My 2012 Focus issues: what Ford is and isn't doing

[surrix]

Just start Lemon Lawing this thing and buy a new one with the proceeds.

[Faygo Focus]

I suggest you break your complaints into three categories, because all of them together can be overwhelming and/or dilute the more important ones.

1. Car not working as designed (headliner adhesive issue, etc)

2. Car designs that you do not like (dry wipe, fogs not memorized, etc)

3. Dealer and other courtesy issues (not washing sweat off your car, etc)

[TitaniumD]

I'm glad this forum is here so that we can learn about issues that may not be so isolated as ford thinks. I just signed up today and already found that my headliner needs to be replaced due to yellow adhesive spots.

That being said, I feel that a good deal of the issues reported here are either, normal operation, very minor and/or will be fixed. I am sorry that csvt2060 and some others here are so dissatisfied.

I have stopped following all of the numerous threads complaining about the transmission shudder, because I feel that is just the way the new DCT works. I knew the second I took off in my test drive that the tranny was very different on this car, and you know what, I like it! Ford still may work something out to satisfy those who complain about the shudder, but I hope they don't smooth it out so much that it gets boring to drive. It feels a little like a stick, and they shudder and shake and buck sometimes, so why not this? My complaint about the trans is that 6th should be geared a little different to allow lower rpms at hwy speeds, but that is just an idea.

The MFT issues I will agree need to be addressed, and I know they are working on it. Ford probably should have held off on the whole car till 2013 and rewrote the software completely, but then I wouldn't be driving one now, or probably at all, since I don't think I could have waited that long. I will say that I had my APM replaced and it made a world of difference with the rebooting issue, so I do believe there is bad batch of hardware as well as the software glitches. Mine "performed maintenance" about 7 times in the 1st 2 weeks I had it, then I got them to replace the APM and it has only happened once since (3months/6000mi) It has still crashed a few times, and done some weird stuff, but overall not too bad. I did not get the 2.11 update yet, not sure what it fixes except the radio turning on every time you start the car even if it was off when you shut off the car.

As far as the auto wipers, I love them and do not care at all if it does a dry wipe on start sometimes. They are supposed to change speeds and turn on and off automatically. I'm not sure I understand what the issue is. Also if they don't wipe long enough after using the washer, you can flip the washer for a quick half second to trigger another wipe without spraying anything. I have had to do this on many other cars, and do not see the issue here.

For your time and date issues, mine seems to have the option for setting from the satellite, not sure why it was mentioned that this is not supported. I have only had the time be wrong once when it crashed,(clock stayed on the time when it crashed for the whole remainder of the trip) and after a master reset it is wrong until you set it to use the satellite time.

I also don't see any problem with the temp gauges being a few degrees off. As I understand it is hard to get an affordable thermistor to be accurate for such a large temp range as a car would experience anywhere in the world throughout the year. It is normal for them to have a bell curve of accuracy over a given temp range. I predict Ford will not be able to fix that issue.

For the headlight issues, I learned here that there is a way to have the dealer set up the car for DRL, and I believe that would fix all you issues. After all if the lights are always on, then the indicator should be always on and therefore would be correct. I do plan to ask to have this feature enabled as it will provide an insurance discount as well.

For the fogs, I am glad the car wants to default them off. Extra lighting can cause dangerous glare for other drivers, and they should only be used in bad weather. Thank you Ford!!!

I also wont worry about the dimming mirror, it does seem odd that they would wire it that way, but it really doesn't take much power to light up a black lcd. I will see if mine does that too, just out of curiosity.

I am sorry if I fail to understand how much these issues mean to some people here, I think some of us here are in the anger phase of the purchase and feeling like "OMG! I just spent 28000 on a Focus it should be perfect!" and I was there and have now moved on to the acceptance phase of "well I am going to be driving this car for 5+ years, hope they fix MFT soon."
Anyway, rambled on long enough. I am sorry if this offends anyone, I don't mean to, I just felt like I had to say something. It feels much better to me in the acceptance phase than the anger phase.

[yimmymerkaba]

ya, its sucks that there are so many issues with early versions of this car. but that isn't the issue here is it? its mainly with the service your local ford dealer is giving, or not giving for that matter.
Other than the black screen of death that i have had today, fixed by a reset fuse, I am so paranoid about this car now from all the threads stating issues. The good thing about forums is that for every issue reported, i have gone to my car and checked it over.
so far it feels like the name suggests...... titanium.
knocking on wood

[estoyloco]

Troubles and issues with a brand new car is expected...

