Saw this in this mornings paper here in Dallas... Any idea if this includes us? Don't really have a towing package, per say, but it sounds suspicious.

Texas court certifies class action lawsuit against Ford
04/15/2002

By ED GARSTEN / The Associated Press

DETROIT — A Texas judge has granted nationwide class action status to a lawsuit filed against Ford Motor Co. on behalf of 450,000 F-150 pickup truck owners.

The lawsuit alleges Ford charged the 450,000 owners of 2000-2001 F-150 pickup trucks for heavy duty radiators they did not receive as part of special towing or heavy duty electrical and cooling packages.

The lawsuit had been given statewide class action certification in December.

"Nearly half a million consumers ... paid for equipment on their Ford F-150 trucks that they did not receive, and with this nationwide class certification, they now have a real chance of being compensated fairly for their loss," plaintiff's attorney William Edwards III, of Corpus Christi, Texas, said in a statement Monday.

The plaintiffs want to recover the costs of replacing owners' existing radiators with the upgraded heavy-duty radiators, damages for the loss of their vehicles during the time it takes to replace the radiators, and additional damages under consumer protection law.

Ford called the litigation "unnecessary" and "without merit."

The automaker said there was a mistake in the ordering guide used by dealers that specified the heavy duty radiators.

Standard radiators have been upgraded to accommodate increased towing loads, but the ordering guide "didn't catch up" to the change, Ford spokeswoman Kathleen Vokes said Monday.

"The standard radiator is more than sufficient," she said.

Ford has given F-150 owners affected the choice of $100 cash, a new radiator or a $500 certificate good toward the purchase or lease of a new Ford vehicle.

Most of those responding have chosen the cash, Vokes said.

 

no not us, we have the right radiators

 

It is a well known issue. The radiators in questionare like 1 inch thick when the right ( high cap ) radiators are like twice as thick...
As Don said - Lightnings are not affected as far as I know
Doug

 

I got a letter from Ford in December about this. It was on my 2001 f150 Supercrew 4x4. They offered me $500.00 towards a new ford...I took it and ran

 

yhea, i got the letter for my 2000 F-150. I have yet to get the new radiator put in though.... I better get that done.

 

and got my new rad about 3 months ago. I think this was a regular F150 recall. I'm sure SVT put the right rads in.

Bob

 

i remeber this being posted awile ago and there were some L's with the wrong rad's,someone even posted the correct measurements so everyone could check,i never checked mine because i dont tow and never over heat.But i think i will have it checked next time its in for service.

 

Ford's already offered to make it good with all the owners. What are these idiots trying to achieve? I guess all the pain and suffering should be worth another $.25. Money grubbing a$$holes.

 

I agree......I just can't stand people like them. Ford has offered to correct the situation and I can't believe that a judge would even allow them to continue with the suit. This is a lawyers game.............scumbags!

 

Any class action lawsuit really only benefits one group of people, and that would be the lawyer. It's not going to make anything better for us, that's for sure. FYI, if you ever take your fan shroud off, you'll know instantly if you have the right radiator or not, the correct one's THICK, like 2", or maybe 2.5". I was using it for a tool tray when I was installing the fan kit.

Fan shroud's easy to pull, too, only like 4-6 of those little plug thingies and it comes up. (Take your jack handle off first.) If you're really concerned, it'll only take you like 5 mins to verify.

 

What a bunch of polesmokers.

I had a 2000 F150 4*4 5.4 extended cab truck that was affected by this. I got the letter from Ford a month after I traded that truck in on a Super Duty. (DOH!)

I will say this however: I towed my race car, trailer and a bed full of racing stuff (tools, spare parts, etc.) almost 30,000 miles in two years with that truck and *never once* had a cooling problem. Summer heat, mountains, Florida 109* weather, whatever, AC blasting, and no complaints from that pickup.

I think those letters from Ford were an effort to head this whole lawsuit off at the pass, and the radiator upgrade is in my opinion, completely unnecessary. Take the $100, or the $500 trade on a new Lightning

I subsequently traded the '02 250 for an '02 Lightning when I quit racing (ouch). Sometimes I think I should have just kept that 2000 F150.

The best thing that could ever happen would be for someone to breed a strain of Ebola that only affects class action lawyers.

Steve

 

Blood from every orifice is too easy on them.