POWERSHIFT DPS6 TRANSMISSION GUIDE AND RULES FOR ARBITRATION I. GENERAL INFORMATION As a part of the settlement of class action litigation against Ford Motor Company (“Ford”) involving 2011-2016 Ford Fiesta and 2012-2016 Ford Focus vehicles (“Class vehicles”) equipped with the DPS6 or dual clutch “PowerShift” automatic transmissions. On Thursday, a federal judge approved a settlement for the class action Ford DPS6 transmission lawsuit that will see Ford purchase back thousands of defective Fiesta and Focus cars at up to $22,000 each. Word of the settlement comes from lawyers that crafted the deal with Ford. The DPS6 was a dry-clutch design. “What in the world are you thinking going with a dry clutch?” one engineer asked. “The friction coefficient is inconsistent and it creates problems. Last July, Ford documents showed the company indeed knew of the DPS6 transmission's defects, but continued selling the Focus and Fiesta with the component. Updated 2018 Ford Fiesta ST goes with a.
After years of frustrating, ineffective transmission repairs and dangerous driving experiences, much needed financial relief may finally be in the future for certain Ford owners and former owners of 2011-16 Fiesta and 2012-16 Focus vehicles. The Ford DPS6 class action settlement,Vargas v. Ford Motor Company, has been revised and is now approved by the court after years of scrutiny, criticism, and following its rejection by the U.S. Court of Appeals that overturned the original Ford class action settlement on multiple grounds and returned it to the trial court to address with the parties. While far from ideal, the now revised Ford class action settlement does offer some new options to owners that could be extremely important and valuable, particularly for those qualifying owners and former owners who faced constant transmission repair challenges. Stern Law is of course here to help as we have in the past, and we urge current and former owners of these PowerShift equipped Focus and Fiesta vehicles to immediately contact our firm as this opportunity will only be available for a limited time, which could be as short as 180 days from April 5, 2020, for some - and there’s much work to be completed during that limed time period to prepare and submit claims for deserving owners.
Needless to point out, the Coronavirus pandemic is gripping our nation right now as it sweeps across the nation, creating worry and fear for everyone. In spite of this challenging period, our dedicated staff remains fully involved, working remotely from their homes as we continue protect the rights of our deserving DPS6 clients eager to be bought out of their vehicles.
history of Ford’s DPS6 Automatic Transmission Problem
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Dating back to 2012, Ford Motor Company has been the subject of a class action lawsuit related to the significant issues owners faced with the PowerShift transmission in their Focus and Fiesta vehicles. The PowerShift system, a dual-clutch transmission (DCT), was intended to provide owners the ‘experience’ of driving an automatic while benefiting from the fuel economy of a manual, has been far from acceptable for many and has cost the company quite literally hundreds of millions of dollars in repair costs. This troublesome transmission has also resulted in significant problems for current and former owners who never expected to be driving what appears to be a failed experiment, as contended in lawsuits we've filed against Ford. More troubling than the failure of this transmission, though, has been Ford’s effort to understate and, at times, to conceal the extent of the problem and how it affects owners of these vehicles.
A class action law firm, Capstone Law (not our firm!), took notice of the issues Ford faced and sued Ford on behalf of owners of the subject Focus and Fiesta vehicles at that time. Years of litigation followed between Capstone and Ford, resulting in a class action settlement that, among other features, provided some limited compensation for owner inconvenience associated with multiple repairs, beginning with only $200 for those who received transmission repairs on three separate occasions, and other potential benefits.
A buyback program was also established as a part of the agreement, with significant limitations, which we felt were more designed to exclude than include deserving owners of the compensation they deserved. The terms required, for instance, that owners have the required number of transmission repairs within a defined time period based on state Lemon Law in order to qualify for that repurchase or buyback. However, state Lemon Law limitations imposed by the statute of limitations and other requirements that repairs occur during the warranty period, or even before the expiration of the warranty in certain instances, would have prevented claims for many. Further, the original settlement terms did NOT permit owners to pursue claims and seek the compensation available based on long standing consumer protection statutes, federal Lemon law, and fraud based claims accessible to consumers in many if not all states.
Ba atomic number. Symbol: Ba Atomic Number: 56 Atomic Mass: 137.327 amu Melting Point: 725.0 °C (998.15 K, 1337.0 °F) Boiling Point: 1140.0 °C (1413.15 K, 2084.0 °F) Number of Protons/Electrons: 56 Number of Neutrons: 81 Classification: Alkaline Earth Crystal Structure: Cubic Density @ 293 K. Element Barium (Ba), Group 2, Atomic Number 56, s-block, Mass 137.327. Sources, facts, uses, scarcity (SRI), podcasts, alchemical symbols, videos and images. Atomic Number: 56: Symbol: Ba: Element Category: Alkaline Earth Metal: Phase at STP: Solid: Atomic Mass amu 137.327: Density at STP: 3.51 g/cm3.
However, in exchange for these very limited “benefits” available in the original class action settlement, over a million current and former Focus and Fiesta owners failed to opt out of the class action settlement and thereby forfeited valuable legal rights to take direct legal action against Ford based on Ford’s concealment and fraud, with the added ability to pursue claims based on consumer protection statutes, federal Lemon law, in addition to these fraud based claims accessible to consumers in most states. We are very proud that Stern Law assisted over 12,000 Focus and Fiesta owners located throughout the United States in opting out of the original class action settlement in 2017 to pursue their individual claims against Ford, with the full access to all legal remedies, not merely state Lemon law. Our firm actually represents more Focus and Fiesta victims than any law firm in the country today.
