Ford Getting a Kick in the Nutz

[TomCat]

Hoo Boy, no way to weasel out of this one:
https://www.freep.com/in-depth/mone...-focus-fiesta-transmission-defect/1671198001/

 

[Business6]

I hope they get screwed hard by the litigation. I heard about those transmission issues back in 2013 when I had a coworker who had a fiesta hatch. She hated the thing within a few months and even had me look at it because the dealer was giving her the run around. It was a nice gesture that she trusted my opinion but I didn't know what to look for with an auto transmission that had dangerous as hell acceleration inconsistency.

When we searched the internet for people having issues with the automatic fiestas we definitely got the impression that it was a bigger problem. So many people describing the same problem and the dealers/Ford shitting on them and this is only a year or so after it was out.

I forget if she dealt with it for much longer but I know she and her husband said screw it and they got a Veloster after that. We run into each other frequently (small lake city) and she almost screamed when she saw I had the FiST "didn't you learn from me??"

Ford deserves much worse for this debacle.

 

[Capri to ST]

This makes me glad to have a manual transmission. As Business6 said above, this issue didn't help the image of the whole Fiesta line.
I'm a lawyer, and this is the kind of case lawyers like to have. There does appear to be a strong case of corporate misconduct here, and of ignoring possible dangers.

 

[Ford ST]

Yep not to mention their other screw-ups like spark plugs that shoot out of the engine, or diesel engines that self destruct.

Sent from my LG-LS997 using Tapatalk

 

[Ford ST]

What amazes me is people will defend them. You have some serious low standards for yourself if you think this is acceptable because it's not. As a manufacturer you have one job to design a product that works.

Sent from my LG-LS997 using Tapatalk

 

[Zormecteon]

The value of ALL Fiestas just took a huge hit, ours included. For those of us for whom the FiST is just the flavor of the day and will be trading it in as soon as they tire of it, that's a big deal. For those of us who bought the cars for the loooong haul, .. In another 20 years they MAY look like a good investment.

 

[D1JL]

I am not trying to defend Ford in any way.
But I had one of those automatics in my 2011 Fiesta SES.
Personally I never had any problems with it.

 

[Ford ST]

I had this conversation with my Wife as car enthusiast we are better equipped to deal with a dry dual-clutch transmission we could change our driving habits to adapt to it. For the average consumer soccer mom who knows nothing other than gas pedal and brake a transmission that doesn't function properly is a big deal, and there driving habits just tear up the clutch packs even more.

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[Dpro]

I am not defending Ford here either. I owned a 2012 focus with that trans and mine worked fairly well. Of course I knew all about it and dealt with the quirks. Ford put at extended drivetrain warranty on those cars which included, replacing clutches and TCM’s and even whole trans if need be. It’s funny that Detroit Free Press article is coming out now though. It was already a well known legal matter and their were several class action lawsuits and consumer reports dinged the hell out of them for it along with the first reiteration of my Ford sync.
Ford’s biggest issue is people like Hackett. Rather than following Mullally”s lead they decide to cut corners and rush stuff to market. You could almost say this is the precedent that lead to axing the cars in favor of trucks to shore up the losses in legal expenses and warranty work. They were like I know lets focus on the big time money markers cut the car lines we have already dirtied the reputation of and move on to EV as well.
All in all Ford NA disappoints me, I used to think they were the American car company that finally had got it right. They were actually resting on some of the laurels of Ford Europe and bastardizing those accolades in the process . Its rather saddening.

 

[MRX330]

Mommy we’re late for soccer practice Kaboom!

 

[XR650R]

The value of ALL Fiestas just took a huge hit, ours included. For those of us for whom the FiST is just the flavor of the day and will be trading it in as soon as they tire of it, that's a big deal. For those of us who bought the cars for the loooong haul, .. In another 20 years they MAY look like a good investment.

It doesn't help that some of the early FiSTs had some bad 6-speeds that had to be replaced and those warp-y heads that were recalled, but the "fix" isn't really a fix.

If I was looking for a used one, I'd stick to '16 or later. For a regular Fiesta, I'd only look at manuals.

 

[Dpro]

The value of ALL Fiestas just took a huge hit, ours included. For those of us for whom the FiST is just the flavor of the day and will be trading it in as soon as they tire of it, that's a big deal. For those of us who bought the cars for the loooong haul, .. In another 20 years they MAY look like a good investment.

