obviously there is only so much that can be done to cars before it affects reliability and all of that stuff but if Ford Performance can offer a supercharger kit that can add ridiculous amounts of power to a mustang and still keep it street legal, then surely there should be some in between stuff that can be done to cars that would still be able to keep the car’s warranty and still allow the owner to customize their car to their liking besides stripes and air fresheners. Ford currently has Ford Performance, Roush, Steeda and the European performance company Mountune along with the now defunct Australian FPV (which was the equivalent to the american SVT division, which desperately needs to return), along with exhaust companies like Borla, performance brake companies like Brembo and even Eibach was along for the ride for awhile but there are other companies out there like Akrapovic exhaust, Harrop brakes, X-Force Exhausts, Remus Exhausts, Whiteline suspension, etc. It’s time that Ford Performance become a marketing umbella for Roush & Steeda and start partnering with some of the aftermarket brands out there like the ones mentioned above to create quality factory-certified aftermarket options that when installed by a certified Ford Performance dealer, retain a factory warranty. Not to mention styling upgrades such as lighting, wheels, interior upgrades, stereo options, etc. Ford Accessories should cover different stereo options from brands such as Pioneer, Rockford Fosgate and Kicker along as other seating options outside of Recaro. There should also be a selection of Ford Performance & Ford Accessories wheels that come as a collaborations from brands such as BBS, CCW, Forgeline, ROH & Vossen. This does several things. Not only does it give customers options which brings in money to not only the dealership, but to Ford and the Aftermarket companies and it strengthens the auto industry by building relationships between factory and aftermarket companies which creates more jobs and gives Ford more position in the global market.
I didn’t bother to read your diatribe of blah-blah-blah, so I can’t tell
you whether or not I agree. If you need to blog, go find one. zzzzzzz
my bad, i thought it was an adult area where people could speak their minds. Guess I’ve got a few more details in my opinions. Long story short, Ford needs to look back into their bags of things that actually worked and blend them with some of the modern things that work.
you seem odd
Well, I appreciate your comment. It really helped me out and also gave me some other things to look for and keep an eye on. So thank you. And the “children” can keep their opinions to themselves.
my bad, i thought it was an adult area where people could speak their minds. Guess I’ve got a few more details in my opinions. Long story short, Ford needs to look back into their bags of things that actually worked and blend them with some of the modern things that work.
I have a 2017 Ford focus…worst thing I could of bought…28000 miles and the transmission is bad. I have to wait for parts to come in …I don’t feel safe in it..all the dealership ship says is to drive it more aggressively…the way u would a manual..of course when i tell them I have never driven a manual they dont have nothing else to say. They should not be allowed to sell these cars.
Hey vbondjr1 enough of the essay
Jerk
You have like 45 paragraphs
Bravo, Seth.
Thanks Scott?
They are still using the crappy transmissions. I have a 2018 Ford Ecosport and it’s having issues. Keeps sending the lit up wrench and the message power train malfunction loss of power. I keep it serviced. Ford mechanics play like they can’t pull the code because the light goes off after turning the car off. Worst mistake ever buying a funky Ford
I am a Ford fan but with that said I owned a 2013 Focus and all I can say is what a bunch of rolling crap bucket! The car tried to kill my wife a couple of times and then me! So now I’m really upside down in a 2017 Ford Edge and much happier no bucking or stalling in intersections and you can now heard your own thoughts and still very good on fuel.
Can we please talk nice to each other
Thanks