Consumer reports is unreliable. Wouldn't trust anything they publish.

 

Agree. Consumer Reports has always favored Japanese imports.
Consumer Reports favors bland boring cars for soccer moms, and guys who drive only to get from point A to point B with the least bother possible..

 

As with everyone else on this list, CR's reputation has gone down considerably from where it used to be. I remember growing up, my parents subscribed to it but as time wore on it became apparent that their "top picks" were helped along with a little $$.

CR aside, it's a skewed metric to begin with. Yes, the DCT has a number of problems, but by offering an extended warranty and not a recall, the Focus/Fiesta will always be at the bottom of the reliability list because each DCT repair will further drag down the apparent reliability.

Take the DCT out of it and you've got one of the most reliable vehicles on the road right now.

 

Take the DCT out of it and you've got one of the most reliable vehicles on the road right now.

^ Take the DCT and MFT out and the metrics would be completely different.

Toyota Corollas and Honda Civics are reliable but they are like hair dryers. You take them out of the box and use them for 10 years and then throw them away.

Can't get excited about a hair dryer.

I get excited every time I get behind the wheel of my Focus.

Can't take those out. I'm sure dct and automatic account for more of these cars sales then a manual...

I did. 5 speed manual and no MFT= Reliable and fun to drive.

 

So the focus is the most reliable then???????
?

 

Lol that's not exactly how it works. But being the most successful selling 'world' car around there seems to be a vastly larger amount of satisfied drivers than not.

 

All the cars I have owned where imports... Only this Ford has brought me to the dealership for issues..

I always thought the Corola or Civic where the best selling cars? In North America at least

 

Can't take those out. I'm sure dct and automatic account for more of these cars sales then a manual...

 

CR surveys are, I believe, based on the number of return trips to the dealer to deal with a real or imagined problem. With the "different" characteristics of even a well-behaved DCT along with actual bad clutches, seals and software, one can see the opportunity for many, many dealer vists. Add to that the MyFordTouch issues and it's no wonder.

For the failures in engineering, testing, dealer and customer preparation, the series of half-fixes, etc., I think this is a reputation that Ford absolutely earned. Other than DCT issues and a rattling headliner, mine has been trouble-free and works pretty well now. But it only works well because I've spent more time at the dealer with this thing than with any car I've owned over the last 40 years.

The Focus has a lot of terrific qualities, but if being trouble-free was the only metric, would anyone recommend it as an alternative to a Civic or Corolla?

 

I make Die casting parts for Ford and Mopar, so yeah I would recommend them over the parts made in north carolina or the parts made over seas. Hell mopar even accepts shit parts, so best answer is go with FORD.

The DCT has no issues if you have ever driven a manual gearbox and you drive it like you stole it for the first 5-10k. you never ever want to glaze a clutch, and driving it like your [][][][][] corolla will glaze it. drive it like a race car and maybe get a tune and your all set.

 

And the resale value is dropping like a flies... Dropping like a flies... Dropping like a flies

 

I just use CR as another metric out if many to judge some things. They are good for appliances and the like. Didn't stop me from buying my Focus. They just seem to put reliability over most other features.

 

Ya reliability is so overrated lol

 

CR is certainly a reasonable look at reliability..its a datapoint to help make a decision and you should use other data points as well. Are they that far on the tranny? Lots of folks here say they have issues. I think including MFT in this is silly...may be a pain in the @ss but its not a reliability issue. I think they should at least footnote these things with *not including manual transmission or similar.

 

I have a 5 speed, but I drove a Focus rental car where the transmission was a mess. i looked it up and learned about the problems with the early automatics.

As for CR, they poll their readers, so that is where the ratings come from. I typically fill out my survey, but it takes a good bit of time, which always is in short supply

 

I've been reading, but not subscribing to CR for years. They had the 05-07 Gen 1's rated very high. Not sure about the Gen 2. But the MKIII dropped due to early sync, my touch issues. And the DCT troubles finished the Focus off. Ford is being punished for trying to be cutting edge. If they would have made simple boring cars the numbers would be higher. I have high hopes my 2014 5 speed will be just as dependable as my 06.

 

But the MKIII dropped due to early sync, my touch issues. And the DCT troubles finished the Focus off. Ford is being punished for trying to be cutting edge.

To be successful at being cutting edge a company has to successfully implement the cutting edge technology. Ford / Getrag have been frustratingly incompetent at rolling out this technology to the masses.

And has everyone forgotten the front strut issues that plagued so many 2012s? How about the steering rack issues?

I love my Focus but Ford's rollout of the Mk3 has been embarassing. One of the reasons I didn't replace our '06 Explorer with another Ford. Also my local dealer's service manager advised against buying a current-gen Explorer due to their rampant steering rack issues.

 

Never buy a new model car, always wait at least 2 years.

 

Sometimes I wonder what "reliable" means nowadays. Case in point, CR always gives Honda a reliable rating, yet just recently it has been revealed that 5,000,000 Hondas in the U.S. are affected by the defective air bags, which can potentially kill.

Is it better to have a car with a reputation as being reliable, but later found to have a major defect? Naturally, if you never get into an accident then this will not be an issue with you.

 

Problems, reliability, and safety are related but different.

Sometimes I wonder what "reliable" means nowadays. Case in point, CR always gives Honda a reliable rating, yet just recently it has been revealed that 5,000,000 Hondas in the U.S. have the defective air bags, which can potentially kill.

Is it better to have a car with a reputation as being reliable, but later found to have a major defect? Naturally, if you never get into an accident then this will not be an issue with you.

The same as it has for decades, "reliable" means "performing as specified." More accurately, reliability is "the ability of a system or component to perform its required functions under stated conditions for a specified period of time." Someone so kindly wrote that in Wikipedia, saving me from digging through old books buried in my storage room to refresh my memory. (Glenn, was that you?)

