Ford Motor told to pay Thai customers for transmission woes
A Thai court has ordered a local sales affiliate of Ford Motor Co to pay 291 customers a total of about $720,000 in compensation for selling cars equipped with faulty transmissions.
The Bangkok South Civil Court’s decision was welcomed Friday as a victory in a country where consumers rarely win redress.
Most of the plaintiffs in the class action suit will get payments of $800 to $8,000 each depending on the number of times and length of time their cars took to be repaired, the court said Friday. But 12 plaintiffs were denied compensation because their cars were modified before they were repaired.
The court ruled that there was no safety issue, although none of those taking part in the joint lawsuit had reported any injuries.
Ford said in a statement, that it respected the court’s verdict.
“We apologize for the inconvenience caused by the Powershift transmission problems and we reiterate that we will work earnestly to take responsibility for fixing them according to our customer service procedures,” the company said in statement issued in Thai.
It’s another development in a long string of problems with the Ford transmissions, which have resulted in a lawsuit settlement in the US and a fine in Australia. Last year, Dearborn, Michiganbased Ford settled a class-action lawsuit and agreed to pay owners of 2012 to 2016 Focus and 2011 to 2016 Fiesta cars up to $2,325. (AP)