Focus instrument cluster

There isn't - they're not failing within warranty.

I stand to be corrected by someone versed in consumer protection law, but AIUI under the consumer protection act the time period on the manufacturer's warranty means absolutely nothing if it can be proven that at the time of being sold the goods were not fit for purpose (one would reasonably expect the instrument cluster to last longer than three or four years) or that they suffered from an inherent design fault, which by the amount of people who had had experienced problems and according to an expert on the programme they most certainly did.

"Moreover, your shopping rights under the Sale of Goods Act entitle you to claim redress for 'inherently' defective goods for up to six years."

That just means that you've got 6 years to get your claim into the courts - not that it'll last for 6 years.

The original cost of the item can also be important, something such as a large screen TV costing over £1500 could be well worth pursuing through the courts, whilst one costing less than £200 would doubtless be a waste of time, as the argument is about what sort of use one could reasonably expect. A number of years ago when I was in the domestics electronics trade, the firm I worked for was requested to fit a CRT into a 'large screen' television (they would supply the part and we would charge them for the labour) apparently although the receiver was sold with a four year warranty on it the tube had failed shortly after it had expired. The owner argued that due to the high price he had originally paid for the television any customer would reasonably have expected it to last longer than slightly over four years, he threatened to take them to court and as a consequence they caved in and stood the full cost of the replacement. Don't most manufacturers warranty usually state that 'it doesn't affect the consumers statutory rights'?

Claiming not to (or even claiming to) affect statutory rights makes no legal difference. You cannot remove someone's statutory rights.

I noticed they talked of spraying the circuit board with WD40. I think this was intended as a generic term. I suggest to you that Servisol Contact Cleaner would be more effective.

Then let's hope that for the sake of any plastic in the immediate vicinity that it's better stuff than it was 20 or 30 years ago:0)

Ivan submitted this idea :

Watchdog tonight...

Ford have now agreed they will replace these for a flat fee of £99 with the latest improved cluster. If you have already paid out more than this for a previous failure they will refund the difference.

Sorry, I didn't catch the phone number to ring.

Well at least it's an admission of some liability on their part, however I didn't hear him specify from what year of manufacture the offer would cover, so one presumes that it could include any Ford focus manufactured within the last six years which has suffered a complete instrument panel failure? Something else that wasn't mentioned, my satnav has the ability to display my vehicle speed, probably more accurately than the cars speedometer, I wonder if it would be legal to use that in place of the original?.. if not I could still see it be useful if one suddenly found themselves without the speedo in an emergency situation, such as the guy who picked up the £60.00 fine and points on his licence.

Ivan laid this down on his screen :

They are extremely accurate, providing the road is straight and you maintain a steady speed. They become less accurate when there are bends and useless on a winding country road. They base there speed display on how far you travel in one second and alway lag behind your current speed.

Taken from

"Ford has set up a special customer hotline. The number is 0800 166 166."

Hah did the guy really try and claim it was 'all the speedos fault' ? Didn't common sense tell him to slow right down when passing a camera if he didn't know how fast he was going?

On Mon, 21 Apr 2008 21:48:29 +0100, Harry Bloomfield wrote (in article ):

No they don't. That would be far too inaccurate. Normal consumer GPS units can only measure position with an accuracy of around 10 metres at best. Errors of that amount in distance would result in velocity errors of 20 mph! GPS receivers typically calculate velocity by measuring the Doppler shift of the GPS D-band carriers received from the satellite transmitters.