Engineer testifies ‘shudders’ had no effect on drivability of Ford cars

LOS ANGELES — A Ford Motor Co. engineer testified that “shudder problems” with Focus models would not cause drivers to lose control of their vehicles, a direct contradiction to claims made by thousands of car owners suing the company claiming faulty transmissions, including a single plaintiff present in the courtroom Wednesday.

Vehicle engineer Robert Pascarella said although the two Focus models he tested last month did have minor “shuddering events,” the shudders would not have interfered with a driver’s ability to accelerate or control the car.

“There was absolutely no effect on the controllability of the vehicle,” Pascarella said.

He said the shuddering only occurred when vehicles moved at speeds between 10 and 17 mph and not at high speeds. Video of the test played for the jury appeared to show a 2012 Ford Focus traveling mostly unencumbered.

The individual suit brought by litigation member Mark Pedante accuses Ford of concealing transmission defects in certain models and unjustifiably denying his vehicle buy-back claims.

Pedante is represented by Mark C. Altman of the Altman Law Group, who on cross examination, asked Pascarella whether his opinions were solely based on Ford’s acceptability standards for vehicle performance or the thousands of drivers who reported transmission issues.

“Even if the vast majority of people who bought the dps6 [transmission] found it very annoying and distracting, your opinion is that it doesn’t matter what their opinion is, it’s still normal because Ford said so,” Altman pressed.

After multiple sustained objections from Ford’s litigation team led by Spencer P. Hugret of Gordan Rees Scully Mansukhani LLP, Pascarella admitted his opinion was based solely on the data collected during his tests of two Ford Focus vehicles and not on customer reports or testimonies.

The trial is one of four expected to be heard in the coming months brought by car owners who opted out of a class action against Ford to join a multi-district, multi-state litigation involving thousands of vehicle owners seeking damages from the company. Mark Pedante v. Ford Motor Company 17-CV06656 (C.D. Cal., filed Sept. 8, 2017).

While class and litigation members are of two distinct groups, the result of the multi-district litigation trial now before U.S. District Judge Andre Birotte Jr. will greatly influence future negotiations in the class action settlement, said class attorney, Washington D.C.-based Michael Kirkpatrick of Public Citizen.

A $35 million settlement in the class action was approved by Birotte in 2017. However, after Public Citizen challenged how much money would be awarded to consumers, arguing the vast majority of class members would have received nothing, a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal panel ruled 2-1 to reject it. In September, the panel said the district court had not thoroughly investigated the settlement terms and sent it back to the lower court.

The class and multi-district litigation members are comprised of current and former car owners who claim their Focus and Fiesta models made between 2011 and 2016 have delayed acceleration and malfunctioning transmissions that caused accidents. Ford faces a potential $4 billion liability, according to reports in the Detroit Free Press.

Last week, the Detroit Free Press reported U.S. Department of Justice criminal fraud investigators have demanded documents related to the transmissions used in about 2 million Ford Fiesta and Focus vehicles sold during the time of the alleged defects in this case.