I don’t think ours did as much as enthusiasts tend to know about this kind of stuff. Sure the blue book might suffer but no one in the enthusiasts world gives two ;;;;; about blue book as its never accurate to ACV.
It actually helps in a way because it makes the cars a cheap acquisition used from a dealer or lot.
Of course if we bought our cars new value gets tanked but I am not looking at my car that way. I did not buy it to sell it in two years as the flavor of the month or year like some these days,
I bought mine to hold onto and drive for 6-7 years at least. By that time the whole blah blah over the DCT”s will be in peoples rear view mirrors so to speak. People in this country have short memories lol. Its not like Ford has not been down this road before lol. Can we say exploding Pintos because fuel tank right in the rear directly in front of back bumper? Lol

 

[Scotman2]

The value of ALL Fiestas just took a huge hit, ours included. For those of us for whom the FiST is just the flavor of the day and will be trading it in as soon as they tire of it, that's a big deal. For those of us who bought the cars for the loooong haul, .. In another 20 years they MAY look like a good investment.

Our cars, or pretty much any mass production small car with a manual transmission, will have a very small appeal to the average person looking for a used car. That's part of the price for owning a niche market car.

 

[MRX330]

“The Fiesta ST has no value except what one puts into it.” Random car mod guy

 

[M-Sport fan]

I most certainly DID NOT purchase this car for any 'resale value'!!

 

[Grahamf]

I'm not going to sell my FiST if I can help it for a long time.

Otherwise, I'm really disappointed that Ford did this. I'm pretty sure that the transmission is the very reason why Ford was forced to discontinue their cars in North America. People who made the mistake of buying a Fiesta or a Focus (including my sister) quickly learned that it was a lemon and told everyone to avoid Ford cars, and even the Taurus (or whatever it's called now) gets a hit in popularity because most people don't make the distinction enough to realize they are fine.

I sincerely believe that if Ford had owned up to their shit transmissions and fixed them long ago or avoided them entirely they would still be selling cars here. And the thing is, the Fiesta is a good car. I'll be happy running this thing into the ground.

 

[Dpro]

I'm not going to sell my FiST if I can help it for a long time.

Otherwise, I'm really disappointed that Ford did this. I'm pretty sure that the transmission is the very reason why Ford was forced to discontinue their cars in North America. People who made the mistake of buying a Fiesta or a Focus (including my sister) quickly learned that it was a lemon and told everyone to avoid Ford cars, and even the Taurus (or whatever it's called now) gets a hit in popularity because most people don't make the distinction enough to realize they are fine.

I sincerely believe that if Ford had owned up to their shit transmissions and fixed them long ago or avoided them entirely they would still be selling cars here. And the thing is, the Fiesta is a good car. I'll be happy running this thing into the ground.

Article is old news gone over many times and there were lawsuits none the less Ford sold a shit ton of Focuses and averaged 50k a year on Fiesta’s.
I had a 2012 Focus with that trans and knowing what it was and how to drive it was half the battle. It was Dual clutch trans mission with electronic actuators for the clutches. Most people that drove expected it to act like a torque converter trans and that was the downfall. Yes their were glitches in the software but I used one for almost two years driving Lyft and Uber and racked up 40k on the car and it drove great.
I am not trying to apologize for Ford its just for everyone that complained there were probably ten that did not complain and had no real issues that the warranty would not take care and shit because of all that crap Ford extended the drivetrain warranty to 150k lol.
Ford stopped selling cars because even though they were not losing the margins were not nearly as high as the hand over fist margins on truck and SUV’S . The shareholders wanted results Ford was already weathering the storm over the transmission.
I do not know if you were around for the exploding Pinto’s era. Yup they put gas tanks too close to the rear bumper and when the cars got rear ended they went boom..
Car companies always have shit like this happen. I did make a comment about covering the legal fees earlier but truth is they could also write those off as cost of doing business. Lol
In the end its America’s love affair with all things big when gas is cheap that made Ford decided to kill the car line.

 

[M-Sport fan]

In the end its America’s love affair with all things big when gas is cheap that made Ford decided to kill the car line.

THIS ^^^ is the 'bottom line'.

We have a road tank, and (in the case of actual trucks NOT needed/necessary for a business) testosterone driven epidemic in this land.

 

[Intuit]

.............. For those of us who bought the cars for the loooong haul, .. In another 20 years they MAY look like a good investment.

Tarnished reputation = lower value = lower sales = lower part availability = impossible to maintain. In addition to discouraging retailers like BoulderAuto from dedicating as much warehouse space to our parts, this also discourages aftermarket part manufacturers like Dordude from making the initial R&D and production investments. There are many vehicles that qualify as "here today, gone tomorrow" and lack of reasonably priced, quality, part availability often plays a role in that.

The value of ALL Fiestas just took a huge hit, ours included. For those of us for whom the FiST is just the flavor of the day and will be trading it in as soon as they tire of it, that's a big deal.