Ford Sued Over Unintended Acceleration Vulnerability – Sound Familiar Toyota?
Tim Esterdahl | Mar 29, 2013 | Comments 11
Ford was sued on Thursday, March 28, 2013 by 20 consumers looking to get compensated by Ford for cars and trucks they say were “vulnerable to unintended acceleration“. Wait, isn’t that just a Toyota problem. Apparently not!
Ford has been sued over cars and trucks that are “vulnerable to unintended acceleration.” Not just a Toyota issue it seems.
According to a Reuters news report the lawsuit was filed in West Virginia federal court and alleges more than 30 Ford vehicles that were “equipped with electronic throttle control system did not have in place reliable safety systems, such as a brake override system.”
The lawsuit claims models built between 2002-2010 are susceptible including 2004-10 Ford F-Series pickup-up trucks, 2005-09 Lincoln Town Car and 2002-2005 Mercury Cougar. The plaintiffs come from 14 U.S. states.
A lawyer working on the plaintiffs case said:
“They’re trying to be compensated for their economic losses by having overpaid for cars that contained defects,” Adam Levitt, a partner at Grant & Eisenhofer and head of the law firm’s consumer practice group, said in a phone interview.
“Had they and the other class members been aware of these defects, they either wouldn’t have bought the cars or would have paid a lot less for them,” he added.
As most of our readers know Toyota was saddled with this accusation and recently settled a $1.1 billion lawsuit. While Toyota, NASA and NHTSA tests have long claimed that the issue is really driver error, the accusation cast a dark shadow over the company.
Now, Ford is touting those same NHTSA tests in its defense.
“NHTSA’s work is far more scientific and trustworthy than work done by personal injury lawyers and their paid experts,” Ford said in a statement in response to the complaint.
“In rare situations, vehicle factors, such as floor mats or broken mechanical components, can interfere with proper throttle operation, and manufacturers have addressed these rare events in field service actions,” Ford added.
Ford has since 2010 installed a brake override system in its vehicles, the same system Toyota pioneered to address the supposed issue.
With most experts and the NHTSA concluding that the driver error is the “predominate” cause of unintended acceleration, this lawsuit probably doesn’t have the much merit. However, many people thought that about the class action suit that Toyota settled.
What do you think? Are you intrigued to see this issue spread to other makers? Or are you fed up with class action suits that seemingly are clogging the legal system without any real aim except to make money?
Related Posts:
Filed Under: Auto News
[…] an interesting addition to the story. Ford Sued Over Unintended Acceleration Issues – Sound Familiar Toyota | Tundra Headquarters Blog __________________ 07' SR5 DC, 5.7, TRD Toyota SS steps ARE MX cap AMP bed step DIY underseat […]
Yep!!
I posted a link to this story on TT as soon as Tim put it up!!
Thanks!
Tim
Man just like cancer. It spreads with no mercy to anyone or here any manufacturer. Your turn Ford.
Also Ford you can’t blame Firestone on this issue.
First fly by wire, now car by wire.
Why would we replace a throttle cable? One and only one reason, cost of production. It’s a lot less expensive to add another wire to a bundle then have people hooking up a cable. Hook up cable, add one worker to do it 1 million times, pay the person, salary/medical/dental/vacation/holidays/401K match/pension/and…. who know what else. We are going to get rid of those UAW labors costs one way or the other. How long before we have a copper ethernet or fiber optic bus to replace 200 wires?
I was a network software/electrical engineer for 25 years. Can software go whacko and tell the throttle actuator to open. Sure, is it likely? The chances of this are about zero. Soon the cars are going to have the magical black box recorder which records everything. When? When it’s less expensive the the law suites. A manual cable can get stuck and so can a computer controlled actuator.
This is the same deal as what Toyota went through. People probably got distracted by the cell phone and stepped on the gas.
It might effect my buying decisions. I might weight until the truck I want is in this situation and buy on the dip.
As much as I dislike big corporation mentality and I had to deal with it for a long time they should be able to sue also. The should be able to sue any state who issues a drivers license to fool.
On a very sad note about 10 years ago while visiting relatives, a person accidentally hit the gas in a parking lot at a restaurant. Several people were badly injured. It was just an accident, things happen. Today it’s automatically the fault of GM/Ford/Toyota/Chrysler/Nissan/VW/etc and we all get to pay on our next purchase.
Black boxes? We don’t need no stinking black boxes. But, Toyota already have them in place. So that’s how they know what the driver did. Imagine that!
Black Boxes are installed on, and have been for some time, GMs/Fords/Chryslers/Mercedes/Nissan the list goes on and on. Don’t just point the finger at Toyota. Sorry to say but the Black Box is here to stay. Next, Drive by wire.
Some things still need simplification. All this high tech and we still can’t get to the motor.
Example case.
You have a Ford F250 with the monster 8.0L Power stroke motor which is as big as many small cars. You love it. It can put 10 space shuttles not one like a little Tundra truck. You blow out the turbo, brake a rod etc, any one of many kinds of failures while pulling the 10 space shuttles.
F250 gets towed back to Ford. You find out that to get the motor out,,,,,,, the entire cab must be removed. Hours of work just to get to the motor. This is total BS.
This is 2013, man was on the moon over 40 years ago. The capsule was connected to ground computers by radio wave. Indy cars now do the same. The engineers in the pits know what is happening with every thing in the car while drinking cold beer. What should the bozos at Ford do? Make everything drive by wire. Un plug the harness from the cab. Remove 4, 6, or 8 large nuts and lift the cab off. It shouldn’t take more then 10 minutes.
I am not joking here. Just google around, the cab of the F250 must come off and it doesn’t take 10 minutes, we are talking about hours of labor. How stupid can Ford be? Drive by wire in some cases makes a lot of sense.
@ Larry,
that what my 4.7 tow twice. once to his house then to another town.
[…] it isn't so: Ford Sued Over Unintended Acceleration Issues – Sound Familiar Toyota | Tundra Headquarters Blog __________________ MIDNIGHT RIDER THIS TRUCK CAN TAKE A HIT AND KEEP ON […]