This condescending "blame the victim" attitude is getting old and you're missing the point so badly I can hear the
whoosh from here.
People
did "at least partially understand" what they were buying. They understood that it was
not a traditional automatic and that it
would feel at least a little different. Heck, the dealership explained very clearly to me that the DPS6 was a DCT (they did not get into dry vs wet, though). So how much more do you think people should "at least partially understand"? By all means, tell us all how much of an engineering background John and Jane Smith should have before they go to buy their econobox.
While we're at it,
I knew perfectly well what I was buying. I didn't need a clueless salesman to tell me anything; I knew the DPS6 was a dry DCT. I knew the difference between wet and dry. What I did
not know is that Ford was knowingly selling a defective product and lying to everyone about it. Somehow the salesman forgot to mention that...but I guess that's on me for not asking?
Every car is different and how you drive it is sometimes the difference between life and death or a very expensive repair cost or not.
This might be the stupidest thing I've ever read. I think we're all quite aware that an F-350 might drive differently than a Fiesta and that driving one as if it's the other could be dangerous. But if you're suggesting that two cars of the same general size and design (you know, comparing apples to apples as well as we can) are different enough to justify a fundamental change in driving behavior...that's ridiculous.
The Focus is not a new car. It's a compact economy car. The overwhelming majority of folks looking at the standard Focus (not the RS or ST) has no reason to think they need to fundamentally change the way they drive. Sure, no two cars will drive
exactly the same. I don't think anyone has claimed otherwise.
What folks are saying is that Ford
actively marketed it as a more fuel-efficient automatic transmission. And let's be honest: the only "automatic" the average person going in to buy the Focus has only experienced is a slushbox. Ford knew this. Ford knew that if you told them they had to drive it differently, they wouldn't buy it. So Ford told them it was
effectively the same - which might have been true had Ford performed some marvel of engineering - but wasn't true because the DPS6 is a steaming pile of donkey crap that feels
significantly different after a couple of thousand miles are on the transmission. This means that it feels substantially different after owning it for only a short while than it did during the test drive; a modern, functioning slushbox does not generally change so drastically so quickly.
Don't get me wrong, it's Ford's responsibility to explain to the consumer that it is different from a normal automatic. I'm not trying to take any blame away from them. I believe they have to do something about it. I'm just saying let's not blame the transmission for being misused.
Man, some people are
dense.
The transmission is defective. If you've read the Detroit Free Press article, you'll remember that even the
Ford engineers did not believe it was ready for implementation in 2011, let alone
years later when it was still being used and the fundamental design issues had never been addressed.
You can't have it both ways. You can't claim that Ford should take responsibility for poor design and lying outright, and yet we should in fact blame the consumer for
driving it wrong.
Maybe you're just naïve. Come back after your DPS6 craps the bed and you're in for your second or third clutch pack. Then tell me that we should in fact blame the victim for "misusing" the transmission they were lied to about.