Issues with new 2012 Ford Focus

[Beepster]

Originally Posted by FordCustomerService

Beepster,

If you change your mind on my offer of assistance, just shoot me a PM.


~Natasha

I've been hearing the same song from Ford for the last 3 months.I heard it from the dealership and from that woman from Ford Canada.You are getting your info from the same sources as them ,so you wont get another answer.I'm a mechanic ,and I think I will apply for a job at Ford,because if I spent 2 months working on a problem without any results,I would be fired.But at Ford,you keep your job no matter how bad you are!

Honestly ,I don't care if these engineers spend 3 years working on the problem,if Ford want to pay for their incompetence thats not my problem,but being stucked with a 24 000$ paperweight is!The worst part is that the reason I bought a Focus ,was because I wanted a cheap reliable car for the next 2 and a half year until my early retirement.To celebrate it ,my plan was to buy a fully loaded 2014 Mustang GT.But you can pretty much guess that this won't happen.If Ford didn't wanted to take me seriously,I'm sure that Subaru,Lexus or Mazda will be more than happy to help me with my next purchase.

P.S. I don't consider myself rich.But I got enough money aside to pretty much do what I want.Ford should be well aware of it ,I owned a Ford Explorer and a Mustang GT at the same time for two years!Apparently owning for 64 000$ in Ford vehicles at the same time is not enough to get proper respect.When this BS will be over ,I will gladly show them what they missed.

[serathe]

Originally Posted by theos2

Same issue here. The first visit to the dealer, they claimed they could not reproduce the issue. Natasha escalated my issue, and Yolanda scheduled a followup visit. I drove the car with the Service Director, and he acknowledged the issue. He could feel the vibration and could hear the thumbing sound when turning the wheel to the left, or when correcting from left back to the 12 o'clock position. Great! I get a call to pick up my car, because the service Tech called the Ford Technical hotline, and the engineer there told him this was normal, and every Focus has this. I went back, test drove with them a Focus from their inventory, and the acknowledged that mine feels and sounds different, but they could not perform any work on it because Ford would not cover it, nor do they know what it could be. They basically told me I am stuck with a defective car, and can't do anything about it. 2 month old car with 2,000 miles on it. I small a class action coming shortly.

Yolanda was supposed to call me back after the service visit, but I have not heard from her yet.... Maybe at an upcoming autoshow, I will park my car outside and give test drives to people so they can experience a poor quality Ford Focus with their own eyes.

The good news, right around 2K miles, the transmission has finally smoothed out. If someone can figure out this steering issue, the car will be flawless.

Ford really needs to realize the importance of what they are doing. This post is the exact reason I'm glad I did not go with a ford. They do not back their product. It's sad. I'm sorry for everyone that has issues. I'd be pretty upset after spending over 20k on a new car to have them tell me all the issues are "normal".

[Grinder]

So, of all of you that have this chatter... How many of you test drove the vehicle you purchased? How did you not notice this "characteristic" and if you did why drive away with it anyway?

[Beepster]

Originally Posted by Grinder

So, of all of you that have this chatter... How many of you test drove the vehicle you purchased? How did you not notice this "characteristic" and if you did why drive away with it anyway?

I can't speak for others,but my problem is a vibration between 50 and 70MPH.The first time you hear it ,you think it's simple road noise from an uneven surface.When I bought the car,there was traffic and construction.So it was less than obvious to hear it.I only realize there was a problem the morning after, on an open road.

Considering that the quality control inspectors always use the same roads to road test the cars ,they should have felt that something was not normal.
Because that part was obviously not done right,I'm also asking for a refund of the car preparation fees.And even if I'm getting rid of the car once it's fixed I will take the premium extended warranty plan ,so the next owner will be covered once the after effects of months of vibration will surface in a few years.

FYI I spent most of my lifetime in Ford vehicles and owned many of them.But now that I'm seeing how they,re cutting corners and making customers paying for it,I will never own another Ford again.It's amazing how 3 months of BS(and still counting) and losing your summer vacation, can affect your opinion about a car company.

[theos2]

Originally Posted by Grinder

So, of all of you that have this chatter... How many of you test drove the vehicle you purchased? How did you not notice this "characteristic" and if you did why drive away with it anyway?

I did not notice it during my short test drive. Mine can only be sensed during low speed turning, so I may not have had many instances of it occurring.

