I have lots of friends who know about the FiST/FoST but wind up buying a Speed3 or Civic Sport instead (simply because of Fords relatively lower reputation with cars and/or looks). They heard about the transmission issues too and don't want to deal/risk it.
I don't think it's because of car sells dropping but because FORD's car sales are low and they want to put their resources where they would be more profitable for them. After all the big Japan 3 (Honda, Nissan, Toyota) are doing just fine selling cars...but I can't blame Ford for this as it makes perfect business sense. It's just a shame that they didn't put more into the quality control of these cars this last decade or maybe they might have made a comeback.
Then again it can be pretty difficult to raise a reputation and to be honest I've also been considering adding a small to midsize truck or crossover SUV (albeit used) to my stable...
Sent from my LG-H918 using Tapatalk
Actually truth be told and this is a fact small car and sedan sales in the U.S. Have tanked in the last couple of years. Fact is Toyota and Honda and Nissan can sell small cars and some sedans only because all of the sell a boatload of SUV's CUV's and Hybrids or Electrics . As well as trucks for Nissan and Toyota. They are willing to still sell some small FWD cars Sedans because of this. Believe me Toyota is not doing that great with the GT86( FRS/BRZ) nor is Suburu selling great numbers of that car. They just want to leave it out there for Heritage sake. Nissan could have killed it for a couple of years with the IDX but dropped the ball for e very reason Ford is. They were afraid to commit to segment they no longer saw as large or profitable.
Let's not forgot like Nissan, Ford has done almost Zero advertising for the Fiesta ever! You used to see Focus commercials constantly and because of that the Focus actually sells. Even though it's numbers are done as well.
Though lets get to the Elephant in the room here. What is causing the most disruption is current society's gulliableness for thinking Hybrids and Electrics are going to save the environment and are therefor the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Even though li ion batteries are non biodegradable non recyclable hazardous waste dump material. At the rate they are making them and pushing them we are going to have a problem in 15-20 years. Oh but at least are might be a tad cleaner.
I digress here though and this is a whole other subject.