Ford Actively Conceals PowerShift Transmission Defect, Lawsuit Says

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A Texas lawsuit filed on Feb. 1 against the Ford Motor Company alleges the car manufacturer knowingly sold various models of automobiles with the same defective DPS6 PowerShift transmission.

The complaint asserts that Ford installed this PowerShift transmission “in 22 different models of Fiesta, Focus, and EcoSport vehicles between 2011 and the present.”

According to the lawsuit, all affected vehicles show the same symptoms: “shuddering, slipping, bucking, jerking, hesitation while changing gears, premature internal wear, delays in downshifting, and in some extreme cases, sudden or delayed acceleration.”

The Ford lawsuit states that the PowerShift transmission is an add-on option for Ford Fiesta and Ford Focus vehicles that costs $1,095. The transmission is supposed to be more advanced and fuel efficient.

According to Ford’s advertising, the PowerShift is supposed to be an “automatic manual” transmission, offering drivers “the best of both worlds,” that is, the ease of an automatic with the fuel efficiency of a manual.

However, the lawsuit alleges that the PowerShift transmission is defective. Moreover, the complaint claims that Ford has known about the defect since 2010, when it was still designing and testing the new transmission.

Even though it has never publicly acknowledged that the defect exists, the complaint cites multiple Technical Service Bulletins Ford issued to its dealerships, not the public, about transmission issues and told its dealerships to claim the issues were caused by “normal driving conditions.”

The lawsuit asserts that by this conduct, “Ford actively concealed, and continues to conceal, the Transmission Defect.”

Specifically, the Ford lawsuit alleges that the defect causes “suddenly lurching forward, sudden acceleration, delayed acceleration, and sudden loss of forward propulsion” in affected vehicles.

“Even more troubling, the Transmission Defect can cause the Vehicles to fail to downshift and decelerate when the brakes are depressed,” which has caused “cars lurching forward into intersections at red lights due to the failure of their braking efforts to stop the car,” according to the complaint.

The lawsuit is brought by 28 plaintiffs, who all purchased Ford vehicles after 2011 and experienced problems with the defective PowerShift transmission.

Most of the plaintiffs claim that they have had to take their vehicles into the dealership or repair facility multiple times, and that their vehicles have spent an “excessive number of days in the shop.”

The plaintiffs assert that had they known about the transmission defect, they “would not have purchased the Vehicle or would have paid substantially less.”

The lawsuit argues that Ford violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act by breaching the express and implied warranties of the plaintiffs’ vehicles. The complaint also claims that Ford has violated federal warranty law.

The lawsuit seeks three times the amount of economic damages under Texas law, including loss of use of the affected vehicles and repair costs.

The plaintiffs are represented by Richard C. Dalton.

The Ford Defective PowerShift Transmission Lawsuit is Benjamin A., et al. v. Ford Motor Company, Case No. 4:17-cv-00074, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Sherman Division.