[Montana]

Originally Posted by Grinder

So, of all of you that have this chatter... How many of you test drove the vehicle you purchased? How did you not notice this "characteristic" and if you did why drive away with it anyway?

When I bought this one I went on a short test drive and while cold and still to this day when cold it will not shudder. Yes the engine temp came up and we drove it around a bit to warm other parts up but when you really start to realize the shudder is when you do start and stop like when crawling on the freeway in stop and go traffic or if you do around town driving for a certain time period. The more start and stop you do the worse it gets. If you take off from home and hit the freeway and drive 80 miles you really won't feel it as the clutches are not continuously engaging and dis-engaging. Did I really care to test drive the car in stop and go freeway traffic? Not really, Something about sitting in traffic for a hour that doesn't really thrill me if I don't have to do it.

But regardless I know most here will say it is the purchasers fault as they did not test drive it in every situation imaginable. That will take Ford off the hook and they can build as crappy of a car as they wish and those of us that do get one of these "normal" cars get the joy of fighting to get it fixed.

I will say this though, With the exception of the shudder issue this is a great car for my wife and myself as a economical car that looks sporty and handles very well. Very nice interior and features and comfortable especially compared to the Cobalt I traded in. I am not disappointed in the car so much as I am Ford's reluctance to address the shudder. A stand up company will make the effort to get the customers that have issues back up and running as smoothly as possible and with minimum inconvenience, Granted alot of the companies in today's market are not like that and I thought Ford was one of them seeing how they did not take any government bail out money. Also I turned in my customer evaluation form and answered negatively on a few questions and was told that Ford takes those very seriously, Well I found out they only take the positive ones seriously as I have not heard anything from anyone there.

Montana

[Grinder]

I don't think you guys realize the commitment established when you buy a new vehicle. We aren't talking televisions or cell phones here. If ford bought back at retail price the cars they sold at wholesale they'd go broke pretty quick and if the issues you are so concerned with weren't an anomoly but rather a systemic breakdown of quality and customer handling there would be a lot more similar situations out there. The fact that there isn't says even more once you consider your logic after test driving. "their qc guy drives the same roads every time so he should notice the difference" but apparently the slew of you guys didn't notice it in your test drive either. Ever consider the possibility they weren't able to simulate your driving habits? How could you possibly remove yourself from that scenario and then point the finger at someone else doing the same thing? Remember, this rationale is coming from the guy who knows first hand about occasional misbuilds going right from line to transport.

I see this as a simple commitment. Ford is more legally commited to diagnose and resolve this issue than they are to handout refunds. Just as you can't just quit making payments they cant just pay you 25 grand for a car they sold for 19 grand. They should have done more homework... But again. Every car maker goes through this with new models and every one would handle such an issue similarly.

[whynotthinkwhynot]

Figure out how to duplicate the problem 100% of the time, and then take a tech on a ride with you. If you can't duplicate a problem 100% of the time, then it can't be repaired. I had something like that with my 05, I felt an intermittent vibration at high speeds uphill with decel on the first high speed trip I took. I worked and worked to recreate the situation, but although I could recreate it 90% of the time- I knew it wasn't enough to be properly diagnosed. I double checked everything suspension, tires, wheels, etc through the life of the car. I knew what it was from the first time I felt it- an inner CV failure, but it was never bad enough to get replaced under warranty. Finally at 130k, I was able to diagnose the problem 100%, and repair it. This is my car, I'm the mechanic, and I'm not willing to go throwing parts at a car to fix it. Sure, I was right from the git-go this time, but that's not always so.

Good luck- seriously. I was just relaying this so you can figure out what to do so you can get your car diagnosed and serviced properly. While you're under warranty is the time to get these drivetrain problems figured out. If it's something breaking in, then it will go away whether it takes 10k or 20k miles. If it's a failure problem, then it will get worse and you'll be able to recreate it 100% of the time so it can be diagnosed and repaired.

[Beepster]

Originally Posted by Grinder

I don't think you guys realize the commitment established when you buy a new vehicle. We aren't talking televisions or cell phones here. If ford bought back at retail price the cars they sold at wholesale they'd go broke pretty quick and if the issues you are so concerned with weren't an anomoly but rather a systemic breakdown of quality and customer handling there would be a lot more similar situations out there. The fact that there isn't says even more once you consider your logic after test driving. "their qc guy drives the same roads every time so he should notice the difference" but apparently the slew of you guys didn't notice it in your test drive either. Ever consider the possibility they weren't able to simulate your driving habits? How could you possibly remove yourself from that scenario and then point the finger at someone else doing the same thing? Remember, this rationale is coming from the guy who knows first hand about occasional misbuilds going right from line to transport.

