Articles Posted in Ford Motor Company

If you’ve bought or leased a Ford F-150 or Bronco in the last few years and you’re already back at the dealership for the second or third time, you’re not alone. Ford builds some of the most popular vehicles in Texas, which also means our office fields a steady stream of calls from F-150 and Bronco owners asking the same question: is this a lemon?

First, what “lemon law” really covers

Most people picture the strict state statute when they hear “lemon law.” But your rights actually come from two overlapping sources: the Texas Lemon Law itself, and warranty law — the federal Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act and the Texas Uniform Commercial Code — which protects you any time a manufacturer sells a defective vehicle and can’t repair it under warranty. That second category is broader and helps far more people. As a general rule, if you have a vehicle up to five years old with three or more warranty repairs and/or more than 30 days out of service for warranty repairs, you may have a claim worth pursuing. Defective vehicle owners frequently resolve claims in three different ways: repurchase, replacement or more often cash-keep settlement, meaning you keep your truck and recover cash compensation — even if your situation doesn’t fit the narrow state lemon law thresholds. 

Last Wednesday, Ford announced that it is recalling its 2004-2006 F-150 trucks due to potential defective airbags (recall campaign number 11V107000). Ford did the recall voluntarily under mounting pressure from the National Highway Travel Safety Administration. This airbag issue is consistent with my lemon law offices’ awareness of increased calls from clients who reported similar airbag issues regarding their Ford F-150 trucks.

According to records, the airbags may randomly deploy, even without any major collision impacts. Although Ford contends that this airbag defect represents only a “minor safety risk” to consumers, a quick search on NHTSA’s website shows that there has been reports of vehicle owners “being knocked unconscious” by the faulty air bag. Other owners reported a broken tooth, along with abrasions, contusions and cuts throughout the entire upper body.

This recall is not the only lemon issue that Ford is facing in regards to the same 2005-2006 F-150 trucks. It appears that the same trucks are subject to another recall for defective brakes. As of now, according to the Office of Defects Investigations, there has been “4,465 subject vehicles” that have reported warranty claims relating to this defect. The number of vehicles affects by this faulty brake system is more likely higher.

I was researching on Ford‘s Lemon Law statistics yesterday and stumbled upon an interesting article relating to Ford’s Lemon Law buyback and repurchase policies on vehicles. The attached Ford response occurred toward the end of 1995 and was sparked by a petition filed against Ford by consumer groups via the Federal Trade Commission.

In this article, Ford answers some questions regarding its buyback policies and compliance with various state lemon law requirements. The article reveals that in 1994, Ford pays its dealers (including Lincoln-Mercury) approximately $400 to $700 per vehicle repurchase or buyback. Of course, this figure may have increased now since it is currently well over a decade from 1994.

The article further states Ford’s denial against claims that it participates in lemon laundering. In the article, Ford admits that approximately 95% of its lemon law buyback or replacement vehicles ends up in auction, whereby it will later be re-introduced back to the stream of commerce and in the hands of consumers in the pre-owned or used car markets.

Even though President Obama enthusiastically praised the “Cash for Clunkers” program as being a major success; lemon-wise, it looks like many new vehicle dealers such as those who sell Ford cars are getting a taste of their own medicine. Instead of lemon cars, Ford car dealers find themselves dealing with a lemon clunker problem.

Due to shortages in personnel in the “Clunker” program, many Ford dealers have yet to be paid back by the government in the form of rebates. Many Ford dealers, along with other dealers of car manufacturers such as Chrysler and Mazda, have decided that they will not honor the program anymore.

The Clunker program ended tonight,…but who knows when Ford dealers will be paid. In the eyes of car dealers, so far, the program appears to be a lemon dud.

As a lemon law attorney who personally screens my own potential client inquiries, I get calls from folks who wait until it is too late to file a Texas Lemon Law claim because they wanted to give the dealership or car manufacturer (such as Ford or Chrysler) another chance to repair the truck or SUV.

I hear this line all the time and really think it should be written into a play or movie. It goes like this: “the dealership has been very professional and cooperative, but for some reason, the problem still exists.”

Call me pessimistic, but my suspicion is that the dealership representatives and service managers are trained to be polite to the consumer to buy time and stall. The rationale is that you would not open a lemon law claim against an entity that you have good feelings about; or perhaps that when you do decide to open a lemon law claim, that it would be too late to do so, because you’ve spent a good chunk of time within the deadline period being treated kindly and smothered by the dealership.