Mustang Mach 1 missing features costs Ford over $50,000 in penalties

Ford's Australian division has paid up after being served four infringement notices from Australia's consumer watchdog relating to its Mustang Mach 1.

Physical and online brochures for the pony car were found to falsely represent equipment fitted to the Mach 1 including; rear parking sensors, LED fog lamps, Mustang Mach 1 floor mats, ambient lighting in door pockets and a Torsen limited-slip differential – none of which were available on Australian-delivered Mach 1s.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) handed Ford Australia four infringement notices relating to the missing equipment, with the total penalty of $53,280 paid by the Blue Oval in addition to direct compensation for its customers.

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ACCC Chair Rod Sims said some of the missing features such as the Torsen LSD were major selling points of the Mach 1, with customer complaints and the ACCC's involvement leading to improved compensation offers from Ford.

“We allege Ford made serious mistakes in its brochures outlining the features of the more expensive Mustang Mach 1, resulting in false claims being made to consumers in breach of the Australian Consumer Law,” said Sims.

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

“We began investigating this issue after a number of consumers complained to us about the Mustang Mach 1 brochures and, as a result of ACCC intervention, Ford improved its compensation offer to hundreds of affected consumers."

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Ford has offered compensation to all Mach 1 buyers who purchased their cars before August 17, 2021, providing them with the opportunity to either receive a full refund of the car's purchase price – in excess of $84,000 – or take $5400 plus three years free scheduled servicing, as well as a "track day experience at a Supercars event featuring, among others, admission to the event and a ride in one of Ford's race cars".

A spokesperson for Ford Australia told MOTOR the manufacturer was disappointed to let its customers down.

"There are always small specification differences between left-hand-drive and right-hand-drive Mustangs," said the spokesperson.

"Not recognising a few of these differences specific to the Mach 1 – features that were never available to us – was an oversight by us as the local team. We didn’t catch these differences before the first rounds of brochures and the website were published, and for this, we are really sorry.

"We are especially disappointed that our loyal and engaged Ford customers and Mach 1 owners feel let down.

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"We have undertaken a review of how the errors came to be made and implemented preventative measures to seek to ensure that the process causes leading to the errors are not repeated in future."

Those who purchased a Mustang Mach 1 after August 16, 2021 have been given the latter option, but cannot return their vehicle to Ford under the compensation offer.

While Mach 1 buyers missed out on the Torsen LSD offered in left-hand-drive markets, all Australian Mach 1s are fitted with a Ford-built LSD, gaining an external differential oil cooler to increase its reliability.