Recalls lead to lawsuits
Meanwhile, Ford is navigating a series of lawsuits related to quality that depresses earnings results at a time when every penny is precious as automakers fight for market share in a dynamic environment shaped by supply chain disruption and new cost pressures.
In early July, three owners of the 2021-22 Mustang Mach-E filed a federal lawsuit against Ford, claiming the Dearborn automaker knew of a design flaw in its popular electric vehicles that causes them to lose power while driving down the road.
In mid-July, a lawsuit involving three unhappy owners of 2021 Ford Expedition and 2021 Lincoln Navigator vehicles grew to 22 plaintiffs who claimed Ford failed to disclose a defect causing spontaneous under-hood fires in at least 66,000 vehicles when parked or running and that asking customers to drive defective vehicles while waiting for a fix was unreasonable.
In late July, four owners of the 2017-19 Ford Fiesta and 2017-18 Ford Focus sued Ford, alleging the vehicles have the same unfixable transmission defects as earlier models that led to hundreds of millions of dollars in class action settlement payments.
But we think we will sell lifetime subscriptions for something to people who are foolish enough to buy our junk vehicles.