I see this as a simple commitment. Ford is more legally commited to diagnose and resolve this issue than they are to handout refunds. Just as you can't just quit making payments they cant just pay you 25 grand for a car they sold for 19 grand. They should have done more homework... But again. Every car maker goes through this with new models and every one would handle such an issue similarly.

First of all,in many cases it's way cheaper to replace the car than replacing random parts until the problem is found.In my case,if you count the parts(bearings,drive shaft,transmission),all the labour(more than 2 weeks) and the premium extented warranty as compensation ,you can say this cost Ford more than 7000$ so far,this is not counting the 2 months the engineers have been working on it and the price of the actual fix.

If Ford quality control would have detected the problem from the start or the dealership would have taken the car back on first sign of trouble,the car would have been set aside and resold at demo price once the solution is found.On a regular basis some car come out of assembly lines with major problems(and this from all auto manifacturers),those cars are set a side and are sometimes given for testing of for movie props or sold for scraps.

But keeping these cars on the roads and making the clients pay for the major inconvenience is very bad business.And putting the blame on the client like you do is even worst.You pay 1500$ for shipping and preparation you expect more than transport and a car wash.When manifacturers put new models on the road they got budgets to deal with the new issues,letting the clients suffer thru those problems is not a good way to make good publicity when anyone can go on youtube and facebook to express their negative experience.

[Montana]

Originally Posted by Grinder

I don't think you guys realize the commitment established when you buy a new vehicle. We aren't talking televisions or cell phones here. If ford bought back at retail price the cars they sold at wholesale they'd go broke pretty quick and if the issues you are so concerned with weren't an anomoly but rather a systemic breakdown of quality and customer handling there would be a lot more similar situations out there. The fact that there isn't says even more once you consider your logic after test driving. "their qc guy drives the same roads every time so he should notice the difference" but apparently the slew of you guys didn't notice it in your test drive either. Ever consider the possibility they weren't able to simulate your driving habits? How could you possibly remove yourself from that scenario and then point the finger at someone else doing the same thing? Remember, this rationale is coming from the guy who knows first hand about occasional misbuilds going right from line to transport.

I see this as a simple commitment. Ford is more legally commited to diagnose and resolve this issue than they are to handout refunds. Just as you can't just quit making payments they cant just pay you 25 grand for a car they sold for 19 grand. They should have done more homework... But again. Every car maker goes through this with new models and every one would handle such an issue similarly.

I have purchased enough vehicles to realize it is a commitment on all sides the purchasing side, dealer side as well as Ford Corp. I for one did not ask for Ford to buy back my vehicle, I just want them to acknowledge that there is a issue and fix it, Is that really too much to ask? As far as their QC guys if Ford is telling us it is normal break in then how would the QC driver write it as a defect when it is normal? So did they notice it? Probably but as we were told it was normal they were more than likely told the same thing. How long and in what conditions they are road tested I have no idea, So is it possible that they don't test in the same conditions that we encounter on the road in daily travels? That is a possibility as well.

Yes every car maker does go through these trials when introducing a new vehicle but do they handle themselves in a professional manner and at least have a interest in what the buyer has to say or do they just push them away?

whynotthinkwhynot,
The tech did test drive it and verified that it had the issue I was referring to, Ford Corp. is the one that told them not to do anything. If the dealer is not going to get paid they are not going to do the work and I fully understand that and agree with it, I do not expect the dealer to work for free. Ford released a TSB to address this issue and it was recalled for introducing yet another issue and that was a no start condition. It leaves me to wonder if Ford ever tested it out or just changed a few things and released the TSB without ever trying it in a vehicle. If the vehicle was built after 08/12/11 they were not affected by that TSB. What was changed after 08/12/11 that corrected the problem and why can't they apply that to the vehicles built on or before 08/12/11? Unless you are a Ford engineer you probably can't answer those questions and I don't expect you to.

Once again I will say it is not that the vehicle has issues as it is Ford's reluctance to find a fix for the issues at hand. They introduced updated software for the MFT but they also leave us with trans issues sitting on the sideline waiting for a fix and no idea when and if one will be released.

Montana