Ford PowerShift Transmission Lawsuit: The Focus and Fiesta Settlement

The Defect

Ford’s DPS6 “PowerShift” transmission, used in the 2011–2016 Fiesta and 2012–2016 Focus, was an unusual dual-clutch automatic that used dry clutches instead of a conventional torque converter. Owners complained that it shuddered and vibrated when accelerating from a stop, slipped, jerked, hesitated and sometimes felt like it was losing power in traffic — and that repeated dealer repairs, including clutch and transmission replacements, often did not fix it for long. For a car people relied on daily, the unpredictable behavior was both frustrating and, at times, a safety worry.

Internal records that surfaced in reporting suggested Ford knew of the problems, which became central to the litigation.

The Settlement

A class-action settlement covering the affected Focus and Fiesta models received final approval in 2017. It offered tiered benefits depending on the owner’s experience: cash payments tied to the number of qualifying transmission repairs, reimbursement for repair costs, and a structured arbitration process through which owners of the worst cars could seek a repurchase or replacement of the vehicle or additional compensation for a warranty breach. Separately, later lawsuits targeted 2017–2019 Fiesta and 2017–2018 Focus models alleged to have the same defect.

The arbitration path mattered most for owners whose cars were never truly fixed, since it could return a chunk of the purchase price.

What Owners Should Know

If you owned one of these cars, the value of any claim depended heavily on documentation — keep every repair order showing transmission work, since the settlement tiers and arbitration turned on the repair history. The broader lesson for any car buyer is to research known transmission or engine defects for a model before buying, and to keep thorough service records in case a class action or lemon-law claim arises.