"This settlement has two parts," Kirkpatrick said.
So while Wu estimated just 100,000 vehicles qualify for the buyback program, Kirkpatrick cited the Free Press documents and pointed to Ford's own data calculations when predicting a bigger payout. Big payoutĪn internal Ford report dated December 2016 noted that 350,000 of the problem cars "have already reached 3+ repairs in the US," the Free Press investigation showed. He did not challenge a "potential $500 million" cost to Ford.
Wu said he felt uncomfortable offering an estimate, saying the full cost to Ford depends on the number of car owners who apply for financial relief. "So assuming 10% of those car owners goes forward and files a claim, and does what they need to do, well, you do the math." "We think the number of cars with serious problems are about 100,000," he said.
The company disclosed in court documents in 2019 that Ford spent $47 million buying back 2,666 vehicles.īased on what consumers have reported to the lawyers, most of them appear to have received buybacks between $15,000 to $22,000 on each car, Wu said. Over the last year, as the high-profile case has been argued in court, Ford opened up a voluntary buyback program. None of the class members is timed out."Ĭar owners will have at least seven months from the order to file a buyback claim, and some may have up to the year 2023 to file, he said. "It's reasonable to assume that the settlement will deliver at least $100 million for the buyback benefit alone, with no upper (dollar) limit.
"We embarked on an eight-year odyssey to hold Ford accountable," said Ryan Wu, lead class counsel at Capstone Law. More: Out of Gear: Follow the full Ford investigationĪ month after the Free Press investigation, Ford extended warranty coverage to 600,000 vehicle owners. In response to the ruling, Ford spokesman Said Deep said in a prepared statement, "We are pleased with the court’s ruling and look forward to the final implementation of the settlement."Ī Detroit Free Press "Out of Gear" investigation published in July revealed for the first time internal company documents and emails showing that the Dearborn automaker knew the dual-clutch "Powershift" (DPS6) transmissions on the entry-level vehicles, built over the last decade, were defective from the start and continued building and selling them anyway as customers spent thousands on repairs. "You could see where this settlement could end up costing Ford hundreds of millions of dollars, potentially $500 million," said Michael Kirkpatrick, a lawyer at the nonprofit Public Citizen consumer advocacy group, who successfully argued against both Ford and the class-action law firm for re-review of the case in 2019 to get a better deal for consumers.įord customers claimed in legal filings their 2012-16 Focus and 2011-16 Fiesta compact cars were built with transmissions prone to “shuddering, slipping, bucking, jerking, hesitation while changing gears, premature internal wear, delays in downshifting and, in some cases, sudden or delayed acceleration.” class-action settlement that will result in the repurchase of thousands of defective Ford Fiesta and Focus vehicles for up to $22,000 apiece, according to lawyers who crafted the agreement. A federal judge approved on Thursday a Ford Motor Co.