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Ford to repair problematic PowerShift transmissions for free

U.S. dealers are to repair the transmissions free of charge if problems are reported

Ford has instructed its U.S. dealers to repair troublesome Fiesta and Focus PowerShift dual-clutch transmissions for free, if any owners notify them of problems. The news was reported today by Automotive News, and it comes after The Detroit Free Press published a story about how Ford was reportedly aware of the transmission problems even at the vehicles’ original launch. On July 17, Ford publicly challenged the conclusions made in the Freep article.

Owners have told of PowerShift transmissions “shuddering, slipping, jerking or hesitating” when changing gear, with premature wear or sudden or delayed acceleration as a result. Ford says sudden acceleration is not among the issues related to the DPS6 transmission in question, and that the shudder has to do with the original intent of targeting better fuel economy. Ford also acknowledged the Getrag-built transmissions have been prone to slipping into neutral, but says it is a separate issue related to a faulty control module and that the issues have only appeared after years of real-world use and were not present at original component testing and launch.

Automotive News cites a memo from July 12, which is said to instruct dealers to “arrange to diagnose the vehicle and repair as necessary.” The repairs will be performed on vehicles dating from 2011 to 2017, and some of them will be out of factory warranty by now.

A PowerShift-related class-action lawsuit was launched in 2017, covering the cars of 1.9 million owners, and Ford settled the matter for $35 million. Now, a California court is re-evaluating the settlement on the grounds that it would not compensate enough owners.

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