[sanchari]

Ford Corp knew about transmission issues in its 2011-2015 models of Fiesta and Focus, and continued to sell them.

Ford knew Focus, Fiesta models had flawed transmission, sold them anyway

Some excerpts:

The automaker pushed past company lawyers’ early safety questions and a veteran development engineer’s warning that the cars weren’t roadworthy, internal emails and documents show. Ford then declined, after the depth of the problem was obvious, to make an expensive change in the transmission technology.
...
..
Instead, the company kept trying to find a fix for the faulty transmission for five years while complaints and costs piled up. In the interim, Ford officials prepared talking points for dealers to tell customers that the cars operated normally when, in fact, internal documents are peppered with safety concerns and descriptions of the defects.

The automaker faces thousands of angry customers, including former loyalists who say they will never buy another Ford; hundreds of millions in repair costs, many times without actually fixing the cars; and litigation so serious the company this spring warned investors of the financial threat posed by defects in what Ford called its DPS6 transmission.

...
By the time of the 2012 review, which was labeled “Lessons Learned,” Ford had sold more than half a million of the cars.

“There is no fix at this time,” system testing engineer Tom Hamm wrote separately in an October 2012 email to four colleagues. “We have a task force working on the issue but they haven’t identified any fixes at this time.”

By then, Ford had known for some time that the transmissions had significant problems.

On Aug. 31, 2010, just six months before the 2012 Focus hit the market, product development engineer Tom Langeland emailed colleagues and supervisors describing “nasty launch judder” — intense vibration from a stop — that “did not clear up after many miles of driving.”

“We also cannot achieve a driveable calibration that will get us to production,” he wrote. “The clutch torque delivery MUST BE IMPROVED.”
...

Interesting investigations on how the company continually tried to hide the issue with lots of internal miles accessed by The Detroit Free Press. There are multiple class action suits in US and Ford is looking at potential $4 billion payout if it loses the cases.

It doesn't matter if its a US/European/Asian company, the bottom lines are what matters most. If it can get away by cutting corners, it will do that.

[imzahid]

Here in Dubai, some of my colleagues have been facing transmission issues in their fords viz. Focus and Ecosport. I was able to witness one personally when a colleague's Ecosport started shuddering horribly while we were on the highway at cruising speeds. These are the reasons why people prefer Toyotas, Hondas and Nissans here in the Middle East. Absolute reliable machines specially when compared to Fords.

[alpha1]

Every time something like this comes up, I am reminded again by the dialogue from Fightclub:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiB8GVMNJkE

Anyway, to be a little more fair to Ford and auto manufacturers: this is not too much different from what happens in the IT world where a version release is time-bound, and there are known bugs and glitches that are solved in the subsequent patches.

Of course there is a difference since one case is directly connected with safety of the passenger and the other is slightly more distant from human safety concerns.

[ChiragM]

Ford knew its DCT gearbox was defective

According to a report by Detroit Free Press, Ford knew about the problems its dual-clutch transmission had before the cars equipped with it went on sale. The transmission was first used in the 2011 Fiesta followed by the 2012 Focus. The report found at least 4,377 complaints to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for transmissions of the 2011-16 Fiesta and 2012-16 Focus.



The report suggests that many of the cars suddenly lost power on freeways, or sometimes even drove into intersections on their own, resulting in accidents. The cars were repaired multiple times, but the problem still remained. Ford had instructed dealers to tell customers that the cars operated normally. The company also ran out of parts for the fix - it is said that 1.5 million defective cars still remain on the road.

Over the years, Ford tried fixing the problem and spent hundreds of millions of dollars and now faces legal cases that could pose a serious financial risk to the company. The carmaker tried tweaking the transmission, adjusting the calibration, clutch materials and fixing a seal leak. Prior to the transmission being used, engineers reported judders and vibrations. They also said that a driveable calibration could not be achieved and that the clutch torque delivery must be improved. It is also said that quality was compromised to save costs.



In 2008, Ford's lawyers had warned engineers about safety issues after issues cropped up in Volkswagen's dual-clutch transmission. Ford used the transmission in low-priced, high-volume vehicles. It is said that the transmission’s tendency to slip out of gear combined with other conditions would result in a “Severity 10” rating. This is the worst possible rating under global engineering protocols. There was no mechanism to warn the customers before a failure. It is said that during the development of the car, 23 red alerts related to calibration were issued and 115 software changes were needed, but the issues only increased as the launch date neared.

Ford had barely scraped through the recession and sales had also fallen. To make matters worse, fuel prices increased and fuel economy standards were tightened. In a bid to get high volume cars on sale, the Fiesta and Focus were put in the market with the defective transmissions. The dual-clutch transmission also helped Ford claim an efficiency of nearly 40 mpg on the highway.



Customers reported problems within months of the Fiesta going on sale, but it became worse with the Focus as it was heavier and demanded more from the transmission. Design and release engineers, calibration development engineers, manufacturing engineers, customer service engineers and transmission engineers knew that the transmissions were bad, but kept it quiet. The upper management was not informed of the unfolding crisis at the start.

Link to Team-BHP News

[NiInJa]

So, Ford literally took all DCT customers for a ride !
I hope they are forced to pay up a lot to the customers who were blatantly cheated. Not sure what the scene is in India, maybe owners can highlight if they have faced such issues.

Off Topic: This new Ford's blunder and then the Boeing 737 Max grounding has me wondering why the US is nervous about China's Huawei and Russian tech when they themselves have been cheating/misleading masses, even killing them in the process.

[Sankar]

Ford Pinto say's Hi!

Grimshaw vs Ford Motor

Fuel tank was a risk, management knew that, there was solution but management chose not to use it for cost reasons.

[rahulskumar]

"Ford had instructed dealers to tell customers that the cars operated normally"


If Ford cannot design a proper auto tranny, they could have just sourced a good one from Aisin or some other vendor. Ford put so many lives at risk. Current incapable management should be dissolved and given stringent punishment for culpable homicide.

[gb97ce6]

Unrealistic deadlines for cutting edge technology makes no sense.
A class action lawsuit can easily wipe out a few years worth of hard earned profits.

[arunrajk81]

My friend was using a ford focus in US with DCT and he says that the car vibrates heavily between shifts. He got multiple recalls during his ownership and some were related to transmission. Luckily, he was able to sell the car after 4 years/30k miles of use for a decent price. He brought it for 16k and sold for 8k.

[Rebelogue]

Hello All,
When was the Figo A.T. upgraded from DCT to TC in India?
There is one Ford dealer who is trying to sell Figo A.T. manufactured in 2018 to me.
They say, it has T.C. but I couldnt find any such news or article stating the change in Automatic transmission in Figo.
Should I go for Figo A.T. if it has T.C. transmission?

[MrBeast]

Originally Posted by Rebelogue

Hello All,
When was the Figo A.T. upgraded from DCT to TC in India?
There is one Ford dealer who is trying to sell Figo A.T. manufactured in 2018 to me.
They say, it has T.C. but I couldnt find any such news or article stating the change in Automatic transmission in Figo.
Should I go for Figo A.T. if it has T.C. transmission?

The New Figo comes with a torque converter whereas the older one came with a DCT. Since it is MY 2018, I think it must be a DCT.

[Rebelogue]

Thank you all for your response on query for 2018 Ford Figo AT. I have scrapped the plan for buying the 2018 model, or even 2019 for that matter. Ford dealers dont seem to be particularly interested in selling the Figo AT. For 2019 Figo AT, they bluntly said that they can take booking but cannot confirm that the delivery will be made in next 3 months!!