Since the original class settlement was approved, Objectors to the class action settlement had their voices heard before the U.S. Court of Appeals. Critical to their arguments was that the class action settlement failed to account for a wide range of damages which owners experienced, as well as differences in treatment among certain current and former owners. The Court of Appeals agreed in part and overturned the class settlement, forcing Ford and class counsel to renegotiate the terms of the deal that would need to be considered and eventually approved by the court. The Fairness Hearing for the revised class settlement occurred on February 28, 2020. As approved by the court on March 5, 2020, the revised class settlement becomes ‘the final class settlement’ governing the rights of all owners who failed to opt out of the class action settlement or commence individual litigation against Ford during or prior to 2017.
Moving Past your PowerShift Transmission Problem
We continue to believe that every owner should have been offered far more for the personal and financial issues the failure of these transmissions has caused. We do not believe the ‘inconvenience,’ cash/certificate awards, nor the arbitration process that’s limited to state Lemon law can or will ever fully address all these issues. Nor do they even come close to comparing in value to monetary awards and judgments obtained by owners who opted out of the case – one case resulted in an award of $700,000, another $64,000 and a lease-based case for $24,000. Of course ever case is different and results vary based upon the facts, but Ford, to our knowledge, has lost every DPS6 case that went to trial and for good reason.
We had also hoped class members would be given another opportunity to opt out, but that’s unfortunately not available based upon the revised class action settlement. That’s particularly bothersome due in part to the facts that emerged from our ongoing lawsuits featured in investigative reporting by the Detroit Free Press and USA Today. Those reports not only revealed the problems faced by owners were far more widespread than anyone could have imagined, but also how much Ford, and Ford’s employees, knew about the issues while the company and its dealers misled drivers the issues were minor, ‘normal operating characteristics’ or unworthy of repair. Even when the company issues ‘Customer Satisfaction Programs’ aimed at addressing transmission problems, dealers often failed to ‘replicate the issue’ or determine that any repair was needed. All of this is to say that our firm believes there have been a LOT of problems with Ford’s DPS6 transmission, and even more problems with Ford’s disturbing response to the matter.
As you can see by navigating this website or reading the various news articles written about our lawsuits against Ford Motor Company for these defective transmissions, we are a significant voice in representing clients with cases involving the DPS6 transmission. We also have unique knowledge about the problems owners have faced and how Ford handled (or didn’t handle) them. Lead attorney Ken Stern has consistently been recognized as a leader in this case due to his tireless work for clients from every state, in warning consumers about the issues with these vehicles, and by leading thousands of owners in their legal claims against Ford. Donkey forklifts.
Have questions? Contact our offices today.
— A Ford DPS6 PowerShift transmission lawsuit consolidated from multiple class-action lawsuits will be heard in a California courtroom after the U.S. Judicial Panel for Multidistrict Litigation granted Ford’s motion to centralize the lawsuits.
According to court documents, there are 110 legal actions against Ford in California and “57 related federal actions.'
Plaintiffs started filing class-action lawsuits against Ford alleging the transmissions are defective in 2012-2016 Ford Focus cars and 2011-2016 Ford Fiesta vehicles. Customers claim in addition to delayed acceleration and downshifting problems, the transmissions have caused vehicles to crash.
One of those lawsuits (Ascensio, et al., v. Ford Motor Company) was filed in 2017 alleging the dual-clutch DPS6 PowerShift transmissions shudder, slip, jerk, hesitate and suffer from multiple other problems. The lawsuit claims Ford has replaced possibly tens of thousands of DPS6 transmissions that are offered as an option on Focus and Fiesta cars, each transmission costing about $1,100.
The transmissions are allegedly more fuel efficient and reliable than traditional manual or automatic transmissions, so much so that Ford offered it as the only 'automatic' option for some models.
Ford allegedly marketed the PowerShift transmission as having the “best of both worlds” of an automatic and manual transmission, with the fuel economy of a manual but with the ease of operation and shift quality of an automatic transmission.
The plaintiffs say while the DPS6 transmission is called an 'automatic,' each transmission is really a group of computerized manual transmissions that lack torque converters and in their place use two “dry” clutches to engage and disengage the engines with and from the transmission.
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This is in comparison to “automated manual” transmissions that use “wet” clutches covered with oil, but Ford’s PowerShift transmission clutches lack the oil pumps and other components of a “wet” clutch system and instead operate “dry.”
The plaintiffs claim the clutch plates and other components wear out early and cause complete transmission failure. The plaintiffs further allege the automaker knew about the DPS6 transmission problems as early as 2010 and tried to cover up and conceal the defects.
Some of the plaintiffs were against centralizing the transmission lawsuits in the Central District of California. Those customers argued consolidating the DPS6 PowerShift transmission lawsuits in the Central District of California would be unfair because Ford could then get around state laws.
In addition, customers against consolidation told the judge centralization should be blocked because:
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“The actions also involve individualized questions of fact regarding the problems experienced by each plaintiff’s vehicle, the nature and number of repairs, the efficacy of the repairs, and the extent to which the alleged defect impaired each plaintiff’s use of the vehicle.'
By ruling in favor of Ford, the judicial panel said “we find that these actions involve common questions of fact, and that centralization will serve the convenience of the parties and witnesses and promote the just and efficient conduct of this litigation.”
The Ford DPS6 PowerShift transmission lawsuit is In Re: Ford Motor Co. DPS6 PowerShift Transmission Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2814.
The automaker has already agreed to settle a PowerShift transmission lawsuit in 2017 that includes about 1.5 million Focus and Fiesta cars.
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CarComplaints.com has owner-reported complaints about transmission problems in the Ford Focus and Fiesta cars:
Ford Focus Transmission Problems - 2012 / 2013 / 2014 / 2015 / 2016
Ford Fiesta Transmission Problems - 2011 / 2012 / 2013 / 2014 / 2015 / 2016