— A Ford class action lawsuit alleges that California owners are being forced to pay for emissions-related repairs for parts purportedly covered by extended emissions warranties.
California plaintiff Victoria Berghuis owns a 2014 Ford Focus, which she drove to a Ford dealership in December 2021 when the odometer read 77,283 miles.
The plaintiff said she paid $180 for diagnostics, which revealed a defective transmission clutch.
The plaintiff was charged for the work because her Ford Focus powertrain warranty had reached 60,000 miles. The plaintiff said she “paid to have the transmission repaired or replaced.”
The Ford class action lawsuit alleges that repairs should be free under California’s emissions warranty, which extends to 15 years or 150,000 miles. The lawsuit claims the transmission clutch is a warranty part and should have been compensated.
The class action lawsuit claims that the transmission clutch is a warranted part based on the following points:
The transmission clutch slips beyond expected limits, resulting in increased regulated emissions.
A supposedly defective transmission clutch should cause the “check engine light” to come on.
An allegedly defective transmission clutch will cause the vehicle to fail a smog inspection.
The Ford class action lawsuit also claims that Ford illegally failed to list the transmission clutch as a covered part under the California emissions warranty when applying for certification with the California Air Resources Board (CARB).
According to the class action lawsuit, all California partial zero-emission vehicles (PZEVs) that Ford has received CARB zero-emissions credits should receive an extended emissions warranty.
Ford class action lawsuit dismissed
Judge James E. Simmons Jr. noted that the plaintiff argued that the transmission clutch is a covered part under the California emissions warranty and that the clutch should be included in Ford’s warranty parts list for her Ford Focus Free repairs.
Ford argued that the plaintiff did not reasonably allege that her Ford Focus repairs involved the necessary “materials and workmanship” defects to require warranty coverage, and she also did not allege that the transmission clutch qualified for extended warranty coverage.
Judge Simmons currently does not accept the plaintiffs’ “broad interpretation of the warranty portion” under the California emissions warranty, in part because she failed to attach a CARB statement to the second amended class action lawsuit.
However, “even if plaintiff provided a statement and the judge accepted her “broad interpretation,” she did not sufficiently state the facts to sustain defendant’s motion to dismiss. “
The judge said the plaintiff did not allege that the Ford Focus warning light came on when she sought service, nor did the plaintiff allege that her auto repair work order indicated that the warning light came on. Furthermore, the plaintiff did not allege that her Ford Focus failed a smog check.
Plaintiff does not allege that the OBD II system malfunctioned or malfunctioned. Instead, the judge said, the plaintiffs claimed that the warning light “should have been illuminated, that such illumination would have caused the car to fail a smog check, and that the lack of illumination meant that the OBD II system in the car was noncompliant.”
In addition to not alleging that the warning light came on, the judge also found that the plaintiffs did not allege that the transmission clutch was on CARB’s emissions-related parts list.
The judge said he must accept all factual allegations in the Ford class action lawsuit as true, but ruled they were “speculative and amounted to conclusions of law. The court found that plaintiffs did not assert a reasonable claim for relief in their lawsuit.” Face. “
The Ford class action lawsuit has been filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California: Victoria Berghuis v. Ford Motor Company etc..
The plaintiffs are represented by the Law Offices of Robert L. Starr, Pomerantz LLP and Frontier Law Center.
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