Ford Transit: operator to start legal action

BusyBus owner Peter Rosenfeld has initiated a ‘class action’ against Ford, alleging his Transit minibuses were unfit for sale, and is urging other operators to join the legal challenge.

The Cheshire minibus specialist whose woes prompted our feature in issue 1563 is working with transport law firm Fieldfisher LLP to launch a Group Litigation, which will allow any disgruntled Transit owner with vehicles bought between 2016 and 2019 to detail their problems, with the objective of recovering costs of breakdowns and/or a refund of the purchase price.

Peter’s problems began when he bought two 2016 Transit Trends from David Fishwicks for his award-winning day trip programme. He says that the vehicles had problems with their DPF exhaust catalysts almost simultaneously at 60,000 miles, the filters clogging and disabling them, requiring additional vehicles to be used.

He alleges that one of the vehicles had a roof rattle, eventually tracked down to a failed weld. He says the electrical side step with failsafe latching repeatedly failed to ‘dock’ also disabling the vehicle, and that the AdBlue system has also been problematic.

Now, the operator who claims the problems have cost him at least £50,000 is asking other operators – both of minibuses and vans – to contact him so that his legal team at Fieldfisher can assemble a case against Ford, alleging that the vehicles were not fit for sale. He emphasises that David Fishwicks’ service has been exemplary throughout.

Fieldfisher is backing the case, and is currently exploring a number of funding options which will reduce the brunt of legal fees for the Claimants.