NHTSA Complaint #11682946 — 2017 FORD TRANSIT

The Driveshaft Flexible Coupling failed while traveling on Interstate 95 South. It is available for inspection upon request. Multiple recall notices have been issued for this (NHTSA 17V-408) problem, and we have complied with them ALL except for one that we never received, supposedly mailed November of 2019. We have two of the recalled vehicles (2) 2017 Ford Transit Vans. Our safety and the safety of others was put at risk when this Coupling failed while traveling on Interstate 95 South. The Van was being driven by one of my employees and another employee was with him when this occurred, rendering the vehicle completely inoperable. The issue has been confirmed by the dealer and has only been inspected by the service department at the dealership. There was absolutely no warning of any kind, no warning lamps, messages or other symptoms of the problem prior to the failure. Ford has refused to cover the collateral (additional) damages that occurred to the vehicle when the coupling failed. They contend this is because we never complied with recall notice 19S38, dated November 2019. We never received this notice, and Ford has been unwilling to tell us exactly when this notice was mailed. Our contention is that it was not mailed to us, because we initially had this part replaced in July 2018 (due to the first recall 17S15). In reading every notice sent to the Dealers, there is a section, "OWNER NOTIFICATION MAILING SCHEDULE", which states, "The parts to repair this condition are currently not available in sufficient quantities to service all of the affected vehicle configurations. Owners of affected vehicle configurations will be notified in phased mailings to ensure part availability." Ford will not tell us when this was mailed to us. They have continued to push the blame on to the NCDMV (their address database) however we have always received every NCDMV renewal notice for our fleet of 15 vehicles.