There’ve been many complaints from owners of the Ford F-Series pickup trucks that there’s an issue with door locks on some models that causes them to freeze in cold weather. The freezing problem was significant enough that a class-action lawsuit was filed against Ford in March 2017. The initial frozen Ford door lock lawsuit was dismissed after the plaintiff’s arguments based on advertising fell through. The plaintiff in the case was allowed to amend one claim show proof that Ford knew the door latches and locks could freeze in cold weather.
In that amendment, the plaintiff claimed that cold temperatures caused failures of the door lock to latch or unlatch. According to the lawsuit, Ford issued a technical service bulletin that described inoperable door latches during or after freezing temperatures. The class-action lawsuit was able to use that TSB to show that Ford knew about the defect and failed to disclose it to current, former, or potential owners, purchasers, or lessees of impacted F-Series vehicles.
Ford’s settlement for the class-action group covers the following vehicles:
- 2015-2019 Ford-150
- 2017-2019 Ford F-250
- 2017-2019 Ford F-350
- 2017-2019 Ford F-450
- 2017-2019 Ford F-550
For those vehicles to be included in the lawsuit, they must’ve been built at the Dearborn Assembly Plant before February 26th, 2019, or at Ford’s Kansas City Assembly Plant before March 4th, 2019. Vehicles could also have been built at the Kentucky Assembly Plant before March 5th, 2019, or at the Ohio Assembly Plant before March 11th, 2019.
Ford truck owners who paid out-of-pocket for door latch repairs can recover their out-of-pocket costs with proof of the repair. Ford admits some owners who had their latches repaired by Ford could’ve still had to pay some money out of pocket. Ford will reimburse those owners up to $400 if they can prove their costs. Ford truck owners also have access to free door latch repairs through October 31, 2028. Owners can also get $10 if they aren’t satisfied with the performance of the door latches. The biggest lawsuit against Ford had its settlement approved recently with some Fiesta and Focus owners getting buybacks worth up to $22,000.
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Source: Car Complaints
Comments
With all these law suits that claim “they knew of the defects(s) and didn’t inform the buyer” may lead to a stack of TSB’s at the closing of the sale.
I like the way you made it clear in this article. It’s written very correctly and accurately. Having good and quality locks in a house is a guarantee of security and peace of mind. Such locks are worth respectively, and their repair will cost a lot of money. But it seems to me that this is not the place to save money.