Vietnamese company to sue Ford over acceleration complaints

Mar 19, 2010, 11:12 GMT

Hanoi - A Vietnamese transportation company is to sue the national branch of US carmaker Ford Motor Company over automatic acceleration in its 2007 Transit vans, the company said Friday.

Dau Xuan Ngoc, director of the Thien Truong transportation company, said he believed Ford Vietnam Ltd was legally liable for failing to inform consumers about the feature that causes the acceleration.

'We are seeking a prestigious law office to take on the case,' Ngoc said.

Thien Truong and other Vietnamese owners of 2007 Ford Transits have complained about automatic acceleration in the vans for years, although no accidents linked to the feature have been reported.

But the complaints attracted widespread attention only recently as a result of the controversy surrounding Toyota Motor Corp's recalls of some of its sedans for unintended acceleration.

In a meeting Wednesday with van owners and press in Hanoi, Ford Vietnam general director Michael Pease said the acceleration was the intentional result of the 'steady state drive' feature included in that model of the van.

'It's relatively common on commercial and heavy goods vehicles,' Pease told German Press Agency dpa Friday. 'At the time we launched the vehicle we didn't believe it was sufficiently important for us to spell out the specifics of the feature.'

Pease said the feature, which keeps the van driving at low speeds without pressing the accelerator in order to avoid stalling, was safe and had not malfunctioned. He ruled out any recall.

'There are no technical problems,' Pease said. 'It's more about the driver comfort.'

Ngoc and Vietnamese government officials say Ford's failure to include information about the feature in the van's manual makes it legally liable.

Ford said 2007 Transits with this feature were sold only in Vietnam and Turkey and that the feature was not included on subsequent models.