Ford Class Action Alleges Manual Transmission Defect

Ford Motor Company has been hit with a class action lawsuit by car owners who claim their vehicles have defects in which the transmission slips, jerks, clashes gears and harshly engages.

Plaintiffs Eric Gregorio, Brandon Lemons, John Walker, Joseph Plis and Christopher Wooten say their vehicles, equipped with an MT82 manual transmission, also have premature internal wear, increased shift efforts and eventually suffer from a catastrophic failure.

The plaintiffs state that these defects in the transmission impose escalating repairs on consumers, including having to replace the defective transmission with a new one.

Gregorio allegedly purchased a new 2019 Ford Mustang GT in Fontana, Calif., for approximately $37,000. He says that, prior to purchasing the car, he researched the vehicle on Ford’s official website and conducted online research on numerous automotive websites like Motor Trend and Edmunds.

Gregorio maintains that he did not know and was never informed by Ford prior to purchasing the vehicle that it had a defective transmission. He claims that if Ford had disclosed its knowledge of the safety defect, he would have seen the disclosures and would have been aware of them. 

Gregorio claims that if he had known about the transmission defect, he would not have purchased the 2019 Ford Mustang GT or would not have paid the purchase price charged by Ford. 

With approximately 3,540 miles on the vehicle, the plaintiff brought it to a Ford dealership, complaining that the transmission in his car clunked and locked him out of gear. However, according to the Ford class action lawsuit, the problem was not corrected.

“Despite the transmission concerns presented to the dealership, Plaintiff’s vehicle continues to exhibit all of the problems he had previously complained about to an authorized Ford dealer,” the Ford class action lawsuit goes on to state.

According to Gregorio and his fellow plaintiffs, all vehicle owners will need replacement of transmission components including the shift forks, shift shaft, synchronizers, clutch assembly or even the entire transmission.

The plaintiffs claim Ford had changed suppliers for their transmissions, opting for cheaper Chinese made Getrag transmissions to reduce cost. It was this change to Chinese made MT82 and MT82-D4 into the Ford vehicles that caused the transmission defects, the Ford class action lawsuit states.

In addition, despite knowledge of the transportation defect, Ford continued to use the MT82 and MT82-D4 transmissions.

Gregario and the other plaintiffs in this Ford class action lawsuit state that their vehicles are prone to and do exhibit premature transmission failures at rates that do not conform to industry standards.

The Ford class action lawsuit says the transmission defect decreases the value of the Class vehicles, which forces the owners of the cars to potentially spend significant money to have the transmission repaired or replaced.

Even then, the plaintiffs claim repairing or replacing the defective parts does not resolve the defect in the transmission because the customer is left with defective parts.

In addition, replacing the defective parts does not solve the transmission defect, but merely leaves the vehicles with the same defective parts that permanently decrease the vehicle’s value. 

“Based on Ford’s inability to resolve the Defect so far, it appears that all consumers will need replacement of transmission components including, but not limited to the shift forks, clutch, synchronizer parts, or the entire transmission,” the Ford class action lawsuit goes on to say.

Gregorio says Ford’s deliberate nondisclosure of the defects artificially inflated the purchase price for these vehicles.

He says that if Ford had disclosed the transmission defect, he and other potential Class Members would not have purchased their vehicles or would have paid less for them.

The plaintiffs state Ford has been aware of the transmission defect since the introduction of the transmission and that the company has repeatedly failed to disclose and actively concealed the defect from the public. 

The Ford class action lawsuit claims that since 2011, Ford has issued a total of seven Special Service Messages and Technical Service Bulletins relating to shifting issues and other transmission defects. 

“Ford has exclusive knowledge of, and has been in exclusive possession of, information pertaining to the Transmission Defect, which was material to Plaintiffs and Class members, who could not reasonably know of the Defect,” the Ford transmission class action lawsuit claims.

The plaintiffs go on to state that despite Ford’s awareness and knowledge of the transmission defect, its employees and agents continue to deny that that the defect even exists and have developed standard answers to deal with expectant complaints made by vehicle owners.

Do you own a Ford vehicle that has a transmission defect? Leave a message in the comments section below.

The plaintiffs are represented by Steven R. Weinmann, Tarek H. Zohdy, Cody R. Padgett and Trisha K. Monesi of Capstone Law APC; Steven G. Calamusa of Gordon & Partners; and Joshua Levine and Jeff Ostrow of Kopelowitz Ostrow Ferguson Weiselberg & Gilbert.

The Ford Transmission Class Action Lawsuit is Eric Gregorio, et al. v. Ford Motor Company, Case No. 2:20-cv-11310, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

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