November 12, 2019—The U.S. Department of Justice criminal fraud investigators have demanded documents concerning the transmission in about 2 million Ford Focus and Ford Fiesta vehicles since 2010, reports the Detroit Free Press.
The subpoena states "all documents, communications and electronically stored information" need to be obtained relating to Ford's DPS6 PowerShift transmission.
Back in July 2019, the Free Press found, through company documents and insider interviews, that Ford knew the transmissions in the Focus and Fiesta were defective before putting them on the market and continued using them for years despite thousands of consumer complaints. And in 2011, the investigation also found that Ford tentatively decided to abandon the transmission but opted against that expensive change, according to the report.
"Ford routinely cooperates with all federal, state and local regulatory and other authorities and, as has long been a matter of public record, has in particular cooperated with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) as to DPS6-related issues beginning in 2014," Ford spokesman Said Deep announced in a prepared statement. "Ford has taken a number of actions to enhance transmission performance and the experience of our customers including extending warranties for customers from five years/60,000 miles to seven years/100,000."
The case currently has 10,500 customer complaints over Focus, Fiesta, and some EcoSport Ford models.
