Ford Focus and Fiesta

[aja8888]

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Originally Posted by walkinwood I rented a fusion hybrid recently for 9 days and liked it. Decent acceleration, good visibility, Android auto worked flawlessly. In 2007, I had one of the early fusions for a year (company car) and loved it.

Fusion is Ford's middle market car, quite an upgrade from the compact/subcompact Fusion/Focus models. No comparison between the models. DD had a 2010 Fusion SEL for 100,000++ miles and all it required was scheduled maintenance. Although the Ford music/communication system was a joke.

Granddaughter had a 2010 Focus, bottom model, through college and outside of scheduled maintenance, both front wheel bearings died around 70K miles and the A/C condenser went south shortly after the wheel bearings. Outside of those two REPAIRS, it was a solid, inexpensive car and served her well.

[razztazz]

Good to know. Maybe I'll start a "BRAKES ACCOUNT" and fund it with I-Bonds

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Originally Posted by Andre1969 I have a few antique cars that sit around, and probably don't go more than 1,000 miles per year. However, I keep them garaged, so that might factor in. One of them, a 1979 New Yorker 5th Avenue, I bought back in 2001, with about 85,000 miles on it. Around 2002 or 2003, it did need some fairly major brake work...being close to 25 years old will do that to a car! But, I haven't had to put a thing into it, brake-wise, since then. My mechanic told me though, that while cars are better for the most part these days, one area where they actually HAVE cheapened out, is in brake components. Rotors are thinner, brake lines more prone to rusting out, calipers and such have a lot more plastic in their components, and can't take extreme heat, and so on.

[GTFan]

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Originally Posted by ripper1 Any owners of Ford Focus or Fiesta 2012-2016 out there? Any horror stories you might want to share?

Go for the 2015-16 Focus, lots of trans issues on earlier years. Ford had to extend warranty on the TCM.

[GTFan]

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Originally Posted by cooch96 I bought DW a Focus a few years back. The model year would’ve been an ‘08 or so. It had a sealed tranny, which means you can’t switch out fluid.

My wife has a 2008 Focus and the trans is not sealed, we had the fluid replaced at 75k or so (with a filter change so done from the bottom). I think the manual says the fluid does not need changing but it can be done.

No issues with the car but only has 85k miles on it, needs a new thermostat because the one in it sticks open at times and throws a code but I just clear it and move on, doesn't happen often.

[ripper1]

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Originally Posted by wrigley You are correct.....although, Ford won't admit it! Its been about 8 months since they last changed the clutch and trans control module, so if history repeats itself, in about another month Ford will need to replace those parts once again for the fifth time. When my son calls and gives them his VIN they just order the parts and schedule a repair time. There is always a nice new loaner vehicle waiting for him when he gets there! Mike

Yeah, but once the 7yr or 100k miles is up.....then what.

[wrigley]

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Originally Posted by ripper1 Yeah, but once the 7yr or 100k miles is up.....then what.

I'll be in the market for an F150 in a couple years. My plan is to give my son the car I am currently driving and use his as trade-in. Since Ford has told me from day 1 that the transmission problem "is not a known issue" they should be OK with my trade. It will be interesting to see how they tap dance around that one.

Mike

[ransil]

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Originally Posted by ripper1 Yeah, but once the 7yr or 100k miles is up.....then what.

ford has a 24 month unlimited mileage warranty on repairs

[AS2019]

I had a 2015 Focus and really liked it. There are several recalls so you’ll want to get those taken care of if you get one. I thought the car was relatively quiet and comfortable for an economy car. Also fun to drive. My cousin worked for a rental car company and told me the Focus was their most requested model.

Mine got 40+ mpg highway. A lot of people really hate the dual clutch transmission because it shudders at takeoff sometimes. I found that after driving it for a while, mine didn’t shudder. Other people would drive it and it would shudder. So some combination of me getting accustomed to the car and the car getting accustomed to me and that shuddering wasn’t an issue.

If you do a google search, you’ll get bombarded by complaints about this. But remember, ford sold millions of these cars worldwide so there are going to be a lot of complaints.

I would still be driving mine, but someone hit me and totaled it. It was a rear end collision and I was doing 60mph at the time. A mustang hit me hard enough to total both of our cars, so he was probably going at least 90 mph. I never lost control, and I drove the car away from the scene. But the frame was bent. I was impressed with the crash worthiness of the car. The car even dialed 911 after the collision using my phones bluetooth connection.

I replaced it with a 2018 Civic, and I have to say, I liked the Focus as much as I like the civic.

