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May have prevented a couple from making a horrible purchase.

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#63 ·
joshuafail said:
You know, I had a neighbor whose house caught fire about a year ago.. by that same logic, maybe I should never buy a house?

It's unfortunate that you seem to have gotten a bad unit- it's also unfortunate that that couple didn't actually get to drive the vehicle they were looking at, because of a disgruntled current owner hating his vehicle. It's true that there are hundreds of complaints about the DCT, and that quite a few of them have had legitimate issues. But it's also true that there are hundreds of thousands of others that are perfectly satisfied with their transmissions, have had zero problems with them, and would recommend them to a friend, myself included. It isn't fair to try and sway one person's opinion because of your tainted experience.

I had a 2010 Sentra that I absolutely hated- if I see someone shopping for one though, I'm going to leave them to their own devices. It's their money they're spending, not mine. I had a bad experience with mine, but judging by the hundreds of thousands of others that were sold along with mine, plenty of people love them and have never had a problem with them.

For all you know, you could have talked those people out of a car they could have loved and never had an issue with the entire life of the car.

Here's to hoping they take another look at the vehicle and don't let the opinion of one person sway them out of a potentially great purchase..
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AMEN! I totally agree with you. I have a 2012 SEL and I have 40k mi on mine and my entire car has been flawless with the exception of a couple minor rattles. It hasnt even been in for a reflash of the trans. again an unsatisfied customer is vocal and a happy customer doesnt think to voice their opinions. It is really unfortunate because for e
very unhappy customer for any product there are likely thousands of satisfied ones.
 
#64 ·
dbenney said:
AMEN! I totally agree with you. I have a 2012 SEL and I have 40k mi on mine and my entire car has been flawless with the exception of a couple minor rattles. It hasnt even been in for a reflash of the trans. again an unsatisfied customer is vocal and a happy customer doesnt think to voice their opinions. It is really unfortunate because for e
very unhappy customer for any product there are likely thousands of satisfied ones.
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The Focus was the best selling car in the world last year and has moved over 1 million units worldwide in that year alone. Not to make light of the very real issues some folks are having, if this transmission were as terrible as people say it is (and as often as they say it is) you'd have a much bigger issue.

Perhaps some of you recall the big Toyota Prius stuck pedal issue from a few years ago. They recalled 3.8 million vehicles for various pedal issues based on 26 complaints. 26 out of 3.8 million. Granted this was a potential safety issue but believe you me that if the Focus DCT issues were as prevalent as some of you think (or hope) they are, it would be in the news and talked about more widely than a couple of dozen folks on an enthusiast forum.

If you believe strongly that your issues aren't being properly resolved by FoMoCo, there are options available to you. After all, you can always sue.
 
#66 ·
brochado said:
I don't think they'd own a cobra and several other mustangs if that were the case [giggle]
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Lol we have a winner. I sold my full size bronco because I needed something with good gas mileage. I bought a focus because it was something I knew I would probably never mess with. I have been eyeballing suspension here lately to autox the car...
 
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#67 ·
lowflyn said:
Lol we have a winner. I sold my full size bronco because I needed something with good gas mileage. I bought a focus because it was something I knew I would probably never mess with. I have been eyeballing suspension here lately to autox the car...
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What year bronco? I had an 83 and 95....both good trucks, I especially miss the 83 [bigcry]
 
#69 ·
Well my father picked up the car this evening. Apparently after swapping clutch solenoids and doing a dozen updates they have decided the noise is normal...only took them 14 days to tell us it's normal.

I told him to just drive it until it gets to the point they can't deny there is a problem...not really any other choices unless you are willing to eat $10k on depreciation. Hell I'm seeing 2012 SE's for $12-13k on dealer lots with under 40k miles.
 
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#70 ·
I really feel for you guys that are having problems with these transmissions. Sounds horribly frustrating.
 
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#71 ·
Rogerschro said:
I've had Three 2012 focus, still have one of them, and none of them had issues with the trans. I have talked to a rep who drive a LOT who owns one and he has no problems and says hewill buy a new one when this one wears out. I have also spoken to several others who have or have rented a Focus and all of them have enjoyed the car. Not one negative comment and I can't say I have heard any bad one around here. This is not to say it isn't an issue for some, just that your bad experience does not equate to everyone having a bad experience. I don't buy Chevy because all the ones I have ever owned were really bad cars, but I don't think that makes all Chevy's bad, just the ones I was unfortunate to own. (I've had one bad Ford). I say let people buy what they want, But for the OP, if you hate your car you should take your loss and get out of it. No use in driving something that makes you miserable, life is too good to waste in a bad car!
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Well said.

I am having issues with the tranny. However, I still do changes and spend time making it my own. So yeah the tranny bites but I still love my POS MK3 lol. I saw it parked today and said to myself, yeah..it looks great. [drummer]

Listen to be fair the OP thought he was doing right. I think he made a huge mistake posting his misguided ways. I don't agree with the way he went about it but to each his own. I MADE THE CHOICE ON MY OWN AND DO NOT REGRET IT even though I almost bought the farm.
 
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#72 ·
joshuafail said:
You know, I had a neighbor whose house caught fire about a year ago.. by that same logic, maybe I should never buy a house?

