Ford fined for misleading consumers

Confusion over exactly what features customers did – and did not – receive lands the blue oval in hot water with consumer watchdog.

The Ford Mustang Mach 1 is named after a 1970s classic.

Misleading brochures for a rare performance car have landed Ford in trouble with the consumer regulator.

The ACCC says Ford misled consumers with a series of brochures for the limited-edition Mustang Mach 1 that confused potential customers.

The Mach 1 builds on the performance of Ford’s Mustang coupe.

The Mach 1 is a more expensive version of the Mustang, with more power, improved cooling, revised suspension and other changes.

Marketing material for the car counted adaptive cruise control, a special limited-slip differential, rear parking sensors and LED fog lamps as standard features for the model.

But those features were missing from Australian examples of the car when it arrived in Australia.

The Australian Mustang Mach 1 is missing a special differential offered in US models.

Ford updated its brochures to reflect the car’s correct specifications, and offered customers compensation for their trouble.

The ACCC intervened to make sure folks who weren’t happy with the omissions were offered a full refund of their purchase price – a figure that starts at $83,365 plus on-road costs for a manual model with no optional extras.

Ford also offered customers $5,400 in compensation as well as three years of free servicing and a Supercars track day experience including a ride in a Ford Mustang race car.

The Mach 1 is pitched as a track-ready Mustang.

Which might be the better deal, as the Mustang Mach 1 sold out quickly, and owners of lightly used examples are asking for about $115,000 in online classifieds.

ACCC chair Rod Sims said Ford made “serious mistakes” in Mach 1 brochures, resulting in “false claims being made to consumers … in breach of the Australian Consumer Law”.

“The performance characteristics of the Ford Mustang Mach 1 were an important selling point, so these claims about key features of the Mach 1 vehicle may have led some consumers to buy the car who may otherwise have opted to purchase another vehicle,” he said.

Ford paid four fines totalling $53,280 to address the issue.

Originally published as Ford fined for misleading consumers