AUIII XR8 Ute Clutch issue

Hi all.........I recently had my baby in for her 60,000k service at Ford. I informed them of occational problems with the shift not going all the way into 1st gear until I slowly raised the clutch pedal all the way out. Also the friction point was becoming very high. They informed me that the clutch would need to be replaced at a cost of $1900.00 with factory equipment or $1100.00 non factory. I pooed myself at the thought of having to outlay 2K$. Then I was told by a friend of a friend, that about 3 weeks ago there was an extract in the motoring section of the Courier Mail that said the AUIII clutch plates had been found to have a design fault. Did anyone else read this artical? 60K doesn't seem like a long life span to me. If there is an inherent fault in these clutch plates shouldn't this be a warranty issue (I've got one month left)? If Ford pull it out and tell me it's just from wear, I'm just going to have to trust what they tell me (like you can believe them).Expensive & Frustrating! Feedback appreciated.