[travelover]

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Originally Posted by AS2019 ........... A lot of people really hate the dual clutch transmission because it shudders at takeoff sometimes. I found that after driving it for a while, mine didn’t shudder. Other people would drive it and it would shudder. ..........

Well, some people just don't know how to drive an automatic properly.

[aja8888]

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Originally Posted by travelover Well, some people just don't know how to drive an automatic properly.

I've had three cars with DSG's. Beautiful transmissions. After a 40,000 mile fluid and filter change, the specs (German) require a TCM reboot for that transmission. Dealerships have the to tools/software to do this or one can wait it out until the software relearns the operator driving patterns. Usually the shudder goes away by itself.

One can also program the DSG to run in sport mode with crisper shifts and different shift points. A good tuner can do that in a few minutes.

[Qs Laptop]

Ford workers break their silence on faulty transmissions: 'My hands are dirty. I feel horrible'

DETROIT – They knew the truth and kept quiet.

Their secret wasn’t a secret at all in engineering, product development, research, design or manufacturing within Ford Motor Co., say seven current and former employees who worked to develop and launch the Fiesta and Focus cars that would become known for defective automatic transmissions.

“My hands are dirty. I feel horrible,” said an engineer who played a key role in developing the popular compact cars.

“You think of the gentleman who stood up for the space shuttle Challenger, saying if they launched that with the ice on it that it’s going to blow up. Well, these kinds of really horrific technical errors seemed to pass right through at Ford on this project,” the engineer said.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ford-...145800004.html

[Music Lover]

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Originally Posted by Bamaman I've rented a Ford Focus to binge drive on a long trip. Running 75 mph I was getting 37.5 mpg--pretty good.

My 2015 Acura TLX gets pretty much the same mileage.

[kgtest]

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Originally Posted by Music Lover My 2015 Acura TLX gets pretty much the same mileage.

My wife's camry (when new) got about the same mpg. Bigger, and safer. Just a thought. Safety is something I don't take lightly. That's why I will never drive anything less than a half ton... (or my wife's camry if I absolutely have to).

If it's my half ton truck vs the camry in an accident...I walk away and the other person might not.

[Starsky]

This brings back some memories....

I bought my DW a new 2012 Ford Focus 4-door that she drove until 2017. She liked the car but hated the transmission. She could feel the clunky shifts and over the next few years she took the car to the dealership multiple times to have them look at it. I think they replaced the entire transmission once but never were able to fix the problem. I understand it had something to do with the adaptive software for the transmission and was unfixable.

This is California-specific, I don't know about other states, but eventually we started to receive letters from Lemon Law attorneys and in late 2016, we decided to take advantage of the California law - essentially, if they can't fix a problem after three tries, they have to refund your money. A friend had used it and had told me how it works.

It's very straightforward, and by law all of our legal costs are borne by the auto manufacturer. The lawyers who we selected took the case pro bono based on our answers to their questions (which is typical). It took a few months to complete and maybe a total of 5 calls with the attorneys. We returned the Focus back to our dealer, and Ford cut us a check for everything we originally paid for the car including taxes and license fees. If we hadn't paid cash, they would have refunded our interest too! We used the check to buy a brand new 2018 Toyota Camry Hybrid which we both absolutely love.

I think the Focus transmission issue was such a well-known problem, there wasn't much Ford could do except to settle. I'm 100% sure it's why we were contacted so often by attorneys offering their services.

[JP.mpls]

Yakers,
I had the same car, 2007 focus s sedan with a 5 speed. I really liked that silly car.
It was like a go cart. 2.0L engine was amazing reliable and powerful.
175k mikes. Sister in law needed a grocery hauler, so I gave it to her. Still going.
I passed on replacing it with the current focus with an unproven turbo engine and dry dual clutch automatic transmissions. Would consider a 5 speed version now.
Take care, JP

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Originally Posted by yakers Had an 08 Focus, drove well for me for a few years, my brother is still driving it @150K+ mi and runs well when I visit. Really liked it. It was an advertising 'special' (very base) model, hand crank wwindows and a 5speed but was <10K$ and the first car I just wrote a check for. Later we leased a Ford Focus Electric, would have bought it off lease if they would have negotiated. Had a wonderful Taurus SHO and cuttently have a Fusion Energi (plug in hybrid) Very happy with Fords, have been good to me.

[Cayman]

Family member has a black '15 Focus hatchback. Great car. Purchased it 1 year old with low 1 owner miles. It was inexpensive to buy, inexpensive to insure, inexpensive to operate and its pretty comfy for its size and class. Thumbs up.