But utter poor service to address any of your concerns is unwarranted.

That is the bottom line.
Ford isn't failing at QA / having a perfect product, they are failing at serving their loyal customers.
If we are going to have problems atleast provide us customer service without ignoring us or blowing us off.

My wife was looking at replacing our Fusion as well. She has definitely decided it will not be another Ford.
This new car will be the first non-Ford we will buy in 10 years.

P.S.: BTW it is not just the dealer. Ford Corporate's policy is "We don't care what the dealers do with our name, we don't back up the customer, deal with it, deal with the dealer". Do I sound bitter? I'm sure, but that is just from 1st hand experience, you won't really know until you go through it yourself.

[estoyloco]

Originally Posted by yimmymerkaba

ya, its sucks that there are so many issues with early versions of this car. but that isn't the issue here is it? its mainly with the service your local ford dealer is giving, or not giving for that matter.
Other than the black screen of death that i have had today, fixed by a reset fuse, I am so paranoid about this car now from all the threads stating issues. The good thing about forums is that for every issue reported, i have gone to my car and checked it over.
so far it feels like the name suggests...... titanium.
knocking on wood

How long have you had the car? From your join date says August 2011.

I am going to assume within 1 month, so BSOD within your 1st month owning it... isn't really that good.
The MFT just seems to be a slow battle that I cannot win.

I can reset it/fuse pull it, and it performs awesome like it is supposed to within 24 hours. Day by day the system just gradually declines with NOTHING new added to the system.

[yimmymerkaba]

Ya mft is slow and chuggy at times. Ford could have done way better considering it was more money for the customer to buy this feature. But
It doesn't take away to much from the car for me. I would have been happy with the lower trim we tried.

[Altis]

I think TitaniumD put it best with his responses.

Just to add a bit...

Auto-wipers: On my car, I just leave them off until it rains, then turn them on. AFAIK, it is common for cars to do that because it makes sure the windshield is clear as part of the calibration so that it will properly detect when it starts to rain, or if it's raining now. I do think it's somewhat normal, but if it bothers you, just turn them off, and turn them back to auto if you are driving in the rain.

Fog lights: Like TitaniumD said, it's perfectly normal on very many cars for them to need to be turned on manually each time you are using the car. The same is true on these cars with the high beams. Fog lights are unnecessary and if you want them on, turn them on. I'm glad they don't come on because all they do is cause additional light in oncoming drivers' eyes, without helping me at all.

Headlights in MFD: Do you have DRLs? I do, here in Canada, and the thing about the Focus is that they seem to have Scandinavian running lights. When my car is on, even with the light switch in the OFF position, my headlights, tail lights, and little orange front corner lights, are all ON. All the time. Volvos are like this too. Every Focus I've seen around here always has them on too. If you don't have DRLs, then maybe this is nothing more than they didn't program a different picture for those who don't have them. This is a global car, and virtually every other place on the planet requires running lights. It isn't a fault, though. Laziness, perhaps.

TIP: Turn your car on. Turn the headlights to the OFF position. Walk around the car. What lights are actually on? Look closely at the front orange and the tail lights.

There are some quirks to this car, but sometimes there are reasons to the things we consider faults or flaws. Many people at Ford in customer service or at the dealers have no idea why the cars do what they do, but some things are working exactly as they should.

As for the dealer experience, that is unfortunate, but nothing compared to what my gf and I have gone through with VW! Major engine/transmission overhauls that they kept messing up and breaking other parts, countless breakdowns as a result, and not a soul at VW cared.

So I can deal with a few things here and there ;)

Good luck with the MFT and transmission issues. Those need to be dealt with and I hope Ford comes around for you. :)

[csvt2060]

Originally Posted by TitaniumD

As far as the auto wipers, I love them and do not care at all if it does a dry wipe on start sometimes. They are supposed to change speeds and turn on and off automatically. I'm not sure I understand what the issue is.

When you say "sometimes" does that mean it doesn't do the dry wipe on your car every time? I have had it once or twice not do the dry wipe, but very rare. I am asking them to be like every other Ford vehicle, leave them in auto and forget them like the Edge, Fusion, MKX, MKZ, Taurus.

Originally Posted by TitaniumD

For your time and date issues, mine seems to have the option for setting from the satellite, not sure why it was mentioned that this is not supported. I have only had the time be wrong once when it crashed,(clock stayed on the time when it crashed for the whole remainder of the trip) and after a master reset it is wrong until you set it to use the satellite time.

