Owners of Ford Focus and Fiesta models equipped with the Powershift transmission have certainly faced their fair share of major issues over the years, which is also true of The Blue Oval and an endless stream of legal battles revolving around the same topic. Years after those vehicles were produced (the 2011-2016 model years), owners are still experiencing transmission failures, even with few miles on the clock, resulting in Ford paying out millions to owners, instituting a buyback program, extending powertrain warranties, and reaching settlements. Now, Ford has been dealt another legal blow.
According to Law360, the California Supreme Court has now ruled that The Blue Oval can’t force Ford Focus and Fiesta owners impacted by these Powershift woes into arbitration, which is an alternative form of dispute resolution where a neutral third party – the arbitrator – helps resolve disputes outside of the traditional court system. Ford had argued that dealership sales contracts contain arbitration provisions that it can invoke, but the court rejected that claim. This particular case involves plaintiffs who purchased a Ford Focus or Fiesta in 2013-2014, specifically, all of whom have experienced transmission issues.
“Ford seeks to invoke an arbitration clause in a dispute flowing, not from the contract where the arbitration clause appears, but from obligations imposed by statute or conventional fraud duties,” the court said. “As plaintiffs’ claims are not intimately founded in or intertwined with the sales contracts, plaintiffs should not be estopped from pursuing their remedies against Ford in court.”
“Car manufacturers like Ford have repeatedly attempted to avoid accountability by forcing consumers into arbitration even when they never agreed to arbitrate,” said Jennifer Bennett of Gupta Wessler LLP, an attorney for the plaintiffs in this case. “The unanimous decision here rejects that gambit and tells manufacturers: When they sell defective cars and try to cover it up, consumers can hold them accountable in court.”
Comments
Sooo glad I got the manual transmission in my Focus. It’s really difficult to screw one of those up…not impossible…but more difficult.
When I mentioned to a Ford service advisor that my next car might be a Focus, he quietly said that was a bad idea. Only when I said it would be a manual did he agree.
That car should have been a huge success but was let down by the criminally incompetent management decision to proceed with a flawed transmission design.
The executives responsible are retired on a beach somewhere, but Ford and its customers will be paying the price for many more years.
My Fiesta has a manual and remains a great car, capable of 38 mpg with regular technology. However when the clutch slave cylinder fails, it is a load of work pulling the trans out to get to that bugger.
My nephew had a Focus with Powershift that failed at 30,000 miles. Replaced under warranty, it began to exhibit the same symptoms again at 50,000 miles. He got rid of it right away. He now drives a RAV4 and will most likely never buy another Ford product again. I am sure his experience has been repeated thousands of times and Ford and its incompetent management has lost millions in revenue.
As an owner of a so-far flawless manual-trans Fiesta (1.0 liter) I have also suffered loss of value because of the reputation the Fiesta now has, thanks to the dual-clutch automatic problems. But I still love my 48-mpg tight-handling little Ford.
My Focus, which I got cheap from Hertz, is approaching 100K miles and gets me 38 MPG. I’ve been lucky, but my next car will have NO transmission.
I used to have fords all the time then I went on to Peugeots and killed 2 with in 6 months of each other. Glad I’ve gone back to ford. Good reliable cards especially the manual transmission and cheap for parts. I did have a ford monday-o cost me £79 from work. The only reason it went it jumped a tooth in timing and bent my valves. Then I had to go to a Peugeot what I didn’t like back with a ford and keeping it that way
Why have they change the look of the fog free where the old laser was. A brilliant design and a ford puma is more like an SUV than a car. Whatever was, but I still love ford
I own a 2011 Ford Focus. Almost 400,000 on it. It’s still going.
I call my car a ghost rider because I can be outside the car keys in hands and my car will make a noise like it’s going to start up by itself and it keep saying transmission running hot now it’s saying transmission fault and making a loud noise and driving 20 miles 😒 not cool my next car going to be a toyota corolla I knw them cars are keepers my gma had one from childhood until I was grown up I hope I don’t have to get a new car and can fix dis car