What CR measures is the number of problems reported (per vehicle per year by category). They're related but different. Safety and Reliability are also related but different. (Probably only reliability engineers care, though.)

"CR always gives Honda a reliable rating" because it has not yet measured the effect of the flawed airbags. Its data comes from surveys returned by CR's subscribers. Of all the people who own Hondas (and other brands) that have the potentially defective air bags, only the few who had experienced actual failures (and not died as a result) would have known about them when they filled out their surveys for however many years since they've been put in the cars. That's apparently not a high percentage. As you point out, it's a dangerous problem, but not (yet) highly visible.

The airbag problem won't show up in CR's data until owners who have had them replaced (or fail in a crash) report that in their surveys. Since CR only goes back 10 years, any of the affected cars older than that won't get counted even then. If the carmakers get enough of the defective ones replaced before they cause injuries or deaths, that picture won't change much. Meanwhile, many more Focus owners who had problems with their transmissions and entertainment systems did report that in their surveys, making them more visible than the problem with airbags.

Oversimplifying a bit, that means that a reliable car can be unsafe, and a safe car can be unreliable. Those two characteristics are measured separately. It's a fair argument that an unreliable transmission has the potential to be be a serious safety problem, but so far I'm not aware of any reports of injuries or deaths from DCT failures. Amazingly and thankfully, so far I've only seen reports of close calls and maybe some peed pants.

Each buyer decides for themselves how to rank them. My preference would be to visit a mechanic rather than a hospital or a morgue. As it was with exploding Pinto gas tanks, people who bought all those cars with flawed airbags didn't know it at the time, so they didn't get to choose. Now we do.

 

The CR reliability scores are based on number of customers taking the car back to the dealer to get a particular issue addressed. In the full magazine, they have the reliability scores broken down by component. I looked at the report on the 2012 Focus before buying my 2014. Basically every component was rated good or excellent except the transmission and entertainment system, which were both rated as poor. Hence the overall grade (not sure how it's calculated) came out as poor.

 

Take this report with a grain of salt. dig a bit deeper into it. says the focus is 98% below average in reliability.

Whats the average reliability you say? for 2012-2014 the average issue rate for cars was 1%

So that means your focus is 2% likely to have an issue vs less then 1% if you buy a civic..

there system is so misleading... id rather drive a car i like then a bland box civic thanks..

 

CR surveys are like the JD Power ones. People having trouble with stuff like MFT, even if it's because they can't understand how to use it, counts as a "reliability" issue.

 

User errors

CR surveys are like the JD Power ones. People having trouble with stuff like MFT, even if it's because they can't understand how to use it, counts as a "reliability" issue.

If a system is unable to perform its intended function because its intended users cannot understand how to get it to, that's technically not a failure of the system, but still something that needs to be fixed. (Didn't they do any usability testing before releasing it?)

Buggy software and underpowered hardware (for the software it was expected to run) also contributed to some failures. Can't blame those on the users.

 

There is nothing wrong with Consumer Reports. Ford F-Bombed themselves with Sync and the DCT on the current Focus for example. And with the past Focus and Escorts they hurt themselves bad with over all build quality. So they have dug themselves a nice hole to get out of.

 

The Mk1s and Mk2s have bad build quality? You realize the 91-04 Escorts were built on a Mazda platform and Mazda always appears fine in the nothing wrong with Consumer Reports.

 

Agree. Consumer Reports sucks!

 

Somebody else's turn.

 

I have always wondered who gets these surveys.

Neither I, nor anyone I know, has ever been asked to fill out and submit a survey to Consumer Reports, JD Power or any other consulting firm regarding a vehicle.

 

CR -- subscribers only.



I don't know about the others, but Consumer Reports sends its survey only to its subscribers. Their data comes only from the subscribers who choose to complete and return the survey. I've never seen any authentication done to assure that the people who fill in the surveys actually own the products they provide data for. I'm no expert in statistics, but that makes the CR data questionable to me.

 

My DCT runs better now that its broken in, and smoother than some fluid automatics.

Most the the 'unreliable' scores are from the MFT and infotainment systems.

 

Europe has their own set of standards for Autos you might not like.

Tall nose with extra space between hood & engine is a pedestrian safety one that affects style/aero quite a bit for example. Current focus has been affected by that one.

Emissions & a different efficiency standard as well.

 

I've been following CR's YouTube channel, and they openly acknowledge that reliable vehicles are not necessarily the highest-scoring or best to drive. Their road test score is different from the reliability rankings.

 

CR is just that… Reports form the CONSUMER… The average one… Now, I hope not to piss anybody off… But you guys DO realize how ignorant and misinformed the "average consumer" is, right?

I'll use my boss as an example… He's 65 years old and he's a pretty smart guy… But he's a complete tech/car ignoramus… He takes his car into the dealer for stupid shit like him not being able to pair his phone, or the MIL coming on after he forgets to tighten the gas cap (he's done that like 5 times in the last two years from my count). This guy is a CR maniac and buys almost exclusively based on their "findings". He also contributes his "expert" reviews to these surveys.

The way I interpret the whole thing, is that as the average population ages, technology starts surpassing people's ability to use it, and their willingness to adapt. Most problems with current tech stuff (including cars) is that people just don't know how to use their own phones, cars, whatever, and then blame the product for being defective, or hard to use. How many cars do you see at night with no tail lights on, because the owner relies on AUTOMATIC lights that are turned off???

I'm not defending the Focus or, MFT, or the DCT (I don't even have mine yet, and it's manual anyway), but I do find that CR, and the like, are becoming a far less reliable source of info than they may have been, say 10-15 years ago.