It's unfortunate that you seem to have gotten a bad unit- it's also unfortunate that that couple didn't actually get to drive the vehicle they were looking at, because of a disgruntled current owner hating his vehicle. It's true that there are hundreds of complaints about the DCT, and that quite a few of them have had legitimate issues. But it's also true that there are hundreds of thousands of others that are perfectly satisfied with their transmissions, have had zero problems with them, and would recommend them to a friend, myself included. It isn't fair to try and sway one person's opinion because of your tainted experience.

I had a 2010 Sentra that I absolutely hated- if I see someone shopping for one though, I'm going to leave them to their own devices. It's their money they're spending, not mine. I had a bad experience with mine, but judging by the hundreds of thousands of others that were sold along with mine, plenty of people love them and have never had a problem with them.

For all you know, you could have talked those people out of a car they could have loved and never had an issue with the entire life of the car.

Here's to hoping they take another look at the vehicle and don't let the opinion of one person sway them out of a potentially great purchase..
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Joshua, I agree.... it would be more fair to give them the address of this website, also Edmunds and the lemon law blog so they could see that its not one unhappy owner.

Then they could read the comments that consumer reports has made about it as well as many other DCT transmissions.

I would also advise them to drive similar models from other companies so they would know what else is out there.

I gave up on mine and am now driving a competitors 155hp, 34.7 overall verified mpg with a firm fun to drive suspension and the smoothest 6 speed tranny you could ask for.
 
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#73 ·
I've had my 2012 Ti for 2 years now and am happier now with it than the day I bought it. Love it more than any other car I've ever owned. And I've had multiple people ask me about my car and I gladly tell them the same thing, but I also inform them some owners have experienced issues so at least they know there are two sides.

And I too love cruising through the dealer lots when people are looking at the Focus because I love to see them check my car out cause it does look good!!!
 
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#74 ·
JPopNC said:
I've had my 2012 Ti for 2 years now and am happier now with it than the day I bought it. Love it more than any other car I've ever owned. And I've had multiple people ask me about my car and I gladly tell them the same thing, but I also inform them some owners have experienced issues so at least they know there are two sides.

And I too love cruising through the dealer lots when people are looking at the Focus because I love to see them check my car out cause it does look good!!!
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I think this problem only affects about 5% of all the automatics, otherwise it would be all over the national news like that Toyota surge problem was.

That being said, as this website documents in exhaustive detail, if you ARE one of the 5%, prepare to work with Crystal to get an escalation, or trade it in or pursue the lemon law

http://www.lemonlaw.com/wordpress/ford-focus-transmission-problem/
 
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#75 ·
JPopNC said:
I've had my 2012 Ti for 2 years now and am happier now with it than the day I bought it. Love it more than any other car I've ever owned. And I've had multiple people ask me about my car and I gladly tell them the same thing, but I also inform them some owners have experienced issues so at least they know there are two sides.

And I too love cruising through the dealer lots when people are looking at the Focus because I love to see them check my car out cause it does look good!!!
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That's awesome! Very refreshing to not hear someone complaining about their car [like]
 
#76 ·
mr_cassandra said:
Joshua, I agree.... it would be more fair to give them the address of this website, also Edmunds and the lemon law blog so they could see that its not one unhappy owner.

Then they could read the comments that consumer reports has made about it as well as many other DCT transmissions.
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For anyone considering the purchase of a new Focus, reading about past problems would likely be confusing and/or misleading.
 
#77 · (Edited)
Kabigon said:
For anyone considering the purchase of a new Focus, reading about past problems would likely be confusing and/or misleading.
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I'm not positive but I think I have seen even 2013-2014 owners mention the problem.

again my opinion is only a small % of production has it.
 
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#78 ·
Picture me banging my face off a wall. That's what I'm picturing myself doing too..... Come on man.
 
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#79 ·
Despite minor transmission quirks (the occasional grind while upshifting in low gears and some hesitation in stop and go traffic) my DCT with ~24,500mi from Job 1 2012MY (built June 2011) has been great. I've recently started switching off between Sport mode and standard Drive mode depending on what mood I'm in and whether or not it's stop and go or lower speed areas. I've noticed that my enjoyment of the car has skyrocketed (and my MPGs have taken a slight hit) since using S more frequently, but the behavior of the transmission has been much better.

My only complaint at this point is that the transmission seems to settle into it's ways depending on how you're driving, for instance, taking a 2-3hr road trip will cause more hesitation/jerkiness and grinding in low speed situations for a few minutes after slowing down to around-town speeds.

I've never felt unsafe or like my transmission is not capable of getting me out of a tight spot to this point and hopefully will not for several years to come.

That said, I've heard and read of some genuinely large problems with some of the DCT transmissions and while I'd tell a new customer to be weary, I'd also let them know that 2013-14MY vehicles have had updated parts installed and updated transmission programming applied and compared to the guinea pig 2012MY owners should have most of the MAJOR problems addressed. Low speed grinding & some hesitation is normal, hesitation especially if you're not sure-footed. This is an automated manual, if you drive a manual and you're constantly feathering the gas while taking off from a stop, and at the same time modulating the clutch in and out, you're going to have some hesitation and lurching from time to time. If you're not giving your car enough positive input when taking off, that's what's going to happen because you're confusing the transmission, it can't read your mind.
 
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#80 ·
ugh so happy I got a stick

Haters might be haters but if someone gets stuck its Ford's fault for not taking total ownership...its Ford's fault for letting them run off pissed. I hate trolls but I feel for the (relative) minority that got the D
 
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Rogerschro
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