Advice on Ford powershift gearbox fault on recently purchased car

Arty_Al

Hi all, ever so sorry to bother you but I'm after some advice on where I stand legally... REALLY sorry for the long thread but there's a bit to explain...

My wife and I purchased an automatic Ford B-max powershift (2013 reg) back at the end of October 2020 from a car dealership. All seemed fine, we paid a £2k deposit and the finance for the rest went through no problem. We were over the moon. On the way home we noticed a juddering motion as we went up a steep hill on the road we live on. We thought it was a little odd but it was the first time it had ever done it so we shrugged it off and waited to see if it did it again. My wife continued to use it for work with no problems.
Then in December my own car that I used for work went bang which meant I had to use the Ford. This is where things took a turn. I noticed that nasty juddering motion and noisy grinding sound after driving the car for a bit. The warmer the car, the louder and more severe it got. It only did it when the clutch was needed and once the car had been driven for a good half an hour or more. It doesnt do it when the car is cold. After a quick google search I came across page after page on something called the Ford "Judderbox". In a nutshell it is a manufacturing fault with the Ford Powershift clutch. It only rears its head up once the car has been driven for a bit and fully warmed up. My wife works just a few miles away so she never drove the car long enough to notice the problem, it was only when I started driving it to work 20 miles away that it became apparent.

There has been a lawsuit against Ford over this very issue in the USA and they were fined a few million dollars and ordered to fix them all free of charge. From what I understand, there is currently the same thing going through the motions in Australia. Sadly, nothing like this is happening over here in the UK. If you google "Ford powershift judder" you can see loads of articles and threads on this problem.

Although we contacted the dealership in December as soon as I noticed the problem again, it was just over the 30 day period where we could return the car for a refund. Sadly we just didnt drive the car enough to notice it within the first 30 days as it was just my wife traveling a few miles each day to work and back. This left the dealer with the option to fix or replace, which he chose to fix. He asked us to wait until the new year as christmas was right around the corner and the country was about to enter another lockdown to which we agreed. In jan 2021 I contacted them again asking if we could sort it out and have a courtesy car. We would need an automatic though as my wife only has an automatic licence. This is where the problems occurred. The dealer says he hasnt been able to source an automatic car for us to use due to lockdown and being closed. In the mean time, back in February he asked us to go see a gearbox specialist down near him in for diagnosis of the problem and a quote on the repair which we did. We then waited another month with no contact so we gave him a shout asking for an update and again were told that he hasnt been able to source an automatic car for us to use as he has been closed due to lockdown. We waited until April with no contact from him and sent him an email asking if we could take it to our local garage. We've used them in the past so we know they have an automatic courtesy car we can use so it would save the dealer the trouble of finding an automatic for us to use whilst the repair is done. He agreed and we took it there today. Sadly, our local garage phoned us up within a couple of hours and confirmed it is indeed the "Judderbox" problem but they dont have the tools required to do the repair. He also phoned our local Ford garage who also confirmed the fault and apparently they dont have the equipment required for the repair either.

So now Im in limbo. Im going to email the dealer and tell him what my local garage have just said and that they cant do the repair as they dont have the equipment necessary. Apparently the whole transmission needs a full stripdown and clean as there will be bits of broken clutch floating around everywhere and the faulty clutch system needs to be completely replaced with a newer model that tackles the problem. I know he's going to say that we have to wait until he has an automatic car we can use but I'm worried my wife might end up getting stranded somewhere (she works nights). I'm also worried that we are making the problem worse by driving it. We have no other car so we have no choice but to use it still.

Is there any time limit on him fixing the car?

My wife read somewhere that we can still demand a refund within the first 6 months (which is right around the corner), is that correct? If so, could he keep some of our money because we have been using it still (wear and tear or something) which would leave us with no money and no car. We put everything we had into the £2k deposit and our credit ratings have taken a battering during lockdown so I dont know if we would be able to get finance on another car.

Im ever so sorry for the essay, any advice on what to do next would be great. We just want a car that works
Alan.

tacpot12

They have to fix the car is a "reasonable" time. I would not let them have the car until they confirm the garage that does have the tools also has all the parts they need, and confirm the time the you will be without the car, which I would expect to be upto five days but no longer. I would suggest that you don't require the dealer to provide you with an automatic car, but give you £n per day towards hiring an automatic car for the four or five days you won't have it.

You can't demand a full refund after 30 days, but if they "fix" the car and the fault still remains, then you can require them to refund your money, but they are entitled to deduct a reasonable amount for the use you have had of the car. 

They are not responsible for the degradation of your credit rating over the period when the car had the fault, so if you can't get finance again to buy another gar, you might need to buy an older automatic car. Something like this: Honda Jazz Automatic | eBay

You might even use the money that that the dealer might give you to hire an automatic car, to buy an old automatic car, in case the fix takes longer than expected or it turns out that it is not fixed and your new car has to go back. You can SORN your new car if you have somewhere to keep it off road. But you need to keep it insured while it is in your care. Ideally you will return it asap to the dealer, so that you can end the insurance on it. Unfortunately, this means you will also need to temporarily fork out for insurance for a new car. This is one advantage of hiring - hire cars come with insurance for the period of their hire. 

knightstyle

Hi Opp, sorry you have this problem.  It is probably due to the gear box oil changes being skipped by the previous owner as it is an expensive procedure and needs special tools.
We have a 2013 Cmax and at 75k miles it has had three oil changes.
What mileage has it got and did the service documents that came with it show oil changes?