Ford Hit With Class Action Over Fiesta, Focus Transmission Defect

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Ford Motor Company was hit with a class action lawsuit alleging that some model years of the Ford Fiesta and the Ford Focus come with an automatic transmission that is defective and potentially dangerous.

Plaintiffs Kevin and Andrea Klipfel of California are the owners of a 2013 Ford Focus and a 2013 Ford Fiesta that came equipped with the PowerShift Transmission, which they paid an additional$1,095.00 to have in their cars instead of the standard manual transmission, according to their Ford class action lawsuit.

In April 2014, when the Focus had about 14,000 miles on it, the Klipfels began having problems with the car “erratically shifting in second and third gear,” and they brought it in to a local Ford dealer to have it looked it. After reprogramming the powertrain control module and the transmission control module, the technician said that that car was okay.

In December 2014, when the Ford Focus had about 24,000 miles on it, they brought it back to the dealership because it was “exhibiting transmission symptoms,” however the service advisor “could not find a problem.”

According to the defective transmission class action lawsuit, the Klipfels have had a similar situation with their Ford Fiesta and took it into the dealership in December 2014, when the vehicle had about 21,000 miles on it because it “had a very sluggish shift between the first and second gears and that the upshift bogs down like the vehicle might stall.”

The Ford vehicle technician reprogrammed the powertrain control module and the transmission control module, as had been done on the Focus, and said that it was “working as designed.”

However, the Klipfels claim in their Ford class action lawsuit that both vehicles “continue to experience the transmission defect, including, but not limited to, bucking, kicking, jerking, harsh engagement, and delayed acceleration and lurching.”

These symptoms of the transmission defect pose “a safety hazard because they severely affect the driver’s ability to control the car’s speed, acceleration, and deceleration,” the Ford transmission defect class action lawsuit explains.

“Even more troubling, the transmission defect can cause the vehicle to fail to downshift and decelerate when the brakes are depressed,” the Klipfels explain. “As a result, plaintiffs and class members have experienced their cars lurching forward into intersections at red lights due to the failure of their braking efforts to stop the car.”

According to the Ford class action lawsuit, there has been over 500 complaints filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration over the alleged transmission defect, claiming that it has caused accidents and several near accidents and put drivers and their families in dangerous situations.

The Klipfels allege in their class action lawsuit that the problem is that Ford designed an automatic transmission that is supposed to be more fuel efficient. However, “it lacks a torque converter instead using two ‘dry’ clutches to directly connect and disconnect the engine to and from the transmission. Whereas other ‘automated manual’ transmissions on the market use ‘wet’ clutches bathed in oil, Ford’s PowerShift Transmission clutches lack the oil pumps and other components of a wet clutch system, and instead operate ‘dry.'”

This they claim is the source of the problem, as both the Ford Focus and Fiesta “have the same design and components,” which they also allege Ford knew about since at least 2010 and has actively concealed.

This Ford transmission defect class action lawsuit is for anyone across the country who has “purchased or leased any 2011 through 2015 Ford Fiesta or 2012 through 2015 Ford Focus vehicles equipped with a PowerShift Transmission.”

The Klipfels are also proposing a California sub-class, a California Consumer Legal Remedies sub-class and a nationwide implied warranty sub-class.

The defective transmission class action lawsuit claims that Ford violated the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act, violated the California business law, violated breach of implied warranty according to the Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act in California, breach of warranty under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, breach of express warranty, and unjust enrichment.

The Ford class action lawsuit was originally filed in California state court on Feb. 20, but was transferred to a California federal court on Monday.

The plaintiffs are represented by Jordan L. Lurie, Robert K. Friedl, Tarek H. Zohdy and Cody R. Padgett of Capstone Law APC.

Ford is represented by John M. Thomas and Tamara A. Bush of Dykema Gossett PLLC.

The Ford Transmission Defect Class Action Lawsuit is Klipfel et al. v. Ford Motor Co., Case No. 2:15-cv-02140, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

UPDATE: October 2017, the Ford PowerShift transmission class action settlement is now open. Click here to file a claim.