It does not have the GPS setting if you have MyFord touch without the navigation option.

Originally Posted by TitaniumD

For the headlight issues, I learned here that there is a way to have the dealer set up the car for DRL, and I believe that would fix all you issues. After all if the lights are always on, then the indicator should be always on and therefore would be correct. I do plan to ask to have this feature enabled as it will provide an insurance discount as well.

I am not willing to have DRL's just to patch a programming glitch with the car.

Originally Posted by TitaniumD

For the fogs, I am glad the car wants to default them off. Extra lighting can cause dangerous glare for other drivers, and they should only be used in bad weather.

That's the thing, they don't always default to off. Either program them to stay off all the time or stay on. Again, every other Ford current models, and in the past, once you set the fogs you didn't have to worry about them again.

Originally Posted by TitaniumD

I also wont worry about the dimming mirror, it does seem odd that they would wire it that way, but it really doesn't take much power to light up a black lcd. I will see if mine does that too, just out of curiosity.

That's great if you don't worry about it. I would like it to work correctly. We don't need to start making excuses for improper operation here. No matter how small the load, it is draining the battery. Which makes the smart alternator have to charge the battery more upon startup, decreasing gas mileage.

Originally Posted by Altis

Auto-wipers: On my car, I just leave them off until it rains, then turn them on. AFAIK, it is common for cars to do that because it makes sure the windshield is clear as part of the calibration so that it will properly detect when it starts to rain, or if it's raining now. I do think it's somewhat normal, but if it bothers you, just turn them off, and turn them back to auto if you are driving in the rain.

See above. It's not normal when they say in the owners manual to make sure you don't operate the wipers on a dry windshield. It will scratch the windshield over time, it's a fact. If it's supposed to be a automatically driven convienence feature, why should I have to worry if I have turned them off everytime it stops raining? Example: It stops raining, so they turn themselves off while driving, I drive for another hour, will I remember to turn the switch to "off" when I turn off the car so it doesn't do the dry wipe upon restart? Probably not, and I would rather not have the feature if I need to worry about it every time. Plus on top of that, they don't work that well, they are way to busy changing speed and delay time every few seconds. Again Fusion, Taurus, etc. operation on this is tons better.

Originally Posted by Altis

Fog lights: Like TitaniumD said, it's perfectly normal on very many cars for them to need to be turned on manually each time you are using the car. The same is true on these cars with the high beams. Fog lights are unnecessary and if you want them on, turn them on. I'm glad they don't come on because all they do is cause additional light in oncoming drivers' eyes, without helping me at all.

See above. People have varing opinions on "fog" lamps. I don't think they make any difference in fog. They have become and "appearance" item and I and many people use them as such.

Originally Posted by Altis

Headlights in MFD: Do you have DRLs? I do, here in Canada, and the thing about the Focus is that they seem to have Scandinavian running lights. When my car is on, even with the light switch in the OFF position, my headlights, tail lights, and little orange front corner lights, are all ON. All the time. Volvos are like this too. Every Focus I've seen around here always has them on too. If you don't have DRLs, then maybe this is nothing more than they didn't program a different picture for those who don't have them. This is a global car, and virtually every other place on the planet requires running lights. It isn't a fault, though. Laziness, perhaps.

TIP: Turn your car on. Turn the headlights to the OFF position. Walk around the car. What lights are actually on? Look closely at the front orange and the tail lights.

No DRL's in the US models unless you have a valid fleet identification number and order it with DRL's.

If you read my OP carefully about the message center, it works fine and shows the headlights off properly as long as I am not in reverse with the "park aid" message displayed. It's not only the headlights that do this. If a door is open in park or drive, and then closed while in reverse, it will show it's still open when the car is put in drive and the "park aid" message disappears.

Originally Posted by Altis

Good luck with the MFT and transmission issues. Those need to be dealt with and I hope Ford comes around for you. :)

Thanks.

[csvt2060]

Originally Posted by estoyloco

My wife was looking at replacing our Fusion as well. She has definitely decided it will not be another Ford.
This new car will be the first non-Ford we will buy in 10 years.

I am suprised after owning a Fusion, that she wouldn't want another Ford. Out of all the Fords that I have owned, the Fusion was one of the best built and flawless that I have owned. It was a 2010 Fusion Sport AWD model with every option. No complaints, 34,000 miles and I traded for this Focus. Should of kept the Fusion but I wanted better gas mileage then the 24MPG I was